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Wagons Help Me Select a Wagon
892 messages, Last post on Jun 29, 2009 at 10:15 AM
You are in the Wagons Forum. Your Host is kcram
Not sure which wagon to buy and looking for feedback on the choices out there? Use this as your starting point to narrow the field a bit!
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I have been looking a sport wagon for awhile ever since the A4 came out. I love the way how the Avant drives but the Passat wagon has better rear seat room for long trip. I would love to hear someone chose one over the other and tell me why or how they pick their car. Thanks in advance!
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I think that the first thing that you need to do is determine your max budget...once done you need to decide what features are the most important. Whatever the product...the one that fulfills most of the *needs* on your list and falls into your budget is the one for you. In my experience the biggest mistake that people make is being short sighted about the things that they need and sacrificing them for a monthly payment. You don't want to go over budget; that's for sure, but you want to make sure that you get as many of the features as you can that fit into that budget...THAT IS VALUE. And make sure that you select a car that will work for you for at least 5-7 years. You don't want to outgrow the car before it is paid for. Best case scenario...it is yours free of payments for at least 3-5 years...PS |
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Driver36, We had the same dilemma last year and opted for the Passat. The rear leg room was the key for us. If you plan on anyone sitting in the A4 back seat, you can't have the front ones all the way back. That plus it saved about $5-8K. But, the interior of the A4 was really nice. We got the V6 (I prefer the larger engine) so even our Passat has some wood, but the Audi was classy. |
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| I looked at the A4, which is nice, but opted for the 2001 passat wagon GLX, loaded. The interior is not inferior to A4, and the body is slightly larger (read cargo room adn back seat) as you can clearly see looking from the back of the vehicle. I think passat gives you more value for the $ for sure. If you ahve more money, skip the A4 and go for the BMW wagon. | |
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| While I agree that VW (comapred to AUDI, BMW, and even Mercedes) gives you more "bang for the buck", the basic bumper-bumper warranty for VW sucks. I've consequently written off the VW after bing told that repairs like to the sunroof are not covered after 2 yrs. | |
| How long do you typically keep a car? | |
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I am in the same situation. I currently have a '97 Golf Trek. Great car, blast to drive, but I got it basically to commute to and from work and to do an occasional road rally. Well, after having just gotten divorced, I now have to take my kids (3-1/2 and 2 yo) every day to and from daycare, so I figured it was time to upgrade. I've pretty much decided on the A4 with the 1.8T, Quattro, and a 5-spd. It's my understanding that a Passat with 4Motion only comes with the automatic. While Tiptronic is fun, it's still an automatic! Also, comparably equipped, the Passat came in around $32K while the A4 comes in around $29-30K. And, like Sundance_Gold said, I believe the Audi warranty is better. The Jetta is just too small, IMHO. And rear leg room isn't as big a deal for me since I'll be having two car seats back there for awhile! Would love to hear other opinions, since I am looking to do this within the next few weeks. Thanks, all! |
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Price comparisons between the Passat and A4 can be a bit misleading. The A4 comes with Quattro. As mentioned above, if you want AWD, VW forces you to purchase 6 cylinders and automatic, which greatly increases the price. The Audi comes with many "options" as standard; the list is long so I won't hash it all out. The warrantee covers routine maintenance for 3 yrs 50k, that's *everything*, including oil change or washer fluid - no cost. All that said, for me it came down to the AWD. If I wanted a FWD car I would have saved some cash, and got the Passat. But to say, as I sometimes hear, that the A4 is just a snobby and expensive Passat, is off the mark IMO. BTW, I was OUT THE DOOR (tax, title, etc) with an 2001 A4 Avant, 1.8T Quattro Manual, no other options, for $28,800. |
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We looked at the Passat awd wagon and A4 avant too. The only real advantage the Passat had on the A4 was size (rear leg room), IMO. But, 90% of the time I'm the only one in the wagon and we haven't started having kids yet so we opted for the A4. Plus, we think it's the best-looking wagon out there. I admit that I stare at my A4 in the parking lot. Pretty pathetic for some expensive piece of metal. |
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They compared the A4 Avant, BMW 3 Series AWD wagin, the Subaru Outback and the VW 4motion Passat wagon. Here are the results for the SPORT wagin comparision in the $30k range: 4th place......Outback 3rd..........Passat 2nd.........Beemer 1st.........A4 Drive the A4 and you might see why |
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