Buying advice...

[thebikedoctor33]

So I've been in the market for a newer A4 for some time. On my college student budget, and not being able to get financing, my options are fairly limited. Anyway, I have been watching an 02 Avant 3.0 6speeed on autotrader for some time now. Probably about 6 weeks. I watched the price slowly drop about $ 1500 over the same period of time. It is being sold by a small dealer, who I met on monday while checking out the car. The car seems to be in great condition, considering the odo reads 93k. I mean, normal wear and tear inside and out, but overall pretty good for a car with a few miles.

I currently have the car being held for me, prolly putting a deposit down this weekend. One major issue came up. I ran a carfax on her just now. And got word of "inconsistent odo reading". Yeah, it appears, the vehicle was sold 08/27/2004 with about 31k then "serviced" 12/13/2004, with 10k. leaving probably about 25k missing.

Would you guys pass on the car just because of this issue? I'm assuming it will make it harder to sell in the future. I mean, before I knew about this, I was about to pay 8k for the car. What I thought was a really good deal. But now, I dont know what to do. I'm so bummed about everything, 8k for a car with 120k still isnt bad, but its way more miles than I wanted. And I am going through with the cale on my current car and will be without a car if I dont get something soon.

Advice?

[Sammy7]

Most likely, someone fat-fingered the mileage when they put it into the computer; the same thing happened to me on a BMW I was looking at. I didn't want to chance it so I walked. Keep in mind you're going to have to sell the car eventually and future buyers will be as skittish about the mileage as you.

[kwimberly]

Take it to a local indie shop for a checkup. my local shop charges 65 bucks for a thorough inspection. They'll hook it up to VAGCOM, drive it, check out wear on suspension, engine, etc. With that many miles, without service records, you'll want to find out what major service intervals have been followed.

I'm always wary of the small dealers for some reason.

[bavaria75]

Make sure the Timing belt is done. This is a good 1500 USD job.
Otherwise asure you got the sport suspension and quattro and you are all set.

[thebikedoctor33]

well its not sport suspension, haha, but i'll do c/o and sway upgrades later anyway.

and as far as the timing belt, there are no records but i already plan to take that on myself. i do all my own work.

would there be a way for a mechanic to know if things have been fudged as far as the odo is concerned?

[thebikedoctor33]

so the dealer is claiming, because the carfax reads exactly 10,000 miles at the service in question. it was probably just some lazy clerical error. does this sound likely? if so would i be able to get that removed from the records?