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Reliability of the Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Wagon (1989)

DrMrLordX

DrMrLordX

Lifer
I've been looking at the possibility of an Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Wagon ('89) as an oddball project car, of sorts. There's one for sale not too far from me for a reasonable price ($1400), and the owner claims its up-to-date on maintenance and even has new tires and brakes.

The claims of the owner aside, what sort of gremlins should I expect out of the turbo-charged Audi i5, especially one with 157k miles on it? And if I had to have the engine (or worse, engine + turbo + transmission) rebuilt, how much would that probably run me?

Also, anyone know what the turbo lag on this car is like? At what RPM does it spool up?
 
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If you want to get a 20 year old German car that is fun to drive and expensive to repair, get a Porsche
 
I'm willing to bet that no less than 95% of any response will be from someone that knows next to nothing about the car you want to buy, but is more than happy to jump on the euro car hate bandwagon so they can act like they know what they are talking about.
 
Malak said:
I'm willing to bet that no less than 95% of any response will be from someone that knows next to nothing about the car you want to buy, but is more than happy to jump on the euro car hate bandwagon so they can act like they know what they are talking about.
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I wouldn't call it a hate bandwagon. German cars don't break easily, but when they do it costs an arm and a leg. That's just the way things are. That and they don't have cup holders. 😛
 
zmatt said:
I wouldn't call it a hate bandwagon. German cars don't break easily, but when they do it costs an arm and a leg. That's just the way things are. That and they don't have cup holders. 😛
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I'll add that Audi, while having an admirably good racing effort, was otherwise a joke in the 80s. If I had to have any '80s german car, it would be a mercedes. Those things are simply tanks, and this is coming from a BMW fan.
 
Malak said:
I'm willing to bet that no less than 95% of any response will be from someone that knows next to nothing about the car you want to buy, but is more than happy to jump on the euro car hate bandwagon so they can act like they know what they are talking about.
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Possibly so. I've been trying to find vehicle reliability surveys on this particular model and have found nothing. For what it's worth, the guy seems to have squeezed 157k miles out of the vehicle so it can't have been THAT bad of a car (unless it's on its third engine or something).

The Bluebook on this car is $2200 so I have to wonder why he's low-balling his own vehicle (well, assuming it's in "excellent" condition, but "fair" is $1500). Might be the fuel economy numbers skewing his value expectations but I don't know.

zmatt said:
I wouldn't call it a hate bandwagon. German cars don't break easily, but when they do it costs an arm and a leg. That's just the way things are. That and they don't have cup holders. 😛
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Well, that's the thing . . .it's $1400. If it breaks it can be abandoned, or sold for salvage, or something else entirely. If the thing runs right then even 30-40k miles out of it would probably be worth the money. If it dies the next day then it's wasted money.

Routine repairs might be undesirably expensive, so it would be a situation where I'd have to learn to DIY it as much as possible in order to avoid nasty labor charges. Might be more than I could handle, who knows.

Before I even think about making serious inquiries on the vehicle, I'll need data on the overall reliability of the car along with routine maintenance costs, especially considering the fact that the current owner may be less-than-forthcoming about all those things. If he has receipts, then that might be the best info for which I could ask.

Arkaign said:
I'll add that Audi, while having an admirably good racing effort, was otherwise a joke in the 80s. If I had to have any '80s german car, it would be a mercedes. Those things are simply tanks, and this is coming from a BMW fan.
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What was the worst thing about them? And were the 200-series Audis from 89-91 jokes? If there was something genuinely awful about them, it would help me to know what that was. And yeah, I've looked at some Mercedes turbo diesels. There are some '81s for around $2500 semi-locally. Might be a good buy, might not.
 
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Value is determined by a cross between what the seller is willing to sell it for and what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Blue book is a guide, not a reality. The seller maybe doesn't check the blue book for what to sell it at, or possibly has tried to sell it before without success.
 
All I know is that my friend bought a late 80s Audi, and he ended up totaling the car instead of paying the repair bills.
 
Malak said:
Value is determined by a cross between what the seller is willing to sell it for and what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Blue book is a guide, not a reality. The seller maybe doesn't check the blue book for what to sell it at, or possibly has tried to sell it before without success.
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It is a pretty good guide though. I don't know how long this guy has been trying to sell his Audi, but I have also been looking at old Civics, and I found a guy selling a '92 VX with 140k for $4k that had been looking for a buyer for over a month (he keeps reposting the same car every week on Craigslist). The Bluebook value for the same car in "excellent" condition is $1,535. I think he's being a bit overly-optimistic about the value of his car.

The Audi wagon may have something wrong with it, or maybe he's just low-balling due to gas prices.

jpeyton said:
All I know is that my friend bought a late 80s Audi, and he ended up totaling the car instead of paying the repair bills.
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What was wrong with it, and how bad was the repair bill going to be?
 
Buying an old Audi is like buying an old boat. Expect to spend at least 5-10x your initial investment to keep it running/sea/roadworthy.
 
I'd say if its a beater and you don't intend to take it in for maintenance, then if you have the cash by all means. I know it sound stupid, but I actually want a worthless junk car that I can abuse just to see how it will hold up. That's and it's also nice to have something that you can practice repair work with. If you mess up you really arent in the hole that much.
 
the only old german car i'd own is a volkswagen. MAYBE a 944.

otherwise, i don't think the concerns of the others are all that unfounded. you WILL be doing work to it- and that itself is not a problem with an old car. but the less of them there are, the more expensive and/or unavailable parts are going to be, and with a german car you never know when you might need some random specialty tool that even the dealership hasn't seen in ten years. electronics from that period are also often particularly sketchy, and an audi probably has plenty.

if i'm totally off base and the those cars are more abundant and less complicated than i think they are (and you don't need this as reliable daily transportation), by all means go for it. or if you just have a pretty thick bankroll and plenty of time. otherwise, no.
 
edit: someone else bought the car before I could get my ducks in a row (or even think of doing so). Oh well! No big deal.
 
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