I have an opportunity to buy a 93 100 AWD station wagon with 177K on it, mainly as car for my daughter to drive around town, etc. Given the mileage and age, do these Audis have much life left in them? Any problems I should explicitly be checking out? Or is this a "walk-away...quickly" vehicle?

My current Audi is a 2005 A6 and she CAN'T have that one!

 

I have a 92 100 sedan that just rolled past 178k. (I bought it used with 70k miles on it ~10 years ago.) At this point, my vehicle has no serious problems that make me want to sell it. I think this is a more "solid" car than my 99 Avant.

Of course, you still have to maintain the vehicle and take care of the thing. I would check with the previous owner for maintenance records and check carefully for any signs of "abuse" that will limit life. If they didn't maintain the car anywhere close to factory recommendations I think I would walk away.

 

In general audis are expensive to maintain, but long term very durable. That particular car is among the lower costs to maintain, and, being fairly simple and lower-powered, durable.

So the key is to find out if it has deferred maint. That can cost a bundle. But if maintained, the motor, trans, etc will go quite a long time. The bodies rarely rust much.

Check timing belt, CV boots, control arms and tie rd ends, struts, etc.

Get maint records. You might do a tranny service.

Grant

 

Im in Europe, part of the dutch Audi Club and there is a large Audi 100/80 section from the early nineties. What I can say is that (depending on your engine) these cars last LONG real long. This is of course only true if it has been properly maintained like the others say.

We have alot of people with audis from 90-95 with well over 350000 METRIC kilometres on it. Converting this to miles it gives approximately 218000 Miles. Those cars are still going strong.

Also, if I check the used car market in Germany, which is like next door to me, I see ALOT of Audi 100 for sale with well over 350000. I am not saying that these cars are all still 100% decent. All I want to point out with this is that they are able to reach this KM-age.

I would look at the following:
- What fuel has been used? (I do not know anything about american gas so I can not say what is right or wrong)
- How complete is the maintenance record OR what needs to be done to get the car into top shape?
- What engine does the car have and what has been done with the engine? Is it a large low-RPM "Cruise" engine like the 26 or 28 or is it a smaller engine? The smaller engines are decent but due to the fact that they need more revs they (theoretically) aren't as long lasting as the bigger engines.
- Has it been modified? If so, with what thought, more power/RPM (I would walk away, some racer wannabe prolly owned it b4) or some innocent personal preferences.


JustMe already pointed out that this particular model is somewhat cheaper to maintain. It is also extremely easy to maintain yourself. I was actually shopping for parts when I stumbled on this site. I have replaced the belts and thermostat on my car a few weeks back and I was done in less then 3 hours. It was the first time I replaced the belts. I am going to do the fuelfilter, airfilter and oilfilter tomorrow which should maybe take an hour (due to removing and replacing oil). Compared to Japanese cars this car is heaven! Easy, just as cheap in parts and alot more value per euro/dollar

As far as i know, all "Regular-Maintenance" parts are located under the bonnet. Easy access and easily localized. For oil of course, you need to get under the car.


Basically, the way the car was designed I can say that its a real long-laster if you have the 2.6 or 2.8. I can not speak for the 4-Cylinders.

Of course it is always a matter of "How has it been treated?".

Rust will probably not occur at all since Audi started zincing everything they could since the 80ies


As stated before, if it has an AT (which it prolly has in AT-driving USA) it will most likely need an overhaul.