JLAWS

Some of you may recall that I sold my mint 2001 Ls430 to focus on a house. I've been roughing it in my restore 1996 Pontiac Grand Am which I paid $800 for. But my hooby for luxury cars was too overbearing and rather than getting back into a car note again and going for a used 2004 A8L in the mid $40K range, I went for a silver 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 V8 for $15,500. Talk about bang for your bucks!! The one I picked up had 74K miles on it, adult owned (I could tell by the preset talk stations and easy listening/classical stations. A good tip to take with you when buying used.) absolutely mint. Now the interior is what sealed the deal. The leather seats, parts of the door trim paneling and various parts througout the car is a beige yellowish color and the carpet, dash and majoriy of the car is in navy blue !! A weird combo but it works.

The A6 is just a timeless gorgeous car in person. I love the extra wide stance of the V8 version with it flared fenders and body kit. The STOCK 255/40/17 line up flush with the fender and looks intimidating from behind. Just a solid planted look.

Now for the test drive. I start it and I hear the melodious muffled throaty v8. This car just makes me smile! I punch it on a straight away and the V8 roar is just magnificent and refined. So addicting, I am in love!! I will enjoy using the Tiptronic manual shift and downshift and high reving next to the Hondas with the buzzing exhaust around the hood. This should let them know how a real manly exhaust sounds.
At high speed it is not as quiet as the LS, the king of quiet. Alot more wind nose is heard and the drive train is not as smooth. I figured that it wouldn't be since it is awd. Around corners it was invincible, those wide tires and stance helped.

As for the interior, i'd say it is on par with an LS without the Nav option. No power fold mirrors though but headlight washers. The Bose audio might just have more bass though than the Mark Lev's.

I am scheduled to pick up the car at the end of the week. I can't wait. Not that I am jumping the Lexus ship but I can kinda see why people say Lexus vehicles have no soul. My old Ls430 was tame, whisper quiet , decent handling and just the most relaxing vehicle I have ever driven on long trips, but the best car I have ever owned. I had no problems with it for the 1 1/2 yr I had it. The Audi just has me smiling more. The style, refined audible exhaust note and stance just has so much character! i just hope it is as reliable.

Faraaz23

you get a lot of car for your money with used Audis since they take such depreciation hits.

Post some pics of this interior combo when u get it, i'm interested in seeing it. Audi always has some gorgeous interiors.

Have fun with it!

jwa

IMHO, the Audi A6 and A8 are the most under appreciated cars on the market, and I agree totally with your comparison of the A6 to the LS. My conundrum is that sometimes I prefer the sportieness of the Audi, and sometimes the tameness of the Lexus. The only real solution would be to own both.

Just curious, do you know if the new Bang & Olufson sound system was an option on the A6? I've read several reviews that suggest the B&O system surpasses the ML in quality.

rai

Holy Smoke. You get a V8 Audi for the price of a Honda Fit (about). I haven't gone the used car route but you can (and did) get a lot of car.

My point now, I have a 99 Passat with 100K miles on it. I'd like a new car, but the darn thing runs well etc.. I'm trying to hold off buying anything else as long as I can.

Lexmex

I have a lot of friends taking Audi over BMW and Mercedes down here (we don't have much else in terms of luxury in Mexico).

Celsius

iTrader: (1)

JLaws, let us know how reliable they are. I LOVE Audi styling, but haven't heard any good news about the reliability

spwolf

i would check front suspension on A6's. There is good reason A6 holds value a lot worse than A4... Same is true in Europe as well.

JLAWS

Trust me I spent 30 minutes checking what I could on the car. I even checked and adjusted the tire pressure to recommeded levels. I got my hands really dirty! I spent another 30 minutes test driving it alone on the highway since I got kind of lost.
I spent alot of time on a few Audi forums researching buying tips and what to look out for. The big $$ deal is the timing belt and waterpump which I can put off till 85K miles. The suspension was tight and didn't bounce. Struts and springs are suprisingly very cheap and there are alot of aftermarket choices on common sites like Tirerack. So no $500+each electronic strut replacement concerns. I may do the frt and rear adjustable sway bar mod which is available on tirerack also.

I considered a 99 and 2000 GS400, but for one with 75K miles max there were all around $18K+ minimum and weren't as plentiful as the GS300 which I did not want. Same with the BMW 540, above my budget. So I started looking at Audi's and I noticed once in a while the v8 version are about $16K fairly loaded. The tame V6 version were plentiful while the muscular V8 were a rarity. My particular Audi was listed at $16,995 on the dealer site and Autotrader. But one search site has it at $15,995. So I printed that off and kept it with me. When I got there sure enough they were using the $16,995 figure. I whipped out the print out and and told them $15K cash. We settled on $15,500.

Here are pics from the dealer site.

JLAWS

Special interior, similar to the Mercedes, Designo(sp) editions option.

JLAWS

rear seats

JLAWS

Here is another Audi with normal drop and tint..