I have a 2001 A4 1.8TQMS daily driver with 60k miles on it - love it, reliable, well maintained.

Was looking to do some upgrades, but still want to keep it reliable and daily driver status. I don't care to spend $5-$10k on the car to do upgrades.

Saw what looks to be a killer deal on a 2000 APR Stage 3 A4 with tons of upgrades (appears to be very well kept, APR FMIC, Carbino, Milltek exhaust) lots of quality components and I assume solid installs of those components. Car has just over $100k miles.

I could sell my current A4 and buy the stage 3 pretty much straight up.

Worth considering? Mileage is high. I need reliability. Theres alot of quality components.

So I'd be dealing with repair costs only - same situation as with my current car.

 

not that these motors aren't reliable at 100k miles, but you don't know how that car was driven or treated...

I don't think I'd trade UP on miles... though the extra goodies are cool and all, there are other factors and wear and tear items that could go compared to your car w/ 40k less miles

 

half the fun is installing the stuff, getting it to work right, and seeing the difference each mod makes on the car. also you have the peace of mind that everything was done to your highest standards.

the only mod i didn't do myself was installing a clutch, for lack of tools.

 

I would just get a chip for yours and leave it as is.

 

how do you *not* decrease reliabiltity with stage 3...

 

buy that car, bolt on all the stuff for your car, sell the 00 stock. It would be a ton of work, but you would learn a lot as well about your car. An added benifit of this is that you could get 3+ which is only *officially* available for 01s.

IMO 100K miles doesn't really mean much. I rolled 100K recently and my compression is all in the high 160s to low 170s, which is pretty much almost new, my valve train looks spotless, no signs of sludge. Everything works as it should. If the cars been well cared for I wouldn't worry about it.

The thing you should consider is are you okay with owning a heavily modified car? Right now your setup is pretty plug and play, not a whole lot can really go wrong on a chipped car. Not that the kit isn't reliable, or well made, because it is. The amount of attention the car needs some times is more than most people care to dedicate to it. Even little things, such as passing emissions, etc can turn into very long troubleshoots.. In general any small problem that you would normally have with the car will be magnafied with a stage 3 car. Then unless you have some deep pockets, you are probably going to have to attack the problem yourself. You can ask the other owners, but I can bet more than half of them have had the kit out of the car at least once after they installed for maintenance (broken/backed out stud, gaskets, turbo replacement, cracked hi flow cat, etc) I've had the kit out twice so far since the original install for things. Then you may be hard down for a week waiting on something to arrive (i.e. studs, etc)

That being said, I wouldn't trade the power and smoothness for the world.. The power will be a drastic jump upward over a chip and pull so much harder to redline.

There's nothing quite like running the car out to 7 grand in 2nd charging up an on ramp on the interstate everyday to put a smile on your face.

 

if, after some time, and hopefully a few driving school events (Audi Club events are fantastic for this), you'll be more familiar, and hence comfortable with the increased power your car has.

My advice would be to go in a different direction. Instead of stage 3, why not upgrade the suspension/brakes 1st.

Yu'll be amased at the improvement in handling and your ability to better utilise the newfound gains in power from your chip.

It goes faster now, sadly, it doesn't stop any better


HTH,

 

as well as other things..

 

meh.. nothing says he can't just install a set of coils + BBK and be just fine.

 

the 2000 software currently in the car would not work with his 01.

buying stg.3 software only from APR, good luck.

running stg3+ software on stg 3 hardware, meh. where are u gonna get the 3+ software in the first place, again apr doesnt like to sell half-kits.