Dump or keep? 99 A4 2.8 Quattro
 

My frd has 99 A4 that was stolen not too long ago. The police found it and ICBC fixed it in a very half assed way. They keep saying that everything is old damage and shit. The car is running again but it's nowhere near wut it used to be. To make things worse, the timing belt needs to be change and the car is leaking oil heavily. He's wondering what he should do. We went to a couple of dealerships to see how much it can trade for (that was like 6 months ago) and we only got quoted about 3000. So I guess the main question is whether he should keep the car and pay for the repair or suck up the loss and get another car.
Posted via RS Mobile

get another car. a4s are maintenance heavy

even if it wasnt half assed fixed, its still a pain to maintain for german garbage

^agree with both

sell the a4 and be gone with it.
you looking at around 4grand to get your t-belt and oil leak figured out.

Wow. 4 grand is a lot of money considering that the car is worth less than that. I dunno if it is Audi in general or did he just got a lemon, he told me that within the past year he had spent 6000 just for maintenance. It's a crappy situation to be in.
Posted via RS Mobile

time for him to get a bmw.

dump for sure

Why is that?
Posted via RS Mobile

^3k is a harsh lowball. Anything with wheels that turn will usually fetch at least $2k.

Sell it privately to someone (eg someone who works at an indie shop) who can fix it for cheap. You can get a few more bucks that way.

well let's see here

1) your frd know it's fixed half ass, and it'll be a pain in the ass to fix the rest
2) your frd still ask to keep it or not

this makes me think your friend wanna keep it regardless.

btw, his initial's arn't MC are they?

Sell it privately and minimize financial losses. High-mileage B5 A4's are pretty iffy from what I've heard. You'll probably burn through more than $5k in repairs right off the bat, so you might as well dump that car and spend the money on something newer/more reliable.

my friend almost killed himself from all the electrical problems :rofl:

Where did your friend go for repairs? Did he go to an indie vw/audi shop?

My suggestion to your friend would be to try contact Rich at http://www.shiftautosport.ca and get a second opinion from him. Another place to try would be http://www.dubberz.com (there is an audi section there) and give that a try, but I'm not sure your friend would get any useful responses there, but maybe at least get an idea of whether the car is worth selling or junking.

he needs to learn the idea of sunk cost

keeping that car will definitely cost him more in the long run. As a matter of acts, a lot of the problems he see now will cost more than the car itself to fix.
definitely dump.