Hi all, I've got a question and I'm sure some good folks here have a little first hand experience. I need to get a wagon for my wife. Requirements: 1. Good visibility/maneuverability. Wife has put dents in cars before and parks in a "zoo" area with tons of other cars. 2. Reliable. Reliable should be #1, but keeping it looking nice is critical. 3. Somewhat economical 4. > $10K 5. Luxurious and solid I've been narrowing it down on my own and have come up with the following list. A. Audi A4 Avant (99-01) B. Lexus IS 300 SportCross I've pretty much nixed Subarus as the 2.5 eats head gaskets prior to 03 and the 2.2 is a bit underpowered. Plus, everybody in the state here has one. As a former Supra owner, I know all about the 2JZ and I don't have to be sold on that. Problem is, getting one for under 10 is tough. I guess that's leaving the A4. I hear coil packs go out regularly and that's just a fact of life. Do the newest generation of parts fix that? And is changing out the timing belt an easy task? I've read a ton of negative reviews of 2000-era A6 Avants in terms of reliability so I'm pretty put off by that. Seems the big three Japanese companies don't really make a wagon (just mini SUVs). Other cars considered: Volvo V70 (too big and ugly) Saab 9.3 hatch (some say unreliable, but peppy) That pretty much leaves the A4 Avant as the last man standing. What do you think of them? What should I look out for when buying one? Does Audi keep a central database of factory maintenance like Lexus does?
You could look at a Jetta Wagon Version... available in 2.0, 1.9 Diesel, and 1.8T. In fact I want one myself!
I owned a 2001 IS300 and a 2001 Audi S4 Wagon. I loved both cars. But if reliable is what you want, you might want something newer and trade a little bit of the luxury. Youi're going to be looking at cars that are 7-9 years old. They will likely have at least 90-110k miles on them. No matter what kind of car it is, you're going to have to begin to do some major maintenance after this many miles. This is especially true on the Audi. Now all of that being I really liked both of these cars. they were fun to drive and got the job done for me. The AWD in the audi really seals the deal on that car though. The Lexus is nice, but the interior finishes of that generation just were not up to par.
is it under or above $10k. That sign shows "greater then" $10k... anyway, if you want reliability, you cannot beat Lexus. Seriously... That car can last you 'till 300k miles with proper maintaince...
TDI wagon if you can find it. Automatic transmissions in the MkIV were a bit sketchy though so I wouldn't go for it unless she won't mind a 5 spd manual gearbox.
if youre looking into Audi Avants, i would look into maybe a B5 A4 2.8L avant or a B6 A4 Avant 3.0. any 1.8T audi is going to have reliability issues (trust me, i know...unfortunately). as for the timing belt, not the hardest thing ever, but its not exactly an easy job either. timing belt, tensioner, water pump. front bumper needs to come off, rad needs to come off etc etc. its not something just anyone can do. good luck with your search though.
Thanks for the replies guys. I've seen a couple of forums where they take the whole front of the car off to do the front-of-engine stuff (timing belt, tensioner, water pump, belts & hoses). As freaky as it looked, it sure looked like you had near 100% access at that point. Does Audi keep a history of maintenance records. If someone already went down this road and it's been documented, it sounds like the car. I've heard nothing but good about the AWD on those cars.
