The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: sassy1234 on July 18, 2013, 01:27:02 PM
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Hi,
I own a 1997 A4 Audi. It has just over 150,000 miles on it. I don't know much about cars, but I am assuming that this baby will run another 100,000. It is in pretty good shape, can't give you more details that that, sorry.
What do you all think? Am I off in my estimate?
Sassy
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Warning: I have a negatively biased opinion of VW/Audi.
Maybe others can jump in here, but I've never had or heard of good luck with VW/Audi passed 100k miles. The powertrain will be fine, but everything around it will wear.
I owned a 2000 VW Cabrio that was just an endless nightmare to maintain.
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Over the years, we have replaced things, but nothing crazy expensive. Our repairs are less than a car payment.
Also, I paid $1 for the car from a family member that died. I say this to prevent any judgement on how much this car costs.
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What I would do is just regularly maintain it and if for some reason you run into a large, unexpected repair, consider a change. It won't be hard to come across a repair that exceeds the value of the car, but that's no reason to instantly sell it. Also consider a change if you reach 200k miles with it, that's a generally accepted value for the "life" of a well-maintained car.
Edit: typo
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Not trying to be a smartass, but I generally assume that my car will run just fine, until it doesn't. In other words, I'd plan to keep driving it until you start having a lot of problems with it. By then, you'll have a better idea of your timeframe.