Thinking about buying an A4 B8

[slapndash]

So as the title says, I want to purchase an A4 B8. A particular ad interests me, but I have some questions.

The ad says the car is a "2x s-line: interior and suspension". What does that even mean? It has no s-line badges, the ride height seems high and no interior features that I'd expect to see on an s-line. Is the seller just lying? See the attached images.

Also it's a 2008 2.0 TFSI, apparently those engines have some oil consumption problems. The ad says nothing about this, but the car failed the previous inspection due to excessive carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions, could that be a sign that the engine has problems? A month later it passed the inspection without any problems.

VIN is WAUZZZ8K29A119194.

audi-a4-2-50121546.800.jpgaudi-a4-2-50121544.800.jpgaudi-a4-2-50121548.800.jpgaudi-a4-2-50121549.800.jpg

[Smac770]

By the VIN, it's a model year 2009. You'd have to look on the door plate to see the actual month/year of manufacture. These are the terms meaningful to general and specific identification. Year of sale/registration is not significant.

"s-line" is an excessively overused term, that alone means nothing.
"s-line interior" tends to reflect the steering wheel and the seats.
"s-line exterior" tends to reflect the bumpers and the badging.
"s-line suspension" is a specific suspension code, 1BV. You need to get a photo of the actual vehicle identification sticker (from the maintenance booklet or the spare tire wheel well) to confirm a variety of actual factory build specifics. Though, a used car, anything could be changed. You'd need to measure the distance from the wheel center straight up to the wheel well arch to get a measurement to speculate anything without the suspension code from the sticker. standard should be around 391mm, sport should be around 370mm, s-line sport should be around 361mm.

Yeah, the B8.0 EA888 Gen2 2.0T engine (CDN there, CAE here). Notorious, on numerous fronts. Can be corrected; I have 246k miles on my '09. But as from the factory, a high risk gamble. Either you know this and are prepared to do what is needed should the issue arise, or you are unaware and should just walk away if you were hoping for a Toyota experience. Emissions failure could be anything. Maybe the cat was worn out. Maybe there was other issues. Without a history of the errors and corrections, you have no idea what the issue was. Along with is or is it not burning oil, there's also the state of the timing chain; is it replacement time, etc.

Has a Chorus/Concert/Symphony radio unit; not MMI (ie, no navigation). Has halogen headlamps. Looks like a typical Euro stripper sports build. No lux, pure sport slant (without the good but heavy 3.0T engine).

[B8Buckeye]

As Smac770 pointed out, there are multiple items described as "S-line."

You have the S-line interior: S-line Sport seats and 3-spoke steering wheel
You do not have the S-line exterior: S-line bumpers/valences & side stone guards
I can't really tell much about the suspension: yours looks higher than the Sport suspension on my Avant.


edited to correct my suspension thanks to Smac770's info

[slapndash]

Thank you for the detailed replies!

[SNice]

You also definitely want to check under the hood - looking for any aftermarket “additions”. The emissions inspection failures you mentioned earlier could be due to a tune, test pipe or high flow cat. Is the exhaust stock - can’t tell from the picture angles.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine Forum

[Smac770]

The US never got the 1BV s-line suspension (-30mm), which is lower than the 1BE a-sport or 1BD s-sport suspensions (-22mm or so).

[B8Buckeye]

The US never got the 1BV s-line suspension (-30mm), which is lower than the 1BE a-sport or 1BD s-sport suspensions (-22mm or so).

I edited my response to reflect this info. I've always thought my suspension was lower than most I've seen stock on A4s.

I'm the second owner of this car and bought it from the same dealership that sold it to the original owner. I'm having ECS coilovers installed in two weeks. I can't wait to drop it a little bit more.

Here's a pic of my stock sport suspension shortly after I bought the car.

https://ibb.co/Sn71TC5