Enjoy

98 2.8 quattro bought at 60K miles, now has 110K

I don't think mine has been very costly. Sure, I'd probably spend less on a honda or a toyota, but I love my car. I love the way it drives. Sure, there are better handling cars out there for the money, but the quattro is fabulous in the winter. My ABS has been out for about 3 years, so no traction control or abs. It doesn't bother me. Still drives fantastic in the snow.

I probably spend about $1000 a year on maintenence and repairs. Had the thermostat replaced a couple years ago. ( it's behind the timing belt) cost about $1200 to replace with the belts, water pump and pulleys. Not too bad. Thing I eat up are tie rod ends and mass air flow sensors. These are common parts to go out. Be sure to have aftermarket heavy duty tie rod ends put on if you have problems, will save you cash in the future. Mass air flow sensor is a common thing to go bad on vw's and audis. on my second one of those in 5 years.

Mine has remained stock except for a few cosmetics. I am happy with it the way it is really.

Gas milage, get about 20mpg, but that's a hell of a lot of fun for the money. Have gotten as high as 28MPG on long highway trips.

Love the trunk space, although, it's about identical to a 2000 jetta(had a measuring contest against my brother). I love the look of black cars, but damn I hate taking care of black paint. The clutch can be a bit heavy at times. if you're in a lot of traffic jams, probably want the automatic. If you haven't had an AWD car before, it's a little different to drive in the snow and wet. (sometimes a ton more fun). In some sticky spots, it's better to give it more gas than less. Like you start understeering around a corner. Brakes are your enemy there, you'll keep sliding. Better to kick the back out with some gas. Might wanna practice that in a parking lot a bit, but once you get it, OMG, you look like a rally driver in snow. The back helps it turn and the front will get its traction back.

Spinnetti

Sure you can... Honda, Toyota, & Nissan are all significantly cheaper to maintain... My Nissan was stupid cheap for repairs (until getting totaled last year).... (we have 4-5 cars at any given time - currently a B5, B6, Touareg, Corolla and a LS400)

The B5 definitely takes more and expensive work than the B6 (I have both)... my B6 just had its first real repair since new though ($700) in 9 years and 100k miles, so pretty happy. The B5 goes through wheel bearings, and front suspension components more than other cars I've had. ours just hit 180k, and needed a cat, both front axles, a turbo, hood latch, trunk struts, all 4 brake calipers, still needs suspension arms, one wheel bearing and bunch of other stuff.. would have cost a fortune if I had to pay somebody else (still wasn't cheap). If you pay a shop, I wouldn't buy any old used German car!

B6's are getting cheap enough that I don't think I'd get a B5 again unless dirt cheap - The B6 doesn't seem to have the suspension and bearing issues. I'd only get 1.8t also. V6 is more costly and sucky from a fun perspective.