Afternoon all, long time lurker on this thread. A bit about me - I'm a 35 year old pharmacist (by trade) who works in a non traditional role now. Married to my wife of 12 years who is a plastic surgery resident. Mostly due to her school, we've been all over the place. We met in south dakota/ north Dakota where the two of us grew up. Relocated to Arizona for several years where she finished school, and now we are in year 5 of 6 for her training.

My car history started with a 1989 Honda crx which was eventually swapped and heavily modified (ruined) by yours truly. Then I owned a 2008 Mazda speed 3. 2001 BMW M coupe. A 2013 mustang gt. And finally my current car, a 2014 fiat 500 abarth.

When we moved to Pitt I downsized to the abarth to get something small with good mpg that was cheap (we were buying a home) but I'm getting the itch for something "new".

Right now I'm looking in the $35k range. The two cars at the top of my list are a b8.5 audi rs5 and an mk3 audi Tts. There are a few others I've considered (e92 M3, f80 m4, ats-v coupe). I'm not especially interested in a sedan, and I have to be mindful of the size of the car as I have a very short/shallow carnage stall at my home. I don't drive much, maybe 3-4k miles a year.

Of my previous cars I probably enjoyed the mustang the most. The torque and the amount of fun I was able to have in that car while staying reasonably close to the speed limit was a blast. On the other hand I also love the abarth, the boost and the noise and the "tech" sort of feel to the powerband is a blast as well. I am also not one to leave a car stock, and I know the tt lends better to modifying simply due to the boosted application. Finally, it has to be an auto (no compromise here)

So, all that being said. Does anyone have any reccomedations on either, or any of the others I mentioned? Looking forward to hearing thoughts from the community.

Sean

 

My Audi and overall 22+ years of automotive experience: Older models and/or higher mileage is a problem from a maintenance aspect. Once the warranty is expired it seems these vehicles are plagued with operational/service issues, especially suspension and electrical. There are, of course, low mileage and well cared for examples that can be reliable transportation but I have owned Audis with issues and have had clients and friends owning the all models across the spectrum of offerings from 2005 to 2018 - all being frustrated with mechanical/electrical issues.

Yes German cars all have gremlins but my experience/ownership with BMW, MB, Porsche has been exemplary compared to Audi. New vehicles that are under warranty would be my advice.

 

Respect the advice plenty. I should have added that I am a pretty respectable wrencher and I have no problem doing my own routine maintenance if/when necessary. I'm also quite under budget when it comes to this car purchase so that I will have the means to handle any expensive service issues.

 

We have owned Audis and BMWs in our household for a long time now. I have had consistent good experience with our Bimmers over the years, mostly performance models (540i, m5, m3, now x3). We've also always liked their implementation of technology in their cars. We now have 2 Audis in the house...a 2011 A4 avant, and a 2015 RS7. The latter I've only had for a year but so far it's been problem free. The A4 on the other hand has been a bit of a mess. There have been a couple of ongoing minor issues we can't seem to get fixed (steering vibration at low speed and screen issues), and the car did have to have major engine work that was part of a class action suit Audi lost for oil leaks in the 2L turbo motors. Audi made it hard to get covered on that as well. Also, I do think that Audi's implementation of tech is often not as good as BMW. The bummer is that we love the A4 otherwise. Now that we have a mostly new engine we are keeping it for a while longer, hoping nothing else major happens to it. The RS7 should be fine, they have been pretty reliable, and I have another couple of years of warranty.

So from our long time experience with both brands I'd say that BMW is a bit better than Audi from a reliability/tech standpoint. Both are superb car brands however. These days, Audi may be even better than BMW across the line.

 

Owned a ton of Audi's over the years, some of them are very reliable excellent cars and some of them are maintenance nightmares. Do your due diligence on the specific models you are interested in. Owned lots of BMW's over the years as well, they can have plenty of issues as well.

Phil

 

I think issues can be model dependent. Do some hw in advance and you should be fine. RS5 uses the V8 from the R8, correct? If so, I haven't heard of any issues although I follow the v10 more.

A4 turbo I don't think I'd do since I've heard of issues so when we got a B8 A4, we made sure to find a 2009 which had the 3.2 V6 available. That car currently has 160K miles without issues. I daily a B8 S4 that has over 90K miles now. Also no issues. Routine stuff like brakes, oil changes, etc., done at home. Once the A4 went past 100K, we did the water pump, thermostat, and other things that any car would need after 100K miles.

Jump onto the audi forums and do a search for the platforms you're interested in and go from there. GL.

 

We have had lots of Audis. Had a 2008 RS4 that we drove to 50,000 miles no issues. We currently have a 15 Audi Q7 Diesel with the Prestige plus package and no issues other than recalls. Great cars with lots of character.

 

Owned many AUDIs and many other German cars except MB. AUDI cars have been extremely reliable with the exception of the A6 V8 I had, mostly due to limited space for cooling. Lots of age related issues due to excessive heat.

Best advice is to get a car that has service records, has been taken care of, not abused. Avoid large V8 engines in small cars (some S4s and older A6s) and you should be fine. Newer turbos are fine. Older turbos really to have been well cared for.

AUDIs can have issues as can many other cars. It is more important that you pick a car that has been well taken care of than a particular model. With the mileage you drive per year you should be fine with almost any well maintained car.

Finally I would advise you to find a respectable and honest AUDI specialist if you are buying a used AUDI without a warranty. If you don't want surprises then get a bumper to bumper warranty and buy a car in the last legs of the factory warranty so you can get a good price on the warranty while still paying the least you can pay for the car.

Feel free to DM if you want more specific advice.

Cheers!

 

I've had 6 Audis over the years and currently have a B8.5 S4 and Gen 1 R8 V10. All have been great cars and have been reliable.

 

How about a Jaguar XKR 5.0? That'll tick all your buttons and is much nicer looking than either Audi.

 

You should look into a MK2 ttrs. You can find a clean car in your price range and try don't seem to suffer the same maintenance / upkeep concerns as some of the older audis. I've put roughly 5,000 miles on mine in the last year, with half of that North of 500whp, and have had zero issues with the car.

Edit: just saw the auto only requirement.... So, nevermind.

 

Everyone has sorta alluded to it, but I'll say it. Pick the car based on the drivetrain. Every car maker is going to have stars and duds, and for any given car someone will give you their outlier story about how their B5 S4 was super reliable. I also have had multiple VW/Audi/BMW over the years in my household. I currently DD a D3 S8 with 160k and it has been a bulletproof and excellent car for me. If you like audis, look at the 3.0 supercharged V6, the 2.5T, the 5.2 V10. If you like BMW, I'd get something with an S63. Did you look at getting a 996 turbo? A little bit out of your price range of $35, but not much, and those things are bulletproof. BTW, I left pittsburgh about a year ago, and I did some medical work out there. Used to live up in wexford/franklin park/sewickley area.

 

Actually been on my watch list, it does indeed meet a lot of my requirement. Great reccomedation.

I have looked at the 996 turbo, but with an auto being a requirement I'm worried I'll be supremely let down by the transmission.

I am a fan of the s63 engine but a 5 series is too big for me. And I may have just discovered the rs5 is too big as well. As mentioned I have a very shallow garage and anything around 180" in length is really pushing it. It may have to come down to a tt-s.... But the alfa 4c is short too *shifty eyes*

Wexford area is gorgeous, I am very jealous. We are in the city to keep close proximity to the hospitals for my wife's work. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to relocate.

 

Owned many brands. Current daily is ‘12 A6 3.0. Just went over 120k this past week and it’s been dead nuts reliable so far (knock on wood). I will say with it’s current mileage I am looking to move on in the next year, but I have enjoyed the car so much that the top of the list for my next car is the S6.

 

A local Ferrari-Maserati dealer is doing 5 year warranties on used Maserati with very low interest rates. GranTurismo could be a consideration with that kind or warranty & interest rates.