Opinions on A6's

I need to change the daily driver for something a little more practical and am being very tempted by the Audi A6 range, specifically an Avant and I'm looking at the 1999-2001 period.

Not looking for anything with oodles of power but more of a luxo-barge that is good for travelling around in comfort. Just wondered if anyone had any advice or warnings about them? Budget is around £1500 - £2000 but preferably the lower point. Not looking for a long termer here just something that I can get 12 months of comfortable motoring from.

Alternatively if you've a better reccomendation (not Rob's Vectra please, already bought one motor from him) then I'm all ears

Can't go wrong with an A6 diesel of that vintage. Later ones have a known problem with oil pump failure, other than that all good. Do it!

I thought I'd give a quick update (if anyones interested that is :-) ).

So yesterday evening I went and test drove an 98 A4 2.8 Quattro Avant - body work was in excellent condition and the interior just needs an afternoon spent cleaning the leather etc. I must say for a 14 year old car it felt really good to drive, I was tempted to do a deal but it only had 1 month MOT and I wanted to drive some others.

Today I went to view an A6 1.8T Avant that was a couple of years newer thinking I'd get a good comparison. Well first signs were bad when I arrived and its sat there with the engine running. So I wandered over to take a brief look before seeking out the dealer to take it out for a test drive etc, it took all of 10 seconds to decide I was out of there! Apparently in this dealers eyes 'first to see will buy' means seats growing various coloured mould all over. I just left, there is no way I was going to even sit in it let alone contemplate purchasing it, a shame because I wanted to see how the 1.8T felt to drive.

Well I'll continue to look..

I'm envious. I love that process of car hunting, the highs, the lows etc.

Remember going to look at a Ford KA for my Grandad. Drove from Brum to Gatwick on the dealers description of "mint". Never seen such a bag of poo when I got there! He thought that because he'd dragged me all that way, I'd have no choice but to buy ... didn't even open the engine bay and wished him a good day (sort of) !

Keep us posted.

Probably should have driven the A6 anyway, just to get that all important comparison. I have to say though, after driving a Quattro, especially a decent A4 you will be hard pressed to be objective about anything else as the Quattro models are light years ahead in terms of thrills per buck.

Keep us up to speed with the search.

i always use honest john website, gives you a good bit of info on whats good, bad, what to look out for and factory recalls etc etc

tux wrote:Probably should have driven the A6 anyway, just to get that all important comparison. I have to say though, after driving a Quattro, especially a decent A4 you will be hard pressed to be objective about anything else as the Quattro models are light years ahead in terms of thrills per buck.

Keep us up to speed with the search.

I really did want to drive it, if only for a perspective on what it would be like, but I just couldn't bring myself to - I honestly didn't know what I would catch, I'd have wanted to burn the clothes I'd worn after getting out.