Is This Modified 2000 Audi S4 Worth The Risk At $7000?
I like Audis. I’ve had the chance to drive and ride in quite a few, notably the B5 series that ran through the mid-1990s into the early 2000s. That’s also why I’ve never pulled the trigger on buying one, despite A4 and even S4 prices being tantalisingly low in the States. How low? I’ve seen A4 quattros as cheap as $2500, and S4’s with the 2.7 twin-turbo six for just $4500.
Why have I not pulled the trigger? Because if I did, the bullet would certainly hit something on the car that would immediately suck $2000 from my bank account. Sorry Audi fans—I know many of you love this generation and some will certainly chime in to tell me how I’m completely wrong about the reliability of B5-series, particularly the S4. You just need to do your maintenance they’ll say. What they won’t say is that maintenance will probably cost enough in a couple years to actually buy another Audi. Even the Audi forums go on about the issues with the B5-series cars.
And yet, their awesomeness is such that people still look, and buy. Despite what I’ve seen firsthand from friends who’ve owned these cars, I even still consider it from time to time. And here’s a good example, located smack in the middle of Pennsylvania, halfway between Pittsburgh and Philly. It’s a 2000 S4 selling on eBay for $7000, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
I like that the seller is right up front in saying this car has been massaged to make the most of track days. He says it’s perfectly streetable, but the focus of the car is clearly to clip apices and in that regard I suspect it does well. Actually I don’t need to suspect - the seller even lists some of his lap times at some notable American tracks. Big bonus points to this guy for not just disclosing that he used the car hard, but totally owning it. Hey, it’s a freakin’ S4 that has hefty suspension and brake upgrades -of course it was used hard.
I also like that the 2.7-litre biturbo hasn’t really been tweaked. That’s where most S4 owners seem to start, but the seller only lists a tune and a cat-back exhaust as the power mods. The rest of the work is underneath and inside, which includes all kinds of neat-o parts with names like Vogtland, Neuspeed, Corbeau, Hawk, and so forth.
He lists the exterior condition as pretty darned good and the interior as excellent. So far this sounds like a pretty sweet deal for $7000, but then you find it has 150,000 miles and he only uses the car a couple times a year. And the seller’s description makes it pretty clear that, though he says the car “feels good on the street,” his biannual S4 adventures do not include Sunday drives to church.
So that’s where the real concerns stem from. The car has lived a hard life, but from the seller’s description you get the impression it was built to not just live that life, but survive it. I can’t see someone going through the expense of creating such a street/track creature while foregoing basic maintenance. There’s some confidence to be had there, but in the back of your mind you’re also thinking about how much time that engine spent at or near redline.
The seller says the car is reliable, but stops short of listing any maintenance items. It sure would go a long way to know if the turbos are original or rebuilt, if/when the timing belt was done, clutch replacement, basic things like that. Instead we get three paragraphs of how carefully the seller built the car to be an awesome track machine that is still livable as a street car. And we haven’t even addressed the maintenance nightmares that befall normal S4s of this generation.
So what say you in Car Throttle land? Is this 2000 Audi S4 modded properly and priced right to make it worth the risk? Or should we run the other direction as fast as possible?
Comments
I’m a huge Audi fan but it is true that any Audi before 2008 is going to be a lemon.
Audi Quattro?
B7 A4 (06), owned it for a few years, I romp on it from time to time (read: daily) and I’ve had to do nothing but typical maintenance and small preventative steps and no problems…I’m gonna have to call BS.
People who would actually buy this are foolish. The best way to end up with an expensive Audi is buying a cheap one.
This is literally an expensive Audi. A bad idea is buying a subaru, cause you know, ringlands, HGs, diffs.
Had one of these earlier this year. Chainging the timingbelt, waterpump, and thremostatus is a really good idea if you have no documentation on a used car when buying it. You can do it at home if you have a decent amount of tools, most are common ones. You’d be best of removing the whole front of the car (takes a little longer but it will pay off when you are going to put the timing belt on (it gets REALLY TENSED and TIGHT).
Would I buy it? Hell yeah, looking to save up for another one, kicking my own ass each day for selling my last one.. 99B, nogaroblue avant, oh well..
Any type of old car could break down. These cars had 30000km service interval when they came out, that’s why most audi 1.8t’s and such are a bit damaged with alot of dirt in the strainer and you will lose oilpressure and bam, “fun times”. The intake manifold are bad on 99a’s and ealier cars, but most 99a’s have swapped their manifolds, so that issue is not that big anymore. If you are planning on driving on the track and punishing the car alot, stock KKK03 turbos will take alot of damage and can wear down quickly, but that’ll give you a reason to upgrade ;)
Don’t buy a used “sportscar” if you’re not ready to put down alot of time, money and passion into it. And if you have enough cash to just pay someone else to do it, buy a fresh sportscar and you will have less trouble :D
Never in my life will I ever own a pre-modded car ever again.
The engine isn’t really touched, so I’d say it’s fine, but I get your point. Bought a already made 328 e36 with supercharger 241whp and I sold it just in time before it started to break down, heavy ^.^
Pre modded or not, b5 will be costy, and it takes real passion to keep one, I lacked it earlier this year, but I regret it every second.
I’d still f*ing buy it… I had a 2001 FWD B5 A4 1.8T Sport for the last four years, has been with me for the last 37000 miles (it has almost 130000 miles now). Doing the proper maintenance, belt, pads, oil and tire changes, i can assure it’s the most reliable car i had. I know, the S4 turbos have a bad rep, but the car still worth it!!!
rev the teets off of it when you test drive it and then check for leaks and clicks in the engine. If the seller won’t let you GTFOutta there
As long as the valve cover gaskets and cam seals have been done your good. And motor mounts…and diff seals…but those are wear and tear items that happen at high mileage.
As an owner of a b5 s4 for 5 years (from 50k to 105k miles mind you) I would say pull the trigger if you have an extra 5k in your bank account. Or if you have a few k for parts and can pull the engine yourself to do basic maintenance. Everything is so crammed in you need to pull the engine to do the head gasket, get to the turbos/ oil lines etc. Great cars when they’re running. Nightmares when anything goes wrong. I’d personally get a Sti swapped 2.5rs for around the same money and have way more awd turbo fun. These s4s weigh about 3700 pounds.. I also had a hard time selling my bone stock 2001 wagon for 5k, because people were so concerned about these vehicles.
These cars are awesome of you like doing the work yourself. So much Germany to these things
I wouldn’t buy it. If money was not an issue, of course I wouldn’t think twice to pick up that car. I’m actually looking at buying a car for under $10k right now and after a lot of consideration, I have decided I’d rather go with an 08 civic si. Now before you start calling me a ricer and kick me out of the site, hear me out. I have a miata as a track car and although it’s not the fastest of the bunch it’s still a fun car to drive on the track. With track days being on average $400 and there is always a chance something or the other on the miata would break, I really need a DD that I won’t have to worry about at all. And after looking at all the cars in this budget I feel like the civic would be the perfect fit. It’s not super fast, but it’s not too slow either. It’s comparatively light, great on gas, and very reliable.
TL;DR I chose a civic for that price.
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