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What cars should I consider?


Trouble Maker

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Go drive an SX4 and see if you like it. I love them, but the seating position is high and the interior is spartan, to put it nicely. They drive great but it's a tall city car, not a comfortable highway cruiser.

 

Ya, I'm thinking I will have to drive one of these since they keep popping up on my radar. I do drive 37 miles, 35 of which is on the highway to work. I realize most of the cars I'm looking at aren't going to be 'comfortable highway cruisers', but there is a lot of room between that and a tin can. I'm not looking for a tin can either. If I have to settle for a tin can if I can't find what I want at the price I can pay, I will just get another $2-3k beater when this one blows up and keep saving up money.

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7 inches and 500#'s more. That's enough to make a difference.

 

Anything wrong with the 2006 9-3 sport combi? Only about $1k out of my ceiling according to Edmunds...

 

Generally, the 2.8T V6 is strong, with a simple VTune from VTuners, that 250 HP gets pushed up to 320 HP. The only recurring issue I see is that the coolant expansion tank (reservoir) likes to crack. Some had issues with going through coils. But other than that, they're pretty damn tough. My Saab has been through hell starting at 44k, it's at 105k (granted, it's only a 4 cylinder) but nothing has broken. Just replaced the original brakes.

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Generally, the 2.8T V6 is strong, with a simple VTune from VTuners, that 250 HP gets pushed up to 320 HP. The only recurring issue I see is that the coolant expansion tank (reservoir) likes to crack. Some had issues with going through coils. But other than that, they're pretty damn tough. My Saab has been through hell starting at 44k, it's at 105k (granted, it's only a 4 cylinder) but nothing has broken. Just replaced the original brakes.

 

is yours manual? single turbo or twin?

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Looked closer...you could only get Passat in 4Motion with a 1.8 or V6, not TDI.

 

sorry.

 

04-05 1.8T 4Motion looks like an interesting car.

 

Any reliability issues, how is the oil sludge issues on these cars?

What chassis and sus setup is this?

 

I had a B5 S4, not really interested in dealing with front sus issues again. Looks like this is a B5 chassis too, basically same setup as the S4?

 

Lol, searched on Auto Trader and there are 2 04-05 Passat 4Motions in Manual, in the entire country. Only one is a 1.8T and it has 215kmi.

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basically same setup as the S4?

 

Yup,

 

Virtually all Audi's from B5 to current use an iteration of the 4-link front suspension. Mind you, materials, dimensions ect. have changed, but the idea is the same.

 

The B5's "suspension problems" as you put it are not really a problem. You can get a full arm kit for $250. The problem is when you have 1 arm that is worse than the rest and someone decides " ill just replace that one arm". Not realizing the labor for 1 arm is 90% of the labor for all the arms.

 

The passat 1.8t was one of the worst offenders with oil sludge problems, along with the A4 1.8T. The longitudinally mounted 1.8t's sludge issues were a LOT worse than the transverse ones. The issue again, itself is 99.9% lack of human intervention. Audi spec 10K oil changes which for some, meant 15K oil changes on a turbo motor with dino oil.

 

If you can find a 1.8T that has had oil change every 3-5K miles, even with dino oil, it will have no sludge issues.

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...

The B5's "suspension problems" as you put it are not really a problem. You can get a full arm kit for $250. The problem is when you have 1 arm that is worse than the rest and someone decides " ill just replace that one arm". Not realizing the labor for 1 arm is 90% of the labor for all the arms.

...

If you can find a 1.8T that has had oil change every 3-5K miles, even with dino oil, it will have no sludge issues.

 

The B5's are still more maintenance intensive than your average car, and I'd like a car less maintenance intensive than your average car so there is that. They are great cars if you want to put the proper time and money into them. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again right now. And these cars (in 4Motion) seem virtually non-existent anyways so it's really a non-starter.

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The B5's are still more maintenance intensive than your average car, and I'd like a car less maintenance intensive than your average car so there is that. They are great cars if you want to put the proper time and money into them. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again right now. And these cars (in 4Motion) seem virtually non-existent anyways so it's really a non-starter.

 

Honda, Toyota, Sheep, Repeat.

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The B5's are still more maintenance intensive than your average car, and I'd like a car less maintenance intensive than your average car so there is that. They are great cars if you want to put the proper time and money into them. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again right now. And these cars (in 4Motion) seem virtually non-existent anyways so it's really a non-starter.

 

No it's cool, passats are b5.5

 

Zeitgeist I'm sure will chime in eventually. His has been good from what I gathered.

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Sigh,

 

You would go there in an otherwise productive thread. :fuuuu:

 

Audi > Bankrupt Shitbox.

 

 

I'd rather buy a car from a bankrupt shitbox company than go bankrupt trying to fix a shitbox audi.

 

Thats not to say that there aren't great Audis out there, but the ones you can get inexpensively are shitboxes.

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