Bruny43

Hey, so I'm a 15 year old who has loved cars my whole life. Since I was about 7 years old I have been saving 3/4 of all money I have earned for my first car. To this day I have about
12k and more coming due to jobs. For the past three years I have been loving audis (especially B5 a4, a6 and s4). For the past year I have been searching for a b5 s4. I found a really good Midnight Blue 01 with sport package. The car also has a few aftermarket upgrades but nothing serious. My dad and I went out to see it and it's located at a dealer which specializes in Audi's and Land Rover's. The dealership mainly takes stock or salvage cars and repairs them and sups them up a bit and resells. This particualer S4 has has 3-4 owners (not sure exactly), 120K miles but the Carfax is clean, no accidents or anything. When closly examining the Interior and Exterior theres no scraches or tears or anything its almost perfect, just wear from use but you can tell its been cared for. Heres the problem. This car has been in 5 states and the past two owners both has it for 11 months. The dealer said that the driver side turbo had a problem but wasn't blownout. He said he fixed it and checked the passanger side and it was fine. This dealer really tests them before selling and its true. My dad and I both test drove it and it drives like any decent Audi; no pull to either side, smooth, quiet. The weird thing was there was a weird smell, (not gas) which my dad said smelled like the turbo. This smell was on and off through the drive. HAlfway through the coolant warning light went on momentarily, and then went off and nothing else happened. I really love this car and would buy it any second if I just knew if anything was going to happen. Talking to the experts and owners, do you think this car will have any problems? Is it worth it to buy this car or would you suggest looking at others? Remember this car is 100% perfect except for if i could I would have it Nogaro Blue but otherwise I love it. Thank you.

bcr84urq

Unless you are a trust fund kid (nothing wrong with that - I'd just be jealous) I would stay away from a B5 S4. Yes they are very cool. But most of them are very expensive to maintain. You won't have much/any money left to take girls out and, well.....seriously. They are not expensive every month - but overall - they are very expensive. This car sounds like Russian Roulette...

If you like the B5 body style and it sounds like you do - I would think real hard about a 1.8T. Get a nice one with manual and Sport everything - which should be a bit less than an S4 - and it will leave you some fun money to spend on some basic mods. They are peppy stock, quick with a chip , and decently fast with a K04 turbo. They are also lighter which, in theory, means easier on brakes, better handling/turn in, and you will have to spend less on gas. Oh yeah you will spend less on maintenance. Are they as cool as S4's? Not in my opinion. BUT is the trade off worth it for a 15-yr old - that's up to you....

Anyway - that's my .02

Brandon
'84 ur-quattro 20Vt
'01.5 S4

donromani

Not a good car to start with. Get something cheaper to learn on - I mean both mechanically and in terms of how to drive.
This is just a personal opinion, but a 15-16 year old male should not get his hands on a 250hp sports car packed full of expensive parts. You need to get something less potent and a little cheaper to fix. You can still drive like an idiot in a 150hp Civic but at least you can't do it in under 6 seconds...

bingS4

You're 15? No offense but you should be in an ugly safe car with horsepower so low that it's hard to get over 50mph. Some hulking underpowered Volvo. Maybe a small pickup truck so you can't take more than one of your friends with you to distract you.

Get yourself an S4 after you're 21 and have a few years of driving under your belt.

Learning to wrench on an S4 is okay, but only if it's your hobby car and you don't depend on it for transportation.

As for that specific car you were looking at, unless the dealer will tell you specifically what was wrong with the turbo, what is causing the coolant light to come on, and what is making the bad smell, leave it alone unless you want to spend $5K+ in repairs right away. A bad turbo means big bucks, especially if you can't pull the engine by yourself.

j2k2x

yeah buy a dsm for your first car. (eclipse, talon, or laser) theyre dirt cheap, they have an infanite parts market. you can make them very quick, awd is available. its super easy to work on, and a good way to learn how a turbo works. drive that for your first few years, wreck that then get a S4.

jamesdmanley

buy a civic

Bruny43

The problem is that i cant have a RWD car here or FWD unless with really good snow tires cuz I live in BOulder, COlorado where theres snow over half the time

Bruny43

Yeah I understand where your coming from but I'm not a stupid driver and hopefully never will be. Ive driven a 997 Carrera S around and even with that I kept it safe

M3KILR

I bought my S4 at 18 and have since put an average of $3500/yr in repairs into her. Some years it's 6K (blown turbos)some years its 2k.. good year Nothing gives you more satisfaction than two turbos, AWD and a nice suspension though. Everything is realtive. So S4 is great and a money pit.

rktskicar

then get yourself a good subaru.