Audi R4R

Hi everyone!,

I'm moving on with my life and I need to start cutting costs right now. Gotta save up for my MBA somewhere in the USA for next September. I still want to have a "fun" car to get around, but it needs to be reliable. So right now, I have the A4 in the shop and I have my automatic 2000 Jetta 1.8T as the daily driver.

I don't know how much more the A4 is going to need in order to be reliable. I always think it's almost done, yet something seems to go wrong. I don't want to throw more $$$ at it for a chance it will be reliable & well functioning.

So here's the problem: I only want to insure & have one car that's fun and reliable! In other words, I want to get rid of the Jetta sometime.

Here's my options:

1) Sell the A4 & settle for the Jetta
2) Keep both cars and pray the A4 will get up and running well; THEN sell the Jetta.

OR,...

3) There's another A4 in town I've had my eyes on. It's a 2.0 T-28 A4 with the same internals as me, w/o the solid lifter conversion. It's running on a SDS stand alone system and it's got all the goodies I wanted to do to my A4. It's selling for a fair price as well,... the receipts on parts & labour total up around what I've put into my A4. Before the AEM EMS upgrade on my A4, the cars were a very close match in performance.

So I've been thinking about buying this A4. I've taken it for a test drive and it's pretty damn reliable and drivable (it even idles!). IF I end up getting this A4, I will ditch the Jetta & do a little shuffle of parts and then sell the A4. This is the most tempting option to me. But the idea of having 3 cars at some point in the future feels really stupid to me. Any advice will be appreciated! =)

Thanks in advance,

Stephen Ho

Lucas_Gchips

Hmmm, In reality, you are at the point of no return.

Selling A4 thats not running??? wont get much.

Best find out how much to get it running, and then make a decision.

Or get a used engine, drop it into a4 and sell it, and sell off you worked engine..

It would be nice to see your a4 finnished and running though and running 12's or better.

Audi R4R

Well,... I never predicted the key breaking & I certainly didn't budget for that. I'm just enticed by the idea of having an A4 with the performance, reliability & drivability - that's the only reason I'm considering this. That A4 is ready for sale & it runs well.

I'm moving to another apartment but rent here is pretty steep. So I rather get everything together and have a good plan. The problem is that the A4 experiences so many uncertain & costly issues. I want to get the car up and running,... I would feel aweful about selling my A4 and settling for someone else's.

I just don't see an end to spending money on the A4 right now,... are you lucky enough not to go through anything breaking yet???!!! I've blown turbo's & trannys unexpectedly as well. If so, I hope your luck streak keeps going strong! Doing anything unique has a lot of setbacks. I just think the unforseeable setbacks might have finally got me.

About selling the A4,... you're right. The guy has been selling the A4 for quite a while w/o any buyers. So why take on another volatile car?! Problems, problems,...

Thanks Lucas

fastdream

I'm not exactly long in the tooth with audi or auto knowledge but...

my opinion..

sell the VAG stuff and buy an acura integra type-R or similar.

blah blah I know 1.8t's are reliable and all that...but it sure does seem to me that more things go wrong (stupid little things usually, but it adds up) than there should be for an "overengineered" car.

For a drive it and forget it car that is still a blast, the integra type-r is my choice.

and yeah I realize that it is not nearly as stylish or has as nice of an interior...so it really depends on your priorities. Are aesthetics worth the extra expense to you? Are you a form/function guy or a function/form guy?

btw I am not an acura nut...I drive 99.5 A4...

check out the link below for a summary of reliability...<ul><li><a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv3.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=302621&amp;FOLDER %3C%3Efolder_id=113261&amp;bmUID=1059535275384">ht tp://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv3.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=302621&amp;FOLDER %3C%3Efolder_

Audi R4R

Thanks! It was nice to see a consumer report like that. I just love the A4's interior &amp; exterior lines too much to give up. A 1998 1.8T was my first real car I could call my own. And out of everything on the market still,... I think it's the nicest car around! =)

Steve