The car officially hits US dealerships in September. The LED lights in the front are reminiscent of the R8. Apparently they spent 3 billion dollars redesigning the car from the ground up. The car is supposed to compete against the BMW 3 series and the Mercedes C-class. Starting base price is $29,000. I for one, can't wait to test drive this beauty. http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/112_0801_2009_audi_a4/index.html <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-I4Mk2-zme4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-I4Mk2-zme4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
As an A4 owner, I'd be wary of buying the '09 model. It's the first year of production and there's a chance that Audi could turn out a real turd. I've got an '03 and the CVT went out at 76k miles. Cost me a sheetload to get fixed. Audi's are beautiful cars but it's best to wash your hands of them once the warranty expires. Maintenance and repairs are a b****.
A friend of mine (with an mba) told me about his 20-90k mile rule. Buy certified, re-owned cars and get an extended warranty out to 100k. Sell the car sometime after 90k miles while it still has some warranty left for the lowest possible ownership costs both upfront and over the life of the vehicle. Makes plenty of sense to me.
Audis/volkswagen drive well but they are repair bills waiting to happen. They just suck in terms of reliability.
This is very good advice, especially for German car owners. Let someone else take the brunt of the depreciation hit, drive the hell out of it, then liquidate. It's not as much of a concern for Acura, Lexus, or Infiniti owners since they seem to get much more out of their cars. That said, once my student loans are paid off (hopefully in a year), I'm going for an IS250 or a TL. Much less hassle than driving another German car.
My parents just sold me their '96 A6. The sucker has 130k miles on it and is in amazing shape, never having any significant issues. Hopefully it stays that way for at least a couple more years...
Well, let's see, shall we. There is a Certified 2005 Audi A4 for sale near me with 18,971 miles on it. The asking price is $24,900. A quick search shows me that to extend the warranty to 100,000 miles on that car would run about $2,800. So, if I had to pay the asking price, the car would cost me $27,700. To get a 2008 model with similar equipment would run about $34,000 (sticker price) from what I can tell, so there's certainly some potential for savings by getting the used one and buying an extended warranty. Though there are certainly other considerations, though.
but part of the 20-100 strategy is selling at 90.... so you get about 4 years use out of the car and sell it... if we go with your example above a 2001 a4 with 90k miles will sell for 7K.. so you spent 20k on 4 years of a car or about 420$ a month. seeing as you can lease an a4 for about that much.. the 20-100 strategy seems like a fail.
