Hello and which Audi to buy

[Fat Magpie]

Hi I am a long term lurker of this forum and a few other Audi forums, I decided to join this one.

I will be spending £8000 to £10.000 to source a 2006-2009 car with full service history but high miles.

I have decided to buy a Audi avant, I work in Europe quite a bit and a I need something to carry my equipment across Germany and France.
Anyhow which one to buy, a 3.0l Quattro does sound like fun but what are the real world fuel consumption figures and just how reliable is the 4 wheel drive system. I will be buying a car with maybe 150,000 miles on it to suit my budget in Germany (cars are more expensive in Germany than at home in the UK).

I am torn between a 2.0l manual gearbox right up to a Quattro with Tiptronic and everything in between.
I have read stacks of posts concerning the Multitronic gearbox and potential problems but there are scores of Multitronic cars for sale in Germany many with many miles of autobahn cruising.

Buying a car in Germany differs from buying a car in the UK, In the UK its like the wild west you really need to be careful and do your homework, but in Germany the consumer protection laws are quite strong. If a seller lies or misleads they end up in court quite quickly so virtually 99% of the sellers are brutally honest.
You can spot a dog in Germany when the seller refuses to sell it domestically, all dogs are exported usually to Russia to avoid the consumer laws.
If a car has any flaws dealer or private it must be declared and out of all the Multitronic cars I have seen only one out of ninety odd that was flagged with possible gearbox problems so I suspect there are many Multitronic cars with no problems out there.
Even cars with minor damage that has been professionally repaired by Audi have declarations to state what happened and who repaired it.

Yes there are still clocked cars but you can usually spot them, lots of wear and tear and partial service history.

So anyhow, any real world figures for MPG and maintenance would be greatly appreciated, am I mad looking for a 3.0l Quattro or should I stay safe with a 2.0l or 2.7l FWD.

Thanks in advance.

[Scott K]

My preference would be the 3.0 tdi quattro. Cruising at autobahn speeds will be much nicer and more security in winter. Fuel consumption is quite good. I used to get about 32mpg on average and 36-38 on motorways. Go for a later model if you can. Gupster has written a few threads about the earlier models and the problems they can have.

[MarkTM]

I get quite good miles from my 3.0 quattro, always 700+ miles from a tank, however mies a saloon that rarely carries more than me! On long 400 mile non-stop trips I've gotten as high as 50+ MPG

Appreciate quattro will have a larger fuel tank, 80l as opposed to 65 (IIRC) on non-quattro unless spec'd with the larger tank from the factory (which are a rarity).

As to the price I bought mine with less than 80k on the clock for £8.5k and that was 2.5yrs ago.

Appreciate when buying a quattro prices will always be higher in the winter (like convertibles are higher in Summer)