I'm considering one of these for my daily commuter. I primarily concerned with day-to-day reliability, maintenance issues and cost, and gas mileage. I'm guessing the 1.8T is better on the gas mileage than the 2.8 but don't know for sure. Looking at the Quattro for the occasional trips to snow country. But any other recommendations, reviews, and/or opinions would be great. TIA for the replies.
Anybody here own a 98-99 Audi A4?
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My brother has a '99 Quatro with the smaller engine. It's a very nice car. The only issues he's had were brakes and tires, normal wear & tear. Nicely built, nice paint. His is black with an off-white/black interior. I wanted to buy it from him when the lease was up, but he decided to renew the lease. It's fun to drive, and the four doors make it a practical daily driver.
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I recently took ownership of my family's '98.5 A4 1.8tQ. I had never really driven it before and was quite surprised with how nice it was to drive, especially given the mileage which is just shy of 100k now. It's very smooth and solid. No rattles. It's rather slow (compared to the NSX). Mine has 150hp, some of the newer 1.8T have 170. You can always chip it and get about 200hp out of it. I'm a bit scared to since i don't want to blow my 100k miles turbo. 98.5 cars have a bunch of updates over earlier cars. I think around 2000 there were a bunch of updates again. One of the nicer additions, imo, being the 1 piece projector headlights. The other reflector headlights look pretty crappy.
In terms of reliability, it hasn't been the best. I'm not sure if we've had bad luck or if they're just not that great overall. In general people say to be wery of german cars that are out of warrenty. They definitely break more than japanese cars and they cost more to fix. Mine decided to dump all its oil on the road the other day while I was driving it. Had it towed to the dealer (saw 4 other audis being flat bedded in at the same time, bad day?) and it turned out to be a gasket that had gone bad. $5 part, $340 repair bill. A month before that it dumped all it's oil too. The result of another gasket having gone bad. Before that the timing belt went at around 70k miles when they're rated for 90k. That made a mess of the valves and cost to $4k to fix.
So overall, nice car, be prepared to put some money in for maintainence. I'm sure we've had more bad luck than most, but things like keyless remotes, tie end links, gaskets, to name a few tend to go bad on the car.
In terms of reliability, it hasn't been the best. I'm not sure if we've had bad luck or if they're just not that great overall. In general people say to be wery of german cars that are out of warrenty. They definitely break more than japanese cars and they cost more to fix. Mine decided to dump all its oil on the road the other day while I was driving it. Had it towed to the dealer (saw 4 other audis being flat bedded in at the same time, bad day?) and it turned out to be a gasket that had gone bad. $5 part, $340 repair bill. A month before that it dumped all it's oil too. The result of another gasket having gone bad. Before that the timing belt went at around 70k miles when they're rated for 90k. That made a mess of the valves and cost to $4k to fix.
So overall, nice car, be prepared to put some money in for maintainence. I'm sure we've had more bad luck than most, but things like keyless remotes, tie end links, gaskets, to name a few tend to go bad on the car.
We just traded in our 98 A4 2.8 quattro with 130K miles. It was generally reliable, but we had several big ticket items over the last two years. The ABS controller went flaky and was replaced. A slow coolant leak took four trips to the dealer and $$$$ to fix. The emission air pump threw a CEL about the time we traded it in which cost more $$$. Replaced worn bushings in the front suspension. The timing belt/water pump was scheduled maintenance but still another expensive item. I suspect we replaced enough components that it would be quite reliable for another 50K miles, but my wife wasn't buying that argument
I really liked the feel of the car. Very solid without the heavy feeling of the one or two Mercs that I have driven. Good handling for a sedan (with the upsize wheels and tires.) Very nice interior with the 2.8 model. No cheap bits falling off or showing wear. No rattles after 130K miles. Gas mileage was about what you would expect... low 20s, maybe high 20s on the highway.
I recommend it as a reliable daily driver, but only if you can afford a fairly big (~$1000) maintenance hit every once in a while. It's not cheap to fix when it does break. I think they are a good value for the money... they've depreciated quite a lot since the newer A4 model came out.
I really liked the feel of the car. Very solid without the heavy feeling of the one or two Mercs that I have driven. Good handling for a sedan (with the upsize wheels and tires.) Very nice interior with the 2.8 model. No cheap bits falling off or showing wear. No rattles after 130K miles. Gas mileage was about what you would expect... low 20s, maybe high 20s on the highway.
I recommend it as a reliable daily driver, but only if you can afford a fairly big (~$1000) maintenance hit every once in a while. It's not cheap to fix when it does break. I think they are a good value for the money... they've depreciated quite a lot since the newer A4 model came out.
Hmmm. Making me kind of wary now with the maintenance and reliability issues/costs. The Audi A4s in the 1996-2001 I'm considering are in the 60K to 100K mile range and are priced anywhere from $8K to $15K.
dawwgpie: Which gaskets in particular failed?
What other moderately priced 4 door AWD sedans can I consider? Only other ones I can think of are the newer Lancer and the Impreza neither of which I really like the looks of.
Appreciate the replies. Thanks again.
dawwgpie: Which gaskets in particular failed?
What other moderately priced 4 door AWD sedans can I consider? Only other ones I can think of are the newer Lancer and the Impreza neither of which I really like the looks of.
Appreciate the replies. Thanks again.
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The gaskets that went on seperate occasions were the oil cooler and oil filter adaptor gaskets. Cheap items, but they left me stranded and cost a lot in labor to fix. You would think a slow leak would develop first, but I guess because of the oil pressure when they go they go. If u get one in that mileage range make sure the timing belt is replaced. I've heard there are a lot of cases of the timing belt going before the 90k mark, especially on the earlier year A4 1.8Ts.
I can't think of to many other sedan options in that price range. BMW has to 330xi and infiniti has the 4wd G35, but those will run you a bit more. I don't think the basic lancer has 4wd, u'll need to get the Evo.
The A4 quattro is fantastic in the recent snow the ne has had. I'm used to driving lowered fwd japanese cars in the winter. The A4 is so much easier to get around in. Tears through snow.
I can't think of to many other sedan options in that price range. BMW has to 330xi and infiniti has the 4wd G35, but those will run you a bit more. I don't think the basic lancer has 4wd, u'll need to get the Evo.
The A4 quattro is fantastic in the recent snow the ne has had. I'm used to driving lowered fwd japanese cars in the winter. The A4 is so much easier to get around in. Tears through snow.
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