A4 Cabriolet - what to look for

S

Siffion

Registered User
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
NULL
hello all, just registered with this forum. so thanks for taking time to read my 1st post.

im just about to look for a A4 Cabriolet. have a budget of £9k, have been scouring all the usual sites looking for my next car, but am starting to get a bit daunted by all the options available. if anyone could answer the following it would be appreciated...

  • is there a post on this forum to guide on what to look out for when buying an A4 Cab
  • whats the best engine\transmission option. ill be doing about 200 miles per week. 1.8t, 2.4, 3.0, or 2.5 Diesel. i am a bit lead footed, and do like my cars to be quick
id love to get an s-line, but again, whats the best to look out for

cheers in advance

siffion - soon to be a A4 Cab driver
 
hi, welcome to the site.
reading your statement of the lead foot then id suggest the 1.8T as it is a very tunable lump, a good remap should keep you smiling.
the 3.0 is fairly quick but not enough to shout about as far as im aware and not easy or cheap to mod.
the 2.4 in my opinion is the lowest of the bunch, engine wise, not offering much power but requires a v6 running cost.
cant really comment on the 2.5tdi, been in a couple and were great but dont know enough about tuning, it is the same bhp as the 18t standard.

if going for an 18t then you MUST make sure that its full service history ( which should apply for all of them really ) but the 18t has a lovely knack of going bang as they suffer with sludge pipe/ oil pick up pump problems,.
do some homework on this , theres plenty of threads about it, dont learn the hard way like many of us on here have.

if at all possible, take someone with you that has vagcom and scan the car, always good to see if it has any nasty faults first.
check for leaking roof.
id go for a car that suited your budget on age and mileage rather than spec mate, very very easy to retro fit anything afterwards, alot of stuff is cheap too.
i would recommend that you get one with heated seats, mines not and really miss it.#

keep us posted, or keep saving and buy mine lol
 
i would not get the 3.0 if you gona do 200 odd miles a week.

my 3.0 was very thirsty, £20 would get me around 70miles and thats taking it easy!! but the v6 sound is addictive!! sadly, mines gone.
 
hello all cheers for the replies. appreciated.

with regard to the 3.0 £20 for 70 miles thats approx what my ST200 does at the moment so used to the running cost, been reading on the 1.8t oil pick up issues, and its worrying that a small part can a lot of damage. whats the recommended oil change interval for a 1.8 if i decide to go for 1.

also 1.8 remap, what can i expect to get without starting to upgrade induction/exhaust side of things

1 last thing manual auto, or tronic?

regards
 
id go for manual as its one less thing to go wrong, as for servicing they recommend every 10k but should be more like 6-7k.
remap should see around 200 hp
 
My vote goes for the 1.8t also. When I picked up mine, it needed the oil pick up pipe doing. Had it done and I haven't had any problems ever since. Mines been remapped and its great, mpg is not to bad either.
 
itsmeagain said:
My vote goes for the 1.8t also. When I picked up mine, it needed the oil pick up pipe doing. Had it done and I haven't had any problems ever since. Mines been remapped and its great, mpg is not to bad either.
Click to expand...

cheers for info guys.

i was also thinking of manual as well, with regard to pick up pipe, i take it its a sump off job, how much did this cost you?

regards
 
My first post on Audi-Sport.net.

I would be careful to check that the radio has good, strong reception as the wires going to the boot lid can break causing intermittant or nil reception. I have that problem and itis well known. In town I can get a fuzzy BBC R1 but out of town I get nothing. Audi quote £500 to fix which they do by replacing the wiring loom between the radio and the aerial (4-5 hour job apparently).

Make sure that the glove box opens and shuts ok as these can break.
From my experience - make sure that the plastic chin spoiler which run below the bumper are all present as parking over kerbs can knock them off. They are in 3 parts, each bit costing about £30 for a flimsy bit of plastic.

I have a 2004 2.5TDI. Economy wise I don't hoof it that much but can get upto 43mpg on a daily commute of 20 miles. On a long run I can manage 55mpg if I'm careful and keep it steady at 60-65mph.

Car is on variable sevice regime which can give anywhere between 9-18k between services. I have never bettered 10k as I do mostly short runs. Don't know if variable sevicing is worth the bother tbh.
 
Couple of points

1. If the radio receprion does go dodgy, you can either cut out the affected part or get a new cable which takes 10 minutes to install at a cost of about £15 !!
2. Mileage wise on variable servicing I get 19,000 between services, all motorway driving and the oil is still thin when it comes out. aslong as you have had longlife oil since the day the car was born and you do the mileage not 5 miles here 10 miles there, there is not much to worry about

Incidently mine is available aswell, serviced and MOT'd with Audi from day 1 over 20 pages of Audi Receipts
2004, 75k,

Spec in my signature
 
audi upgrades
its uncanny blacky how alike ours are, colour, mods,spec (ish), mileage,age etc etc
will be sad to see mine go but hey oh.
what are you getting next ?
 
Siffion said:
cheers for info guys.

i was also thinking of manual as well, with regard to pick up pipe, i take it its a sump off job, how much did this cost you?

regards
Click to expand...
The pick up pipe cost me £200 from a reputable independent VW and Audi specialist.
 
1wheelonly said:
****** hell, end of an eara lol
what u getting paul
Click to expand...

Want a Porsche Boxster and hopefully a brand new one....

Had one the other week for 4 days and totally loved it so said to myself "got to get one of these" Mind you saying that I looked on pistonheads yesterday and you can get a Ferrari 355 Spider for the same money but me thinks that as an everyday car may cripple me!!! so Porsche it is.
 
nice one, make sure its the "S" though.
when you looking at getting one, im looking at august for mine, looking forward to a change now, although not the fuel bill, lmfao
 
If I get a brand new one then I will go for the 2.9 Boxster but if I get a used one then I will get an Boxster S. Looking at August/Sept but now I've got it into my head I want it now!!
 
lmfao, yeh i know what you mean, im looking every day !!! cant really afford it till aug though, struggling to find the sprint blue one with the seats and spec etc i want .
pop round when u get it, we can go for a blast, see how they fair up with each other hey. ( (447 ) or bosworth to the A5 !!!!!
 
1wheelonly said:
its uncanny blacky how alike ours are, colour, mods,spec (ish), mileage,age etc etc
will be sad to see mine go but hey oh.
what are you getting next ?
Click to expand...

After seeing what you and Paul are getting mine doesn't compare. Missus drops a sprog October need 4 doors and boot space, so its either a new Focus, Mondeo or Avensis

It was good whilst it lasted.
 
happens to us all blacky, pauls still got it to come lol, mine are older now and lift a seat to get in on there own !!!! lol

why not a nice b7 avant mate ???????
 
Among the other things to check that have already been suggested, in the boot, check the plastic roof box selector handle is working. If you open the boot with the roof closed, there is a selector handle that increases the amount of boot space available when the roof is closed. Once selected this means the roof is inoperable until you move the handle over and decrease the amount of boot space available. It is operated by a cable and can be costly to repair. You also probably wouldn't check it or even know it was there on a test drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
A4 Avants What To Look For
Replies
1
Views
930
AndyMac
AndyMac
N
What to look for....
Replies
3
Views
883
mattyboyc
mattyboyc
M
2004 A4 Avant - What to look for???
Replies
16
Views
2K
Mcgough
Mcgough
Avant4me
High Mileage A4 Avant - What to look for
Replies
4
Views
1K
quattrojames
quattrojames
steeleez
What to look for when buying an A4 Cab
Replies
7
Views
1K
1wheelonly
1wheelonly
Top
Back