Audi a4 1997-2000

mitsiboy69, Dec 23, 5:18am
Looking at buying a 1.8 4 cylinder one. Anyone had any bad experiences with them! What's the fuel consumption like!

00quattro00, Dec 23, 5:58am
Turbo or not! Man or auto! The standard 1.8 are pretty gutless and the auto trans are not known for their reliability. But other than that they are actualy realy good cars at a good price. I would go for the 1.8 turbo quattro (4wd)

thejazzpianoma, Dec 23, 6:18am
+1
If its manual and serviced regularly and properly the sorts of problems you are likely to get are not going to be very dramatic. Just don't take it to a rip off merchant for repairs. Ask here for where to get reasonable priced parts, parts are available from multiple NZ importers overnight.

mitsiboy69, Dec 23, 7:50am
Yea ideally I would like the quattro but I figured they would be pretty thirsty being 4wd and turbo. I don't mind a lack of power, more worried about fuel economy and reliability. Looking at a few auto non turbo examples. Whats with them being front wheel drive though!

purplemurtle, Dec 23, 8:17am
Ive got a 2.4 6 cylinder typtronic stationwagon 1999 that I'm going to sell!

purplemurtle, Dec 23, 8:19am
4 wheel drive also ^

outbidyou2, Dec 23, 8:36am
there goes the fuel economy

franc123, Dec 23, 8:44am
You need to be certain of how old the cambelt is in those 1.8 20valve engines when you buy, if they break or strip it doesn't just stop the engine and damage a couple of valves, it bends all 20 of them. Not pretty.

00quattro00, Dec 23, 8:47am
You will not notice any difference in economy

00quattro00, Dec 23, 8:48am
Unlikely to bend all 20, usualy bends 5 exh valves

mitsiboy69, Dec 23, 8:59am
Really! Are you speaking from experience!

00quattro00, Dec 23, 9:02am
yes, I own a fleet of audi quattros of various models and engines

franc123, Dec 23, 9:08am
Wrong, having had one break on an A3 and having to deal with the damage I can assure you thats exactly what happens.

theram1, Dec 23, 9:12am
Wow. A fleet. Wow.

00quattro00, Dec 23, 9:21am
I said unlikely, I have done many 5v vag engines that have had cambelt faliure and the most common was to bend exh valves, there has been a couple that have broken the valves off and then made a right mess. And all of this can be avoided by replacing the cambelt

kazbanz, Dec 23, 9:35am
Dare I jump into this thread.
What is known about the kiwi new 1999 1800 turbo manual audi A3 3door!
say with 175k on the clock

00quattro00, Dec 23, 10:05am
Same car as a mk4 golf, Generaly quite reliable, will have the odd coil pack fail and also the ign amp can give trouble, also at those km its probably due for a few bushes to be replaced, being nz new it will be easy to get the service history for it, and being manual is a bonus as the auto trans they used in them were completely crap

mitsiboy69, Dec 23, 10:20am
But have you owned a non turbo one! 4wd + turbo + extra weight would surely mean a difference in fuel economy. What kind of figures do you get for your 1.8t (l/100km)!

thejazzpianoma, Dec 23, 10:33am
While I agree with Quattro, a fundamentally good car that will more likely give you niggles rather than monumental headaches (especially if they have good service history). I would be wary of paying too much for one. The reason being you can pick up a 2 Door new model 2004+ A3 (same as the cracker MK5 Golf) from as little as 7K now.

They don't come up every day at this price but when someone wants to move a 2 Door one in a hurry I really have seen them go that low and with significantly lower km's than the one you mention too.

Oh, and be aware that the new model standard 2.0 non Turbo FSI A3 will perform along much the same lines as the 1.8 Turbo previous model.Can't say I have looked up the 0-100 figures for the old car but I suspect they will be very similar.

The earlier A3 was good but the next model was monumentally good. Only of the last year or two have some of the other manufacturers caught up to where VW were in 2003, and plenty are still not there yet.

00quattro00, Dec 23, 10:40am
Yes, I have 5cyl turbo and 4cyl turbo. The turbo on them is to boost torque, they come on boost realy early and drive like a big engine. This engine when it came out won a few awards. Will get easily get 7l/100km