I have a chance to purchase an '02 A6 2.7T Quattro with 91K miles for around $9K. I've never had an Audi, but kinda want to give it a go, as it looks like a hell of a great car. I'd be using it mostly on the highway, but occasionally off on wet gravel road (I photograph severe weather).

The question I have is is this car going to be a money pit? I read a lot of anecdotal stories online about people needing to spend a lot of money on repair and maintenance just to keep these going after 100K miles. I asked my mechanic, and he seemed to think that the repair cost was on par with an 02 VW Passat AWD, which is the other car I'm considering. But I figured there were probably a lot of people in here who had experience with this car. I'm not made of money and will feel pretty stupid if I have to sink thousands a year into it just to keep it running.

 

i typed up this long response only to have my browser loose it.

bottom line, cars are expensive to maintaine, older cars over 100K can be a money pit no matter what make or model, it all depend on how htey were cared for,

do regular scheduled maintaincence and put 50-100 dollars away per month on top of that, use that as your repair fund. if you can afford to put 50-100 away per month on a repair fund, you shouldn't be driving

 

This is the thing with Audis. They are expensive to maintain and very exciting to drive. I don't know if I speak for most on this forum when i say that the thing i love most about my audi first is how it drives and second, how it drives and third looks, reliability etc in any order. If I had to consider maintainance as option 1. I would not be driving an audi. I had a 2001 A6 2.7T for several years. Still have it now, but just don't drive it any more... It took quite a pinch at my pocket but I took care of it premium gas only from day one Mobil 1 synthetic oil change regularly and I put close to 100K miles on it for the 3 years i owned it. Mechanics still marvel at how the engine runs - really smooth and fast. Bottom line is i put a lot of money in it for maintenance and up keep just so i could keep on enjoying it for as long as possible and it worked out; hurt my pocket though.

 

9K is too much money for it.

 

agreed, its at least 500 over KBB for the car in excelent condition, 7500-8500 would be mmore appropriate depending on its condition

 

Seems like a good deal. You just have to atleast have 100-200 dollars a month saved for repairs. THIS DOES NOT MEAN it will cost you 200 every month but this is just a precautionary measurement.

The oil changes are crucial. If the owner cannot provide the oil changes or hints he does cheap oil changes at places such as jiffy lube avoid. With 90k you should ask if the Timing belt was changed. The manual and the dealership say 105k but as a precautionary measurement people here change it early at around 89-95k. There are some that change them as early as 60k.

This car will REQUIRE PREMIUM fuel. If you cannot afford to pay 5 dollars more at the pump for a full tank for premium, look for something else. Even the passat requires premium if i recall.

 

I bought a 2002 Audi A6 about 1 month ago. The car had 89k miles on it and was in really good condition. Prior to the purchase, I paid a mechanic 150 to go over the car with a fine tooth comb and also pulled the carfax (would tell you if the car was salvage title or not but may not give you a full history of repairs if the work was done by an independent mechanic). The mechanic found that the CV joints were replaced on the car, however couldn't tell if the timing belt was done or not. He also said that he pulled a code indicating that one or both of the catalytic converters may be on the outs. The price of the car was 6500 and i figured I'd have to spend at least 1 grand on the timing belt and maybe another grand for the cat converters. I went ahead and got the car and had the timing belt and the driver side cat converter replaced, replaced all the spark plugs, did an oil change and replaced all filters, rotated the tires, replaced the spare tire, lubricated hinges etc for 1900. I've been using as my daily driver for 3 weeks now and I've not had a problem so far. I know that these German cars can be nightmares to own and maintain after 50k miles however I was putting just too much miles on my brand new SUV and needed another car for daily driving and to use the SUV on the weekends. Fingers crossed that this Audi will not need any other major work for a long time to come.

I would recommend you get the price of the car cut about 1500 and use that money to do timing belt and a major tuneup.

 

What engine/transmission?

 

you need to check audi Maintenance Schedule
some belts need to be changed.

 

Trivial. The serp (audi calls it a ribbed) belt is scheduled replacement at 80K miles. The schedule doesn't call for the serp belt tensioner to be replaced at that time so it's generally left to fail. A failed serp doesn't kill the motor; it shuts off the alternator power...water pump is driven by TB.

When replace the serp spin the various idler pulleys and consider replacing them if they're wobbly or noisy or feel notch but otherwise just leave them alone.

Chances are the owner didn't want to pay to replace the TB, due at 105K miles for the 2.7T. Factor in the TB service ($500 parts plus $$labor if you can't do it yourself) in the price.

Basically, it sounds like the guy is asking $1500 too much.