Another what car thread…

In reply to docwyte :

Montana is always an option... or if you know anyone that lives down in the Springs. I heard there was legislation to pass the entirety of CARB (not just the catalytic regulations) in our state that was currently on a house bill... I really need to move out of this state lol. 

I've done a handful of fly and drives and never had a real issue. Most (all?) of them (except the Civic Type R that I bought brand new) had some minor thing that I had to address that wasn't disclosed, but never anything major that would have stopped me from buying. Maybe I've just been lucky? 

Ironically the only car I had an issue buying out of state was the Type R. I got it below MSRP during Covid (sold for a small profit), but man did I pay the price for it- I bought it from the state of Massachusetts. I would later learn that Massachusetts is the only state in the lower 48 that doesn't issue temp tags... I figured out why they were the only dealer in the country willing to go below MSRP... getting the car back here to Colorado was like pulling teeth. Never again. Any other state, I have no problem with a fly and drive. 

Another car that could be interesting is the early 2000's Volvo V70R 6MT.  Although those are also hard to find and I doubt I'll find one with the mileage I want.  There's one locally for sale but it's got 212k miles on it.

Golf wagon owner hasn't gotten back to me, so it's either sold or the craigslist emails are going into his spam folder.  I don't like the interior of it, I'd want to swap in the plaid GTi seats.

Let me know how the E91 turns out. They're top of mind for me in the sub 10k, somewhat fun, dog-hauler category. I've always liked them. Most of the manuals are saddled with xdrive, but for me, the novelty of a manual wagon is enough to get over it. Also high mileage BMWs.... I know it's the N52, and I know it could be worse, but I am always wary. But let us know how it goes - I have tabs open searching for E91s as we speak.

I've never driven a V70R. I love them (as I'd assume 99% of people on this site do), and the knowledge base is definitely there, but they really do seem like labors of love... The sportwagon is super cool too.

Good luck with your search - I've been following this thread just to hear where the E91 fits in.

Is AWD a requirement?

In reply to Wizard_Of_Maz :

Yeah, I go by my mantra with any older, used German car.  You're buying the previous owner much more than the car.  You want to buy from someone who's maintained it the old school way and has the records to prove it.  That doesn't mean it still won't cost you some money, but it shouldn't bury you.

The wagon I'm going to look at is definitely expensive, particularly compared to book pricing.  However it's got a very good option grouping and supposedly excellent maintenance.  I'm still waiting to get all the info on it, seller was supposed to get it to me a few days ago.

In reply to Slippery:

Not necessarily but I'd prefer it.  I did drive my E46 M3 year round with snow tires, but didn't take it skiing.  I also had an old Jeep Cherokee with snow tires on the days we had big storms.  Sadly the Jeep is long gone.

Frustratingly I heard from the dealer (A small, boutique BMW shop) that the E91 was sold by its owner to a co-worker.  Which sucks for both of us, as he had time into it and I'd mentally already put it into my garage.  Thought it was a done deal, didn't know he hadn't taken possession of it yet.  There's another one for sale locally, for quite a bit less, but it doesn't look like in nearly the same condition.  It's possible that I could get it cheaply enough equal out though.  I've sent the seller a message, at the very least it'll give me an idea of whether I even want one or not after I've seen it and driven it.

The dealer does have a 330 engine swapped 325xi 6mt wagon, an E36 M3/4/5 and an E39 M5 though.  So I'm going to still head up there Monday morning and check them out.  Looks like my search might take some time though...

I don't like the cheap aftermarket headlights or the wheels, but if it stays in this range might be worth a bid. 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-bmw-328i-sports-wagon-8/

I'd really like to find a 2009-2011 Audi A6 Avant with the 3l supercharged motor in it.  There are a few listed but they all have marked car faxes and/or are from rust areas.  Hopefully a clean one pops up soon.  That might be the unicorn for me as far as usable space, reliability and power.

Lof8 checked out a low mileage, 1 owner Audi A6 avant for me.  Car was clean and overall good, except for the wicked cold start rattle it had.  Which is probably the timing chain and/or timing chain guides.  Which means the car is a hard pass for me.  I might've found another one locally, waiting for the owner to get back to me. 

Otherwise I might go VW Touareg TDI, or a 4Runner V8.

docwyte said:

Otherwise I might go VW Touareg TDI.

Friend of mine just sold his after a 7 year ownership. Unsolvable electric issues and a fuel leak deep in the valley finally ended his patience. 70k ish miles

In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, sometimes a German car just keeps throwing hissy fits and it's best to step away.  We've had (knock on wood) really good luck with our Cayenne Diesel, which is basically the same car as a Touareg Diesel.

Well, I thought I'd found an A6 wagon locally.  Now the guy doesn't want to sell it.  Sigh.  I'm going to meet up with him tomorrow anyways, so at least I can see and drive one it.  That way I'll know if I want to keep pursuing them.  The dealer in Florida said he'd take the car to his shop for an inspection of that rattle, however, it's not an independent, nonbiased shop.  So if it comes back with "It's fine, don't worry about it", I'd still want it to go to another independent shop for evaluation.

An SQ5 has popped up locally that been setup the way I like, I'll reach out to him and chat.  It's tuned, which makes me pause, as emissions here has started to fail cars that have been tuned.  You need the ability to revert back to stock programming for emissions and depending on what tune it has, you can't easily do that.

Didn't end up seeing the A6 wagon yesterday, my schedule and the owners schedule didn't line up.  Will hopefully see it in a few weeks.  A few more of these wagons have popped up, one in Michigan, which has a set of catless downpipes on it, which won't pass smog here.  Then a clean looking one in So Cal, but the owner was very up front about it going through a quart of oil every 800 miles, even though it's got the updated PCV system on it.  That led me to a google search, which shows that the 3.0T Audi motor likes to use oil, sometimes a lot of oil.  Lots of talk about it on the forums, with no real solution.  Sometimes the updated PCV helps, sometimes not.

I'm not really down for that, so I guess I'm crossing the A6 wagon and SQ5's off my list.  Even though the Q5 looks smaller than the Touareg, apparently they're not.  Supposedly they have more rear seat leg room and slightly more cargo capacity.  So I'm looking at diesel versions of the Q5 and touareg and still looking for lower mileage 4Runners with the V8.  I wouldn't mind something more modern than that V8 4Runner tho, although that is what makes it so reliable.  Are there any LED headlights available for it?  Driving the Xterra at night with its halogen headlights makes me realize how much more light the Xenon/LED's throw out there...

Golf wagon owner did get back to me, but he's in Grand Junction, a 4 hour one way drive from me.  I don't have the time to head out there to look at it anytime soon, so that one probably won't work for me.  It also won't pass emissions here without removing the downpipe and reverting the tune to stock.  I found a nicely setup SQ5 locally, if it's still around in a few weeks I might go look at it.  Worried about the possible oil consumption of that motor tho...

Is this the droid you are looking for? It's close to you also.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2017-audi-a4-allroad-7/

So weird thing happening, I reach out to a seller to try and schedule a time for me to look at their car.  They see my message but don't respond.  WTF?  If you've sold it, tell me.  If you haven't, then respond with a time that'll work for me to come look at it.

It shouldn't be this hard to give someone a pile of money

More googling confirmed what I thought, the Touareg is definitely larger than the Q5/SQ5.  Finally heard back from the Touareg TDI owner, got the VIN and ran it.  Very clean car that's been dealer serviced its entire life, recent tires and brakes too.  So I'm going to check it out in a few days.  Might also look at that local SQ5 that's all modded up.

The SQ5 is definitely much more of a performance rig, especially modded.  However the Touareg has the space I need and since it weighs more I can depreciate it all in one year, which saves me ~30% off the purchase price.  That's very attractive, as is the fact that I've basically owned the same car for 6 years and now them pretty well.

I need to reach out to Malone Tuning, I've had their flash loader and tune for the Cayenne for years but never loaded it onto the car.  My wife simply doesn't care about performance.  I'd love to be able to swap the tune over to the Touareg if I buy it and also get their transmission tune too.

Hopefully if I buy their TCU tune they'll just charge a transfer fee for the ECU tune and I can use the same flash loader.  They have several stages, but the HP/Torque for Stage 1 and 2 are basically the same.  Stage 2.5 has a bit more HP but a bunch more torque.  Stage 1 adds something like 75hp and almost 100ft lbs of torque.  That should wake it up substantially, especially with the TCU tune...

Well, I bought a car.  Went up to Winter Park and checked out a 2 owner 2014 VW Touareg TDI, 101k miles, he's had it since 34k.  He had all the service records of his ownership, Carfax traced those and the previous owners records, all dealer serviced.  He bought it as a CPO car too.  It's a funny thing with buying a used german car, you're buying the previous owner more than the car, but looking at the service records will also give you an idea of if the car is a "Monday" car or not.  This one was just regular maintenance its whole life, nothing weird.  It was also maintained really well, with diff/transmission flushes that I haven't even done on our Porsche equivalent.  Super clean car, one tiny door ding on the passenger rear door that I couldn't even see and a tiny little tear in the drivers door armrest.  Silver/black.

I contacted Malone Tuning and they've graciously agreed to swap my unused cayenne tune over to the Touareg!  The Touareg is the R line version, so 20" wheels, sports suspension, body cladding and aluminum trim inside.  It actually drives really well, I think better than our Cayenne as far as throttle lag.  Malone has a TCU tune out now, so I'll probably get that from them too. 

Car has recent tires and brakes all round, plus comes with clear bra and tinted windows.  I bought a phone holder, will add an oil dipstick and will start looking for a winter tire/wheel setup.  Other than that I think it's all set. 

Hopefully I've made the right choice vs something like  V8 4Runner.  Same price for both, this one is far nicer to be in and drive but the 4Runner holds value better....