asphedus1

Hey all, I've been itching to get a car for myself lately. New to the scene of buying cars, so I figured I'd go for a pre-owned vehicle.

I've been looking around and have my eyes set onto a set of German manufactured vehicles.

They are the Audi A3, Audi A4, and a BMW 325i 4D.

I was wondering which would be the best to choose from my list. I've been doing some research, and overall, it seems that the A4 and the 325i is the best choice.

My budget is 20k (The additional charges for on the road, etc do not count).

Any additional recommendations to any other car would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks.

liquidblue06

the 325i doesn't have AWD. Depending where in Canada you live, i think the Audi Quattro is a better choice. Trust me, driving in the snow for the past 3 days straight now is soooo much easier with the Quattro AWD.

That is actually one of the reason I went for an Audi.

asphedus1

Thanks for the quick reply!

Anyway, I live in the Toronto, Ontario region of Canada.

I'm mainly looking overall performance, fuel consumption and something that looks good, obviously :P

If I were to go for an Audi, what do you recommend?

I'm planning on getting something in the year range of 2006-2008

mikeh

Depends what your budget is. Difficult to give advise without knowing more of your criteria. Check out the cars for sale section and see if there is anything that turns your crank.

mikeh

Sorry I just read your first post and saw the 20K budget. Really can't make that decision for you. Here you are on an Audi enthusiast site asking us to make a choice between and Audi and BMW. Both are good cars so it comes down to what you want.

midrange

A4 FTW.. But i know the A4.. I also know BMW but that car would be a summer car to me.. My audi is a tank in the snow.. Great on gas, great HP for what it is..

I don't know A3 at all, so from your list, the obvious choice to me is .. again A4.

liquidblue06

mikeh is right. you are the one driving after all, so in the end, the choice is yours. . . and as long as you're asking audi enthusiasts, you might get bias opinions. lol. the quattro is a tank in the snow for sure.

they both look beautiful nice cars though, so good luck!

chrisa

I was in the same boat back in March this year and looking for a new (to me) car. I test drive all sorts of junky cars (north american and japanese). Well they are not really junk but even after I drove them it just left me with no excitment. My previous car was a Subaru Outback, and while good for winter it was a gas guzler and not so much of a drivers car.

In dire straights I had been looking at the A3 for a while but I figured it was out of my price range but after frustration with all the other vehicles I phoned my local Audi dealer and he setup a few test drives for me. The first was a A3 2.0T DSG (i.e. kinda automatic) , super nice clean nice car. Loved it from the start. Not thinking I wanted an Manual he said well I also got this A3 2.0T manual that I just got in, Leather Sunroof loaded etc.. I have not driven a manual since my first car (1988 Corolla GTS - loved that car also) so I did not think I wanted it but I took it for a spin anyway. 3 minutes into the test drive I knew this was my next car on the frigin spot. Went into the dealership and made the deal right there.

So my advice would be to drive the cars and see what fits you. For me it was the A3 as it fit what I wanted -> nice car, it was loaded, fun to drive and it is excellent on gas, and I did not need anything big so the size was right for me also.

asphedus1

Hahaha I figured it'd be biased, but that's what I was betting on. Pretty much to see which enthusiasts win me over, but I guess in the end it really is what I prefer.

I will indeed do what chrisa recommended. That's awesome though haha. Hopefully I'm not too picky with my choices and will go with a choice that I had originally planned to choose.

Thanks for your help guys!

Greddy87

If you are going with the Audi A3.. I would recommend the 2008-2009, since the 2006 and 2007 are less reliable..