ajay_hk

Hi all,

First of all my apologies for starting a new thread on this. I'm a newbie to the forum; after browsing the various subject areas, couldn’t find a discussion where I could've posted my query instead of starting a new thread. Hopefully this is ok.

This is going to be my first luxury car. As much as I’m excited about the prospect of owning one; I’m also apprehensive of the costs associated with maintaining and if needed getting it repaired. So I just wanted to list out my thoughts and hoping to get some advice on going ahead with buying this one.

A friend of mine has listed his 2009 Audi S5 for sale and I was thinking of buying the car. Just wanted to take the opinion and advice of the gurus here to see if this particular one is a good buy or not.

Specs:

Model Year: 2009 (he purchased the car in April 2009)
Miles: 36,627 Miles
Options/Features: Loaded except these two features (Radar Cruise Control and Adjustable shock absorbers).
Color: White Exterior with Tuscan brown interior
Maintenance: he has completed the 5K/15K/25K and 35K maintenance schedules at the Audi dealership.
Warranty: 5 months basic warranty remaining
Navigation: Updated Navigation to 2011 (since it’s a 2009 model, this is a 2G low MMI I believe – please correct me if I’m wrong here)
Carfax: Checked Carfax and its clean.

The car looks well maintained… He mentioned that there is one small (I saw it personally and it is very small to notice) ding on the passenger side door which happened while he was parking at work I believe. I also saw a very small spot on the front bumper (driver side) where the paint is gone. Other than that I think the car is good and well maintained. The interiors looked well kept. He said he does the clay bar treatment done on the car every year. I’m not an auto-geek to understand the intricacies involved under the hood. He did mention that the car has had no issues and that it is dealer maintained.

Price: He is quoting $39,900 for this but also mentioned that he has a small room to negotiate the price. Do you guys think this is a good price? Edmunds TMV, KBB and NADA guides gave me values (private party) ranging from 35,261 to 38,424 with all the options he mentioned along with the miles on it. The trade in values ranging from $32,249 to $35,894.

I’m thinking of offering $36,500 as a starting point and may be keeping the limit to be around $37,500. Is this going to be a low ball offer? Is starting at $36,500 (about 600 more than the trade in value of 35.8K) a good starting point? Would 37.5K a good price?

The Basic warranty that this car comes with is getting expired in the next 5-6 months’ timeframe. Is it ok to not have warranty or should I act safe and buy an extended warranty? If yes, then it would be great if you could please let me know where I can buy them and also the costs associated with buying the extended warranties. Would it be better to buy an Audi extended service or a 3rd party one. Since I’m buying it from Private party, can I take it to an Audi dealer and get it certified? Would there be any benefit in doing that? I'm unsure of the cost - benifits ratio on that other than the peace of mind associated with owning a CPO car (that is if i can get it done).

Any advice on the points raised above would be really helpful guys. Thanks in advance for looking at my queries.

thanks
Aj.