A4 Buying advice please

Hi guys, firstly hello as i'm a new member!

I'm after some advice and/or opinions from some current Audi owners. I'm currently in the market for a new car (trading in an 02 Civic Type-R), and after having driven pretty much everything else on the market and i've pretty much decided on an Audi A4.

I'm looking for something used and I've got about 22K to play with. It needs to be something thats practical (i.e 4 doors with our second child on the way!) but most importantly something that has some driver appeal and looks nice!

I've narrowed my search down to either a 2.0 t FSI quattro (s-line, special edition or even DTM if I can find one!) or a 3.2 FSI s-line both with the manual gearbox. I would of loved an S4 but really can't justify the fuel costs!

Problem is I can't make a decision! The 2.0 is slightly cheaper (to buy and run) and there's more of them about, but the 3.2 is quicker(slightly) and the engine's a beauty (the soundtrack alone sold me on it!), but obviosly has the downside of reduced fuel economy!

So, given all that, my questions are...

1. I'd appreciate any comments/experience/thoughts about the above cars from any current or past owners.

2. Why are there so little 3.2's about?

3. What sort of MPG are you getting from the 3.2? The book says 26 combined - is this realistic?

4. How do the previous (B6?) models compare to the above, in particular the non-FSI engines? Should I look at some slightly older models, if so which ones?

5. I drove an A3 sportback with the 3.2FSI which was really nice and surprised me with how spacious it was. Am I wrong to discount it for the A4?

6. Is there anywhere else I can look for, used Audi's, i've tried all the usual suspects Autotrader, Pistonheads, Fontain...

Any help or advice with any of the above points would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Jay

I looked at them, as there's one on piston heads at the moment for about 20K, but again was worried about the running costs. Any idea what sort of MPG the 2.7 BT gets?

Also, they're pretty high mileage at that age, and as I understand it bills can be big if anything needs doing (i.e turbo's).. any idea if that's the case?

From what I read on http://www.rs246.com/ you could probably expect to return low 20's on average driving, which is pretty similar to both the S4 4.2 and S4 2.7 which I've also looked at.

I know that the B7 3.2 only returns about 5/6 MPG more, but it all helps!

Macduff... yeah my preference is for an avant (which obviously excludes the DTM) which IMO look nicer that the saloons.

I did try the 3.0TDI, and although it had plenty og oompf, it still had that diesel driving characteristic of having no power, then all the power, followed quickly by a gear change. I guess i'm used to having plenty of rev's available with the CTR.

With the B6's? Are the previous engines comparable in terms of performance and economy to the new FSI's?

Cheers spitnik.

Though, i've changed my mind somewhat, and decided to go for a B6 S4 which is even worse on fuel - although not massively so from the 3.2?

I'd kind of decided on the 2.0 TFSI SE, but it was bugging me that I was buying a car that was at most 1 year old, and I was going to lose plenty of cash through depreciation.

My thinking is that a 3 year old S4 has now taken the biggest hit in it's depreciation (usually the first 3 years), and should it's running costs get too much then , I can probably trade it back in, in a year or so and still get the 2.0 TFSI for about the same money. Although you can never tell.

But thanks for the input.