keroberos

I'm currently hoping to join the audi club. I'm currently looking at the following:



2004 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro
28,400 Miles
Certified-Used From a Audi Dealer

They're asking $15,995


Carfax is completely clean only had 1 owner. Only thing i found on it was

7/18/2007
Two tires mounted and balanced
Rear brake rotors replaced
Brake fluid flushed/changed

8/31/2009
Front wiper blades/refills replaced
Rear brake pads and rotors replaced
Front brake pads and rotors replaced



Is it a good price? should i try to low ball them?

Zachjohnson02

Id say its a good price. I just bought a 2002 A4 1.8T Q with 58,000 miles for 11,000. mabye try 15K and see what their reaction is

bigglesworth

$16K is in the ballpark but I'd start at $12-13K and work up. Hopefully you can meet somewhere in the middle, say $14-ish...

Sounds like a really nice car. If you get it, I think you'll love it. Good luck.

keroberos

The car is 6 years old and as far as I can tell the timing belt has not been changed, I know it's 75k miles but is there a time period it should be changed in as well?

bigglesworth

Good question. Unfortunately Audi doesn't specify at what age the belt should be replaced, only mileage. Belts will dry rot eventually. This all depends on the material of the belt, the climate, treatment of the engine, etc... I've always heard 7 years bandied about for other makes (Toyota and Honda for example), but Audi may be sooner than 7 years.

I'm assuming you're buying from an Audi dealer, since it's a CPO car, so my guess is that belt, tensioner, etc... has been checked and is okay for the remainder of the CPO warranty (2 years?). You might also take the car to an independent mechanic and have them look at it. Not sure what the cost would be though, as I think there's a great deal of work involved in getting to it.

One other thought is to negotiate the timing belt replacement while dealing on the car. If they won't pay for everything regarding the TB replacement, maybe you pay for the parts if they pick up the labor, or something along those lines. If they're a "motivated seller", they will probably bite.