Stashman94

Hey, I'm new here so I was looking for stickies for buying and upkeep advice but I could seem to find them. I guess I'll just ask here and, if there are any stickies, I'd appreciate someone pointing me in their direction.

Anyway, I'm going to look at a 96 A4q 5 speed 2.8 12V this Saturday and am just trying to figure out if it seems like this deal is too good to be true. It's got 146k, currently mechanic owned and he recently replaced the timing belt, water pump, and thermostat with only a few minor flaws (driver's seat bottom is torn to hell, driver's door lock cylinder is missing, and a dash light is out behind the tachometer). I was lucky enough to see the Craigslist ad only a few hours after he put it up so I'm first in line. He's only asking $1200, does this seem out of the ordinary to any of you guys?

AudiMick

If the car is OK that's a good price. I put 170,000 miles on a 96 A4. It was a great car. I averaged $200 in maintenance / year on that car with DIY.

Most of the stuff you mentioned is fixable, watch also for the front suspension control arms.

Check the AC, the recirc won't work without AC (you can recode that). The AC cores on these cars fail and it's a huge job to replace . 2 days work.

Plug your scanner in and check for codes. At that age the (2) catalytic converters are at the end of their life. You can install aftermarket cats as long as you aren't in California.

The EGR systems block up on these car and you a CEL , not the valve it's the actual port in the intake manifold that sludges up. About 2-3 hours DIY.

Stashman94

I'm getting it from out of state (Buying from Virginia and I live in Maryland) so I'm gonna have to get it smogged and inspected anyway and they'll probably check the OBD and other main problems. I do a lot of my own DIY too, but I'm kind of hoping this car can be the more reliable of my two, my 85 Mercedes is currently without and intake system cause I got into replacing the manifold gaskets before leaving for school and didn't have time to finish

Thanks for the heads up on those parts though, I'll be sure to check them out when I look at the car!