RickN

Hello, I'm new to the board:

I plan on looking at a few used 6-speed '01 or '02 Allroads here in the Denver area, both at the dealer and auto brokers/used car shops. Are there any particular problem areas with this car and model years I should be aware of and check before buying? When is the first major service interval? I don't want to buy then have to throw down several hundred bucks on a major service. I tend to do my own service, and already checked out the procedure for an oil change here on the board.

Is the 2.7T fairly reliable? I'll be looking at cars that have at least 30,000 on the odo and plan on driving and maintaining the car till the wheels fall off.

Thanks for any and all advice.

-Rick

markcincinnati

General comment#1 -- get the '02; running changes in the '02 may mean several issues that may have been nearly invisible with the '01 were dealt with. . .

General comment#2 -- try to find one with low low low miles that was "over maintained" in terms of the number of oil changes it had (check service records). . .

General comment #3 -- make certain the car is both eligible for and is, when you acquire it, CPO'd (Certified [by Audi] Pre-Owned).

Protocol: the "a" in allroad is lower - case.

ar2002

...the standard factory warranty is 4yrs/50,000 miles, including maintenance such as oil changes.

All Italian

Talk to original owner and see if it was ever chiped.

2tu®bos1mission

Get the vin number of all the cars and go to a audi dealer to get records, if it hasnt had alot of problems in the past you should be fine. If its not a whole bunch more get one from an audi dealer because you get an additional 2 years/100k miles of warranty. Try to get a 02+ car. Good luck!

RickN

After reviewing responses and doing a search for "turbo failure" and "extended warranty," I see that my best bet, even if it is a super clean and well maintained allroad, is to buy an extended warranty.

After having a '98 Jeep that has gone a total of 92,000 miles without a significant problem (other than a set of warped rotors), I see that I can't expect the same out of an Audi. Maybe an '04 4.7L Grand Cherokee with a 8/80,000 warranty doesn't sound so bad after all.

Thanks again.

markcincinnati

You do not want one of these cars, naked (i.e., without a warranty) IMHO.

But, you do want one of these cars -- they are wonderful machines.

RickN

I bet they are wonderful machines, and I appreciate such things, which is why I am anxious to get away from a Chrysler product that runs and sounds like a household appliance.

I'll make sure that I look carefully into service records of the allroads I look at this weekend, and will consider an extended warranty to be a necessary component of the cost of the car.

trg

you may want to check on the AW forum for your region, or find out if there is a local Audi club, and try locating a local Audi tuner/fanatic, preferably someone who is really familiar with the 2.7t (and here's my chance to give a shout out to piggie from the S4 forum, who recently moved to my neck of the woods -- lucky us). Not only would you have a great alternative to the dealership for routine maintenance (or not-so-routine mods, if you lean that way), but you could take the opportunity to work with the tuner in getting to know more about your car, if you're of the mechanical bent.

Oh, and if you get a good one, don't be too pessimistic about its longevity -- at 55K I still haven't had a problem and it doesn't look like any are even close to developing (knocking on desk -- does particle board count as wood?).