B5 Audi A4's - fairly urgent advice needed

[BondandBigM]

It's to expensive at that age, these sort of motors around mid to late 90's are falling out the classifieds for half that sort of money around this way. Does it need to be VAG ?? I bought Big M a 97 BM 323 coupe 110k miles with a full main dealer service history with 10 months mot for £500. I sold it a couple of weeks ago rather than test it again for £150. In the eleven months used just about every day it never missed a beat, I did nothing to it and never even had to top up the oil.

Personally I'd give a smokey old Audi a miss and have another look around. Plenty out there to choose from.

[jmsheahan]

Has to be an estate really but doesn't have to be VAG (but preferable).

With 1k to play with it's slim pickings.

[BondandBigM]

Didn't catch the estate bit but probably even better who wants an old one of those, I'm genuinely surprised when I looked for a motor for "M" there were plenty tidy cars on offer locally for five or six hundred quid asking price and room to knock the sellers down a bit so definitely no need to be buying a thing that goes into limp home mode and might need a three hundred quid clutch kit.


This was the one I bought, I sold it to a bloke at works son and he got it tested again the day after he picked it up, easily another year in it.

 

[SoundillusioN]

Also missing the diesel point.. old big petrol cars are always cheap these days.   Diesel estates tend to hold value as they are much more desirable at the moment.

[jmsheahan]

Don't tempt me with 3 series goodness, the new car has to be properly sensible for commuting or the misses will string me up  . I keep getting distracted already with what 'interesting' classic cars I can get locally for the money! I managed to persuade myself the Golf was a practical daily car (I guess it was over the '72 Beetle I had before  ). With the estate boot it'll also double for parts lugging and sticking the bikes in.

Anyhow cheers for the help from all, very much appreciated. I think I'm going to continue looking rather than go for the red A4 mentioned previously but an A4/Passat is still pretty high on the list to waft about in.

[SoundillusioN]

Give Chuff a nudge, he's pretty awesome at finding bargain motors when he's not preoccupied with looking for something for himself. 

[BondandBigM]

The diesel thing is a bit of a myth unless you are doing huge miles, you pay over the odds for the car, the diesel and in a lot of cases the mpg isn't anywhere near as good as it's made out to be and they need to be serviced on a more regular basis. On top of that it stinks and gets everywhere when you fill up. Nothing worse than popping in for a swift one or going to a meeting with the Armani smelling of diesel fumes and do you really want to mess about these horrible plastic gloves.

 

[jmsheahan]

 

Diesel will be worth it for me to be fair, going to be commuting a fair old distance (up to 80 odd miles a day) and always seem to be travelling to pick up parts of some description. I can live with an oil change and filter every 10k. I basically want a reliable shed on wheels 

Got the Mk2 for the weekends and fun factor.

[Rhyso]

The diesel thing is a bit of a myth unless you are doing huge miles, you pay over the odds for the car, the diesel and in a lot of cases the mpg isn't anywhere near as good as it's made out to be and they need to be serviced on a more regular basis. On top of that it stinks and gets everywhere when you fill up. Nothing worse than popping in for a swift one or going to a meeting with the Armani smelling of diesel fumes and do you really want to mess about these horrible plastic gloves.

 

Mpg is still better than a sh!tty petrol 

Where do people get the notion that diesels require servicing more often??    service intervals are the same as their petrol equivalents......

[BondandBigM]

The diesel thing is a bit of a myth unless you are doing huge miles, you pay over the odds for the car, the diesel and in a lot of cases the mpg isn't anywhere near as good as it's made out to be and they need to be serviced on a more regular basis. On top of that it stinks and gets everywhere when you fill up. Nothing worse than popping in for a swift one or going to a meeting with the Armani smelling of diesel fumes and do you really want to mess about these horrible plastic gloves.

 

Where do people get the notion that diesels require servicing more often??    service intervals are the same as their petrol equivalents......

A quick google and to be fair this is the first one I came up with because I'm to busy watching the telly, is unfortunately for Pugs but the idea is the same for most diesels. As the miles pile on a diesel requires more frequent servicing. So if as the op intends to do you buy something with a lot of miles on it and service it by the book it will cost you more.

The mpg is also debatable