tpantaz

Hi,

I am new to the forum. I am thinking about buying a 2005 S4 with 44,000 miles on it from Roger Beasley Audi in Austin, TX. It has the extended warranty until Jan 2011 or 100k miles. It had some minor hail damage from a hail storm a few weeks ago. They are fixing the damage and discounting the car by 3k. I have never owned an Audi. My main concern is maintenance on the car after Jan. 2011 when the warranty expires. I will be test driving it today or tomorrow. I have read great things about it but not really sure what to expect from the car with this type of mileage.

Any comments/feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Tom

Aidan's Daddy

1) Service History - A well-maintained vehicle w/ a documented history is less of a risk, unless there's unusually frequent repairs.
2) CarFax History - Check how many owners and which states, should factor in your decision-making.
3) See Scheduled Maintenance attachment to get more familiar w/ service intervals and parts that need to be replaced. Audi dealerships usually charge more, so hope you have a reliable Indy shop that can work on the S4.

Hope things work out for you. As you can see in my sig, I bought one w/ similar mileage than yours. Other than normal schedule maintenance, had to fix a power window and replace the fuel filter, not too bad. I've had several Audis before, so I recommend the S4 even though it's a gas guzzler and not as fast as an M3, but AWD makes it an all-season sports sedan that more practical.

tpantaz

Thanks for the reply and also for the maintenance schedule! After a quick look, looks like the spark plugs need replacement at 55k miles. Good to hear that you haven't had big issues.

Here are the details:

- 2005 S4
- Dolphin Grey
- 44,800 miles
- CPO till Jan 2011 or 100,000 miles
- Recaro/Silver Alcantara
- 2 owners; originated in OH and ended up in Austin ,TX where I am
- asking $26,455

Looks like it is exactly like yours but without the Navigation.

Because of some minor hail damage, they are reducing to $23,455 and I was able to get them to come down to an even $23,000. Do you think that is a good deal?

Car fax shows 3 items. Need to find out whether it was a fleet, rental or lease.

Emission/Safety Inspection Vehicle Use and EventCheck An approved emission testing station has inspected the vehicle to measure the amount of pollutants the vehicle emits into the environment.

Loan/Lien Vehicle Use and EventCheck A loan/lien is the legal right to take and hold or sell the vehicle of a debtor as security or payment for a debt. Normally, a vehicle will have a lien due to a loan or unpaid repair bill against the vehicle.

Fleet, Rental and/or Lease Use Vehicle Use and EventCheck The vehicle has been reported as used as a fleet, rental, and/or lease vehicle.

thanks
Tom

Aidan's Daddy

$23K is a decent price for CPO, but what the heck, try offering $22K and go from there, wouldn't hurt to ask. I bought my non-CPO for $21.5K back in Jul '08 and price started out at $24,995. So, if they really wanna sell it, they'll probably give it to you for $22K-$22.5K. Yeah, except for Nav, very similar specs on both S4s.

For those CarFax items, it was probably a simple smog check since it's from out-of-state, that'd be my guess. Loan/lien is no big deal, most likely it was financed and I'm betting it's a lease return. Year/mileage seem about right for it to be a lease, although being a fleet is a long shot and I highly doubt it was ever a rental.

As long maintenance history looks normal, sounds like it's in pretty good shape. Plus, since it's CPO ($100 deductible, right?), at least anything that goes wrong should be fixed. Good luck should you pull the trigger on that purchase.

Bruce M

An average (meaning good) condition grey 2005 S4 with 44K miles sold at dealer auction for $19,300. So after fees/detailing, dealer cost should be around $20K.

So $22K CPO is a very good deal, $23K is a good deal. The dealer pays Audi around $1600 for the CPO warranty.

BUT BUT BUT, if the car got its hail damage AFTER they bought it, then they got a check from their insurance company and their cost basis went down. So they might own it at $18K or so now.

How bad is the hail? Have you verified paint and body being original? Full PPI as someone else suggested? Cosmetics are critical, as are wear items (tires, brake pads, etc) as those are not covered by CPO. CPO should have replaced anything that was borderline AND do the next scheduled maintenance. If something is not working like alternator, though, CPO will cover that.

Good luck!

Bruce

tpantaz

What is PPI?

I tried negotiating down to 22k but they didn't budge. They said that the S4's sell pretty quickly and are confident they can sell it at 23k.

Regarding the hail, they said it was minimal damage and that there were no body panels replaced. It was all paintless dent removal. Of course, I don't think I could tell if they replaced the hood or any other panel. I know they were replacing some of the trim around the windows as well. The work should all be complete sometime today.

thanks
Tom

RVTS4

Buy Audi Care if you plan to keep it for a while..

BC2885

Boy,lots of cars out there...esp s4's! id pass due to the hail damage!! if it had one pick mark from the pdr,id never be able to own it/park it on my property.i agree with the above poster who said dealer prob owns it in the high teens for money.Personally,id keep looking. i bought a high mileage 04 s4 from orig owner (95k miles),for 18k,and thats coming up on 2 years in september.They are good cars,but too many misc 300-500 dollar repairs as i listed in another post above this one on a guy switching over from a acura.if youre gunna drive it for more than 3 years or so,maybe you wont mind paying extra for it. this s4 market is weak...a great time to buy if you want this car or any other s4 for that matter. Mine came from Ohio as well...a 200 mile per day commuter car from a early 40's guy. Im runnin mine til at least 150k miles,then send it down the road.No reason to get rid...i like all the dynamics of the car,inside,and out! Good luck in your search... Brian.

BC2885

PS... I know many in the audi circles like a cpo or extended warranty on these.i would much rather get a good price on the car up front,and pocket the 3-4K it would cost for a warranty.I feel the MAJOR components of this car are excellent,and the 300 dollar type repairs i listed above are just part of driving a car.The warranty imo,is a waste of money,just like on LCD tv's! These things are NOT investments,period.I budget up to a 2k reserve for any german auto i own per year for associated maintenance over and beyond standard operating costs.i enjoy keeping things up mechanically.had some bad luck with coil packs,and a fuel pump recently...1100.00 dollars took care of it all. Im good now for tens of thousands of miles in that area.Plus,some aftermarket warranties will be like pulling teeth to caugh up $ for some repairs. my .02 !

Brian

tpantaz

My plan is to keep this car as long as possible so I will look into the Audi Car plan. I didn't even know about this plan. The salesperson that I am working with is new. She never even mentioned this plan. According to the audiusa website.....

The Certified pre-owned Plan includes three regularly scheduled maintenances to be performed at:

55,000 miles (85,000 km) or one year from the last service, whichever occurs first

65,000 miles (100,000 km) or one year from the last service, whichever occurs first

75,000 miles (115,000 km) or one year from the last service, whichever occurs first

These maintenances must be completed within 7 years of the original in-service date.

The salesperson is getting me the cost of this plan. I am not sure what you get out of this by buying it up front. Do you save a good amount of money??

thanks
Tom