What up, this is my first and hopefully not my last post here. My parents plan on getting a car for me so I can commute to school, but I'm facing a dilemma. I REALLY want a spectra blue gs400 with decent mileage, sunroof, and hid's. A few problems are stopping me from going out and getting one. First off, my friend's dad owns a few dealerships so I plan on going to the dealer's auctions with him to find my car. For all of these bi-weekly auctions, there are 5-6 gs400s per auction usually found in the more common colors (silver, white, black). I'm not even trying to consider any other color for this car (no offense to the non-blue gs owners). Additionally, my parents have told me that they would rather not get me a rwd car because of danger in snow/rain. It doesn't even snow that much here! Being an impatient guy who wants some summer time to enjoy a nice car, I don't know how much longer I can hold out. I'm also considering a 2000/2001 S4, 1999/2000 Mercedes ML430 (gas is not a huge factor to me), 1998 Mercedes C43 AMG, and a spectra blue IS300 all of which are easier to find. Should I wait it out?

Peace,
Andrew

 

Follow your heart....get the car you want.....don't settle for alternatives.

 

well of all the choices, if prices are not a big issue, honestly the gs4 is your best bet

the s4 is a very nice car, but of course, as usual, over time you might see electronic problems and it's never cheap to repair those

the ml430, you gotta be kidding me man... the quality of that car is very bad. i drove that car before..... it's no where like a normal mb at all..... honestly, it's a pos imho..... it's just ugly inside

c43, what a nice car, i love it. but it's 1998 so it's 6 yrs already. 6 yrs on a lexus is nothing. 6 yrs on a mb, that's something to keep in mind for sure

is300 is nice, i have one too so i know. and it's lexus so it's quality. but it's small though, and it's slow. nothing copared to the power of the gs4 v8. it handles better for sure, but power is just not there

i have blue gs4 so i know why you want it so badly definitely VERY hard to find considering how few spectra blue they made.... you just have to be very patient i guess

 

S4 is nothing but problems.

I have had 2 VW's and i was in a vw/audi club and i had about 6 or 7 friends w/ S4's...

All of them cept 1 turbos went out. And not one of them has had a trouble free S4...

I was going to get 1 untill i found out how unreliable they were. go to www.audiworld.com
and check out the S4 forums...

 

i would go with u'r heart on this one.

 

he the gs4.. if price doesnt matter.. just order one.a 430 that is

 

I'll second Rominl on the ML...stay away from it. They are UNRELIABLE.
The S4 has iffy reliability, too, but generally better than the ML.....if you want one, see if you can find one with Quattro AWD...that will ease your parents' minds about foul weather.
The IS300 is reliable as sin, but the RWD layout...even with T/C and a snow mode for the AT..is a real handful on snow...especially with Hi-perf tires. The straight-six, though, is a wondeful motor in spite of its lower power than the GS400.
The RWD GS400 is a good choice if you don't go out much in snow. There is a new 2005 All-Wheel-Drive GS about to debut...in both 330 and 430 lines....but it may be out of yours and your parents' price range.

 

i thought all s4 are quattro?

 

Yes, ALL S4's are quatro (AWD)

that 2.7TT is fun ... specialy when chipped (w/ just bold ons you can easily run 12's)

But it wont last long cause probs WILL occur.

 

dont settle.. get what you really want.. it took me 2 years to find my blue. . 98 with only 43k on it. .nav and all and i only paid 23k. check it.

 

Forgot to ask....Who's paying for this car?

If mom and dad is paying, then they probably gonna have a say in which car to get.

If its coming out of your own pocket....then buy whatever you want.

Pete

 

damn, two yrs, that's a long time! but glad that you found what you want

to me i must be lucky, my blue gs4 came to me, wasn't even looking to buy

 

yeh i mean i found other ones that either didnt have nav or the chrome rims or where beatin like a rent-a-car but this one was owned by an older guy who didnt even know what the down buttons on the steering wheel were for.. but he kept it really really clean.. so for the price and with those miles.. i jumped on it..

 

2yrs??? damn man.

funny story...rolled up to a black GS400 at a light.
told the guy it looked really clean
he said it was for sale
i bought it 5 days later

follow your heart

 

I think I can help,

I just bought a spectra blue 98 GS400 from a dealer auction (had to fly out to cleveland to pick it up and drive it home 770 miles to minneapolis yesterday!). At our sales here, you are lucky to see any gs400's run (usually a few 300s though). I too wanted a blue 400 loaded up. If you go to the auction websites you can search for the car and see if anyone has one. I then had the auction call me while they were standing next to it so I could make sure it had all the options I wanted and to see what it needed. They will also do a condition report which says how much reconditioning the car will need to be saleable on a dealers lot.

Since I go to a lot of auctions, I was comfortable buying over the phone, they are usually right on when they tell you how much work they need if any (always get a condition report just in case though). Actually my car ended up being nicer than they said so i was very happy.

Couple of notes: Nav is a tough find, esp on a 98 and they aren't dvd until 01 anyways so I decided it could do without it. I was also flexible on miles (mine has 78k) since these cars are getting older now it's almost to be expected. That being said, mine came with everything else (hid, spoiler, 17" chrome rims, htd seats, moon) Also if you look at a 98, check for those options because they were separate options and not part of a package like the 99+'s

I searched the auction run lists for you and came up with 2 spectra blues running soon.

1. 98 GS400 91k miles at the Manheim Georgia sale 7/6/04
2. 99 GS400 68k miles at the Adesa Long Island 7/6/04

I'm guessing you will have to let your car guy know that you are serious (i.e. CASH DOWN) before he would want to go through the above to locate a car.

As for winter driving, I haven't had to go through one yet but we get lots of snow here and there is tons of rear drive luxury cars that drive in bad conditions so It can't be too bad.

Wheh, I think I covered it all Good luck, I've had mine a day and I've already had people come up and tell me that the color is awesome!

Tony