Test drove it. It was rather sweet. 3rg gear popped out... or didn't engage. I read the stuff on the forums here already so I knew its a common issue, but I asked the owner anyway and he did tell me that its been like that since day 1 and that what he does is to consciously make sure its in 3rd nice and tight, unlike the others that he just throws it into smooth. Besides curb rashed wheels and some damage on a wheel well the car is in good shape and since from what I understand, that GM synchromesh fluid should pretty much take care of the 3rd gear issue... this vehicle is a huge contender.

but then i went and test drove an 06 Audi a4 3.2L quattro 6mt. That thing was sweet too. Not as powerful, didn't handle as well... but the inside was very nice and the shifting was super smooth... actually very jap shifting. The only issue I could find with it was that the arm rest squeaked. That can get annoying of course... but really the biggest fear is the reliability of those things.

So now i'm really torn. besides the speed and handling advantage the TL-S has the reliability and navi. the A4 on the other hand has the awd and a folding rear seat. and its actually priced a few grand less than the TL-S. Both are private party.

Dunno what to do!

 

How many miles are we talking about for both cars?

 

the TL-S has about 61k on it and the a4 has about 45k on it.

the TL-S's owner is the original owner and as he explained a good amount of those miles were hard core HWY miles that he did for work over the span of 2.5 years.

The A4 is owned by it's second owner. He actually bought it used from one of those somewhat shady used car lots with pretty low miles. He's owned it for about 2 years. Has the various service records and of the 2 things that went wrong on it, one was a recall item, and the other were the HID headlights that were replaced with newer kind under warr.

 

How much is left of the warranty on the AUDI

 

The Audi is out of warr. An extended warr costs like $4500

 

Don't get the Audi then. My friend has an A8 and is selling it the second the warranty runs out.

 

I will second this sentiment. There's a saying; "If you can't afford to buy a new Ferrari, you can't afford to buy a used one." This is just as true for German vehicles. My last car (albeit it had a below average reputation for reliability) had probably $20,000 worth of work done under warranty. I paid $6,000 more in unscheduled out of warranty work before I sold it - this is aside from rather expensive scheduled maintenance. I loved that car, and desparately wanted to get 150,000 miles out of it, but my maintenance bills were almost as much as the note on a new car. If cost is a consideration (and it always is), you are much better off with the Acura.

 

Once warranty is over, Acura > Audi. Less maintenance and less to repair.

IMO of course.

 

more than likely, you'll get a biased opinion from members. but dude, c'mon...think about it. who in the world doesn't care about reliability? i ALMOST purchased an audi after the TL, but ended up going with Infiniti. maintenance on the audis are just too expensive for what they are. plus on the 06 years, every bit of the car isn't controlled by one "big computer" if you will, but by tiny micro managing computers (single units everywhere). again, too much potential for something to go wrong. have you SEEN some of the TL-S on the boards? darn sweet man... i say go for the TL-S. the 6mt's a real pleasure to drive; throw in a short shifter and you'll be VERY impressed - plus it'll shift like new/better than the audi. good luck!

 

maintenance on any European car is pricey, they wanted to charge my dad $1200 for a water pump on his 2003 saab I told him i could do it for just parts which was a total of $160 for all the parts. But as others have said, i would prefer the tl-s

 

Audi = good 'til 65-70k then they need too much stuff replaced. Stick with the TL for low cost maintenance and reliability.

 

tl for sure ... especially with the 6mt u cant go wrong!

 

If you can i would get a TL-S, they are going for much these day just have to look for the ones around 22K

EDIT: never mind you drove a TL-S

 

If you want reliability, then TL. If you want German engineering AND German repair costs. go Audi. The Audis are sweet, but everyone I know that has one dumps them as soon as the warranty expires.