Used Car of the Day: 1997 Audi A6 Quattro

by Tim Healey

Published: January 12th, 2024

used car of the day 1997 audi a6 quattro

We haven't featured that many Audis here, especially a 1997 Audi A6 Quattro.

This one is a high-mileage car -- 215,000 on the clock. It's got an automatic trans and apparently has been well maintained. There are some cosmetic issues -- mostly small dents, rock chips, and wear and tear on the seats.

As is often the case with older cars, the check engine light is on and won't clear even though the needed repair has been made. Oh, and the parking brake doesn't work.

This one is yours for $4,000. Click here to get a better look.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 49 comments

Wjtinfwb on Jan 15, 2024

$4000 to buy it, another $4000 a year to keep it running. If 4 grand is your budget, a used Domestic with 100k + or even better, a 12-year-old Camry with 200k is a much better bet. You'll have issues, but they won't be $4000 at a time issues.

2 Reply
Jkross22 on Jan 15, 2024

At what age is a car essentially worthless and should be kept in the family? This Audi seems to fit that, but what is the newest car that would? It's definitely not this.

Like Reply
- See 1 previous
- 28-Cars-Later on Jan 15, 2024
  
  Do you happen to mean, "should not be"?
  
  Like
- Jkross22 on Jan 15, 2024
  
  no payment, cheap registration, is cheap to insure (a big issue now) and can be maintained for about 1500/yr, why not?
  
  Like
- 28-Cars-Later on Jan 15, 2024
  
  So in general its tough to say because its become obvious you will own nothing and be unhappy isn't just a joke meme. If someone is like myself and plans to keep a daily at least ten years, your best hope would be the end of the early 2010ish product cycle but with a mature drivetrain. So Toyonda products come to mind since they run long cycles on their bread and butter models, Volvo believe it or not because they kept the Whiteblock going till 2015ish and P3 (2006) is an improved P2 (1998) which itself is an improved P80 (1991) but FWD Volvo can be a headache without a reliable indy. Ford's Panther of course, GM W-body, probably GM trucks or Ford trucks running the 4.6 or 4.0. I don't know enough about Chrysler/Daimler/Fiat but have been anecdotally told about Hemis north of 200K on LX cars so maybe those? The Daimler/Chrysler 3.7 can put up serious miles as well as I have seen them in the flesh as such.
  But its probably going to be for naught because the Forces of Evil™ seem to already be leveraging the also evil insurance industry to price out the proles from driving what they already own. If I am in league with satan, this seems like a logical solution to me because it solves the problem of prole freedumb while also giving an out to those pushing it: "oh its not us [the gov't] or [political party/movement], its the X". The only legal move I can see is classic/antique registration, and I forsee them limiting or closing that loophole over the next two decades.
  For the past few years I've been saying everyone needs to scoop up a classic/antique car now and register it as such, while rules vary among the states generally speaking the catch is limited use and the example be over a certain age. Because its a state registration/inspection issue, it will take years for the majority of states to limit or close this loophole. There could be a scenario where no one will insure them (or states will not accept new registrations) but the limited use becomes an advantage with the policy because by and large its very profitable and from a capitalist perspective why drop high margin policies?
  Both of my Volvos cost zero registration, $327 for both with full coverage, the catch is one day a week general usage plus parades, meets, shows. Although I just had it out last Tue when my daily was in the shop, generally speaking a convertible in Western PA is good for six months of real use if you're lucky so the C70 is easy to keep within the rules. The 244 I treat the same, because I'm not driving a circa 1966 platform around snow and hills and risk damaging it. I usually alternate them in the nice weather, because of them I only drove about 3,500 miles from Dec 2022 until November 2023 in the daily (then drove a lot in Nov-Dec but still under 5K for the year).
  To anyone reading this, if I had room I'd be Panther shopping right now and then a parts hoarder for said Panther. The last of them are almost up to 15 years which is the threshold for some state's classic status. Trucks will unlikely ever go the classic/antique route no matter their age, outside of some garage queens they all will be used up. Most of the 90s stuff worth messing with is already gone but a cherry JDM/domestic SUV or JDM/Euro car/wagon would also be a nice buy if you can handle one. The 200 Volvos have become collectable (and kinda pricey when clean) but the 700/900 have not, and they are fundamentally similar in drive line and build quality.
  
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Recent Comments

Kmars2009 I rented one last fall while visiting Ohio. Not a bad car...but not a great car either. I think it needs a new version. But CUVs are King... unfortunately!
Ajla Remember when Cadillac introduced an entirely new V8 and proceeded to install it in only 800 cars before cancelling everything?
Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?