Advice Required Please!

[Nickpap]

Hi there,

I am close to treating myself to an S3, and was wondering if anyone could advise me on the car I am looking to buy.

I found one for sale, which is on an 03 plate, with 64,000 miles for £12k

Full spec includes:
Pearl black bodywork, cream leathers, RS4 alloys, chrome mirrors, and every extra apart from Sat Nav.

It also has FASH, which I verified with an Audi engineer. It had its first major service on 19,000 miles (05.04) and second major service on 45,000 miles (01.06)

The dealer (who sells cars from his home) told me that he will take it to his local Audi dealer and give it its third major service as part of the sale (£350 worth), and also change the rear brake disks and pads and the front pads, which were in poor coindition.

Other than that, the car looked clean inside and out....only the leather on the drivers seat looked a little worn and there were 1 or 2 very minnor scratches on the bodywork.

From the conversation I had with the Audi engineer, I gathered that the car was used as a company or lease car and had done a lot of motorway miles.

I am keen to buy the car, but I am a little worried by the mileage and whether the car had been looked after (e.g. condition of brakes, slight rust on tail pipes and)

As well as the Audi service on the car, I was also thinking to send the AA or RAC to do an independant vehicle check.

Could anyone shed some light?

Thanks

 

[S3 Rav]

mate i think aslong as its all getting seen to it sounds like a good deal. ur getting a service for free and all done by audi. cant be bad.

 

[Nickpap]

Yeh, I hear what your saying, maybe I am am worrying uneccessarily, Its just I have read a lot about some of the problems S3's have and I have also seen many with replacement engines or cambelt failure and the last thing I wanna do is spend 12k and find I have to fork out more money.

 

[Nickpap]

I have a feeling it hasn't been done, the engineer that I spoke to said that it should be done between 80,000-100,000 miles, but from what I have read, people get it done much sooner.

 

[1animal1]

I dont know what is making me suspicious but this sounds like a higher than average price to me...especially because the largest book drop of the year has occured today..... unsure but worth checking out the trade value on this car.....

What options does it have that are 'additional', i gather you know what was standard on the S3's.... if not its worth asking this question....apologies if im trying to tell you how to suck eggs...have just come across a few people who have said its fully loaded and when asked they say, yeah its got xenons, leather, etc which as we know are standard

 

[Nickpap]

Well, its got the Bose sound system, 6 CD symphony, auto dipping rear view mirror, arm reast, Cruise control, Blue tooth, Lowered sport suspension, Pearl effect paint, heated seats, sunroof - these are the additions to the car.

 

[1animal1]

sounds like you know what your on about Nick.... wasnt meaning to pull ya down there......... these cars do fetch a premium if looked after and because of their rarity....so i might be talking s**t, no doubt you've scoured the land for guides to what they are going for..... admittedly i dont have an up to date glasses....but would think that this dealer has approx 1-2k across the windscreen.... go for the cambelt/waterpump change otherwise it'll end up costing you another £500-£600 in the next 10-20k of mileage

Good luck with it mate

 

[Nickpap]

I just found out that it hasn't had cambelt or waterpump changed.

The car is going for a service tomorrow morning, which is costing 350+vat, and I may try to negotiate the cambelt and waterpump being replace at the same time. I will offer to pay half the price of the cambelt and waterpump to be done.

Also, the car is having new front and rear disks and pads.

I think the overall asking price is pretty reasonable - everything cocnsidered...I hope!

 

[Nilz]

See if you can get the cambelty done, i just got mine and i told the previous owner the cost of a replacement and he agreed to deduct it and we did a deal, i know you are getting the service and brakes done, but its just piece of mind knowing that it has been done, as previously mentioned, you dont want to spend that sort of money, drive it for a day and it snaps!! (worst case scenario obviously).

I had mine changed a couple of days after owning the car, as just dont need the hassle or cost of repairing a snapped cambelt....

Not meaning to put you off, just trying to look out as a fellow S3 owner

 

[Nickpap]

Thanks for the advaice, I definatley look in to it.

 

[Ian W]

As everyone else said, try and get the cambelt and waterpump done by the dealer.

I bought mine at a knock down price as I was getting it done myself, had it done the first week of owning the car, to much of a risk if you know its not been done !