Hi All - I'm new to the forums, and looking at buying an 80... I've searched to see what other people think, but cant seem to find anywhere that lists common problems with the 80. Can anyone tell me what I keep an eye out for on potential cars?

Thanks,

EssIV

 

Probably all the normal things with a older car

 

A mate bought one about a year ago when he wanted a European car at a cheap price (he was replacing a Rex and a Civic).

Did his research, found the last-of-line 80s (eg. 93-95 build) were the best, as good as the first A4s. This was info from the used car manager at an Audi dealer.

The one he got was immaculate, full service history, looked as-new. Mechanically fine.

Having said that, he ended up selling it a few months later, as it was too old-man-ish for him. So he bought a similar vintage Merc, which was a disaster!

 

maybe if it was an RS2!

 

We own two Audi 80's, both 2.0E, one is 1992, the other 1993.

The older one (with ours) is actually better. They are basically identical as far as I know, except the 1992 version has (I'm told) a better safety system. Externally they are identical.

Last year on my way home one day the pipe that connects to the radiator sheered off. The radiator has a pipe at the top which comes out about 15cm from memory, and the hose fits over this. The pipe snapped off, leaving about 5cm left, so I just put the hose back over that and drove it to the mechanic. Now you'd think 10cm of plastic piping would cost maybe $50 at most to fix. Not in this case. Apparently if this happens, they have to replace the entire radiator tank, which cost somewhere around $1100AUD to import. That's about 10-15% the value of the car on the used market for 10cm of plastic piping. You could probably fix this yourself for $20 or so with some bulldog tape and pipeing from a hardware store, but thats obviously not ideal and isn't going to last too long.

That's about the only problem we've had in 13 years though. It's a heavy car, so it doesn't exactly take off up hills, but its nice to drive. I think it's really designed for autobarns, or similar long, fast, flat roads. Compared to most cars on the road its a bit sluggish until you reach about 70, but at that point it takes off especially on a flat road. Mine takes practice to keep it at 80 on 80k roads, creeps up to 90 or 100 quickly even with your foot on the accelerator very lightly. But it does handle more smoothly than most cars Ive driven, especially above 80.

It tends to eat a fair bit of oil, but petrol consumption is good. Id advice getting it serviced pretty frequently to lessen the chance of expensive replacements though. It's a good car for the money, but if youre unlucky, repairs can be expensive so make absolutly sure it's in good condition before you buy it. I'd definately get it checked out with a mechanic first - we did that with the second one, he helped knock $600 off the price for us.

Sorry for the late reply, good luck.