A4 = heavy car on light engine and lots of expensive maintenence.

Buddy of mine has an 03 A4 (stock) which has already had the engine replaced once and is seeing electrical issues as well. Gas mileage sucks and the handling is fair unless you upgrade the suspension.

Fun cars and good looking but too much headache.

 

yes, we fear the civic

 

brand new base model camry for 16k FTW!!

 

ce bitches. 160 screaming hp

 

I always liked that body style A4 and see them all over the place. I also hear of all the problems associated with them. If you don't want as many problems but want some extra style I'd go for something like the CL. Otherwise get another teg or maybe a civic or even a honda coupe.

 

My brother has a 1996 A4 2.8L Quattro. The motor and transmission seem solid but he has a bunch of small things going wrong with it.

 

Timing belt on a B5 A4 should be done every 70K mile's, no more than 80K. Front control arm bushings tend to go bad and the whole arm has to be replaced, all 8 arms cost about $560 on ECS tuning and that's if you can install them yourself. AWD is great and they handle well if you put a suspension on them. They're slow stock, at least in 1.8T trim, but with a chip I took the car from a 16.3 stock to a 14.9, and I needed a new clutch(could only launch a 2.21 w/o the clutch slipping) I think if I had a new clutch and could launch hard it would have run in the 14.3-14.5 range just chipped, maybe lower. The maf goes bad if you don't change the air filter religiously. Other than that I thought the A4 was a great car, but I am my mechanic so maintenance is just the cost of parts and a weekend for me.

German cars are for people with the money or the knowledge to fix them. If you are competent with fixing cars or have a really good paying job you should be fine. Otherwise get the japanese car.