Is an early 2000s A4 a good car if you're looking for a comfy 4 door?

I've seen a couple clean ones on craigslist but yeah the great majority are murdered out, equipped with giant fart cans and abused by the retard owner.

OK, so is350 only. What about the is250? All of the 350s in my area are $25,000+

yea go for a a4 or an e39 both are pretty comfy and decently reliable

The is250 is fine it's just weaker

I'm OK with weaker, since 99% of my driving is back & forth to work in rush hour traffic. Thanks pimp.

Ye no problem player

Nah G37s are out of most swaggots reach. When I was looking for mine there were 7-10 in my area with 2 owners or less. Anything that goes for ~15k is too much for swaggots. That's >10k territory.

is250 is the go, do not go early 1999-2005ish VAG cars unless you're going for the top of the line models. They have cooling issues and auto trans issues out the ass.

It's not good, youre going to have a nightmare on your hands with the 3gr engine. Carbon buildup problems make it so that every 50,000 miles you need new pistons. The engine literally has to come apart every 50000 mi. Out of warranty it costs like 10 grand at the dealership. 350 does not have these problems cause it has port injection in addition to direct injection.

"Lexus IS250 GS300 Customer Support Program
The first thing to know is that Lexus issued a letter to all 2006-2010 IS250 and GS300 owners explaining the issue. The letter also offers help. Although not a recall, Lexus is offering to correct the problem and has added a 9-year, unlimited mileage warranty on affected cars. If somehow your vehicle falls outside the coverage a bit try speaking to your dealer. They are likely to help."

Also, it looks like this was fixed in the 2012 & up models. Since the 2012s are just a couple grand more, I think that's the model I'll look into.

I saw a clean 2012 IS250 AWD with 60k for around $18,000. Good deal?

Mediocre at best, I still wouldn't go anywhere near a 250 regardless if they fixed it or not. They would have to have done a engine redesign to incorporate port injection, literally the only way to fix carbon buildup issues. Another way is Water-Methanol injection, but that's questionable if it actually works or not. I'm not familiar if they added port injection after 2012, but if they didn't, it's not fixed.

Just as a side note, my 350 had 80000 miles on it and I ended up getting it for 11 grand with a 6 month powertrain warranty. These deals do come up, just look.

Lol, there are plenty of stories where people who fall out of warranty aren't so fortunate with the dealership. This isn't entirely accurate, often you do get shafted and have to pay the bill, or get rid of the car.I heard that people were just swapping 2GR's because it was cheaper than fixing the shit that was the 3GR

any toyota or lexus.

Get an Accord

Just in addition to my original comment, there is another way to fix it, but only if you get the car from new. Try to delete the PCV valve, because if you can vent the crankcase to the atmosphere, all of that crank oil gunk isn't getting recirculated back into the engine. This gets lodged in the intake valves ports, and causes most of the problems. Again, this is only necessary for DI cars.

Fucking emissions.

Wikipedia says the 2005+ IS250 has a 4GR engine

My area is shit for used cars, so I won't find any deals unless I drive 3 hours out of the way

I don't think Toyota has anything in their lineup that I'd feel OK driving

Seems like that would be a good choice too.

You're right, I made a mistake. The 4GR is the real cunt, the 3GR is a cunt too but for different reasons. The 2GR is the real OG engine.

Also, I live in DFW so there are plenty of cars coming in from trade ins, etc that are good. I can see that if you don't live in a big city the selection isn't as good. However, if you do drive, you could save some money.

2000s A4s are fine. 1.8T generally, not hard on maintenance. VW parts aren't expensive. They get pretty good gas mileage (25mpg+ in the city) and are tunable.

Can be had pretty easily for $2500. Nice examples can be had for $4,000.

ALTERNATIVELY

Slightly older 1992-1995 Audi S4/S6s are more comfortable, more reliable, get worse gas mileage and make more power from a 5cylinder motor. Can be had as sedan or wagon.

C4s are a full size class up from B4/B5s though. Not really the same market, but definitely underrated.