But then again he does have some parts that ARE worth money like the suspension and brakes, and those parts wont increase the amount he'd get for the car.
I wrote a large reply last night then mangled the keyboard like a tard and managed to kill it all, but the basic jist was that we paid £1200 for our car 2 years ago. Now ok yours is a year younger, but its still not going to be worth more than 1200 now, especially as its a less desirable V6 engine and not a quattro.
I dont know if you paid over the odds for the car in the first place which is why your now in this position. I get the feeling that you want something different/faster/whatever but are loath to lose money on the car. Unfortunately unless you buy the car as an absolute bargain, losing money on it is inevitable.
Before we got the A4 dawn had a '01 model year fiesta. She paid £2600 for it in june '06 and sold it for £1300 in dec '07 when we baught the A4. Now thats a big loss, not helped by the fact that she did pay a bit over the odds for it at £2600, but thats what happens with cars. The only way round it is to buy a car when its right at the bottom of the pile, ie paying £700 for a V6 quattro, running it for a year or two and selling it on for £500 is about as cheap as things will get. But its complete luck of the draw wether that car will cost you a shed load in parts and maintenance over the years.
Just look on ebay and you'll see the average SALE price for a V6 Quattro A4 is around 700-900quid. Theres many more listed at much higher prices, but its only when you look at completed items do you see that none of them actually sell.
We've accepted that our car isnt worth much, but in my eyes its a perfect daily driver and it makes far more financial sense to repair and fix that car, than sell it and buy a new one for several thousand pounds. Given that the chassis on these motors are so good you never get into the hell that is welding, so all your doing is replacing componets that wear out, just like you would with a newer car. Ok i'm going to have to change the engine on our car imminantly, and the DMF has given up the ghost, but for £500 i got a replacement engine complete with a new clutch and flywheel, and once fitted that component will be good for many years to come.