Looking for knowledgeable shop in houston for ppi, also how to identify...

[Sochi1990]

If it's a later VIN : 3N904422. Seller is a flipper and claims it's his bosses dad's car, been in a light fender bender on front drivers side and repaired at the dealer. Car sits at 37k miles with not much service records. It be great if someone is in houston and can just look at the cosmetic condition as pictures won't do the justice....appreciate all input and advise.

[lswing]

That's early VIN, torque converter will fail. Audi North Houston was a nice shop to visit, maybe there? Car is worth $10k...spend $17k on a well sorted one.

Edit; Welcome, plenty to read on here. Use "site:rs6.com YourSearchTerm" in Google to find info easily. Regarding the VIN and TC issue, around VIN 905500 Audi appears to have updated the TC with a better seal, preventing it from failing and taking the trans with it.

http://www.rs6.com/forumdisplay.php/...le-Want-to-buy

[Sochi1990]

such low miles is hard to come by....who is selling well sorted one, preferably with the manual swap...thank you

[Sochi1990]

was trying to contact the seller in WA with the grey wrap rs6/manual swap, but have no response.

[mgmarsh39]

How much are you looking to spend? I bought mine back in March, and have already put about 5k in it in maintenance. Just heads up...

What part of Houston?

[Sochi1990]

downtown Houston

[Sochi1990]

He is asking 21k with 37k miles on the odo

[mgmarsh39]

Have you seen/driven the car? Sewell Audi is big in Houston, just run it to one of their dealers. If you were in Dallas/Fort Worth I'd recommend you have Steve Zink with Zinkwerks check it out.

[Sochi1990]

I m in Sonoma my self, just didn't wanna fly out there for a car that's not worth seeing an effort. I understand that there is no security from TC failure even with low miles. This is not going to be my daily driver.

[mgmarsh39]

I bought mine sight un-seen from California while living in PA at the time . It's definitely doable. Tell the seller to take it to Sewell Audi and get a PPI done there. It's going to be pricer than an indy shop, but they are a very reputable dealer in TX.

[Other_Erik]

That's early VIN, torque converter will fail. Audi North Houston was a nice shop to visit, maybe there? Car is worth $10k...spend $17k on a well sorted one.

QFT. I have a well-sorted example with 136k miles on it. Full maintenance records from day one. Problem is, I'm competing in the same market as people who are willing to take a bigger loss because theirs needs $10k worth of maintenance to be up to snuff, and price it just enough under KBB that it'll get picked up by someone who doesn't know the difference.

PPI inspection should take between 1-2 hours, and be billed as shop time accordingly. If that comes back clean, you can be pretty confident the car is in good shape. If you want to be a real stickler, ask for the CPO-equivalent inspection - that's a 6-hour inspection that will pick apart every minute issue with the car and give you a lot of detail into it.

I had that done with mine before I bought it, and knew exactly what would need fixed/sorted before buying sight-unseen from across the country. Well worth the $900 I paid out to avoid issues. I paid out for 7 PPI's and one CPO-equivalent before going for my beast, and on average the vehicles needed $12k worth of maintenance (per the dealership) - taking those PPI's for interpretation to a local shop, they would come in between 8-9k for the same OE parts and labor.
One funny one was a Mugello blue beast in New Jersey, I asked for PPI, came back needing 15k worth of labor per Audi - including PPI note that it was 40k miles beyond recommended TB maintenance cycle. Offered significantly less than asking, which they refused. Two weeks later, it was at salvage auction because the timing belt disintegrated on a potential buyer's test drive, and now needed a replacement long block.

O_E

[rbialkin]

Did you ever do a PPI on this car? Guy still has it and wants to move.

[Sochi1990]

Never did, just didn't feel comfy with his story.

[rbialkin]

Thanks. I decided to pass on it too. From what I learned, the DSP is likely in need of repair. The timing belt has never been changed, and the bigger worry is the transmission, which I couldn't get any clarification on. As someone else posted, at $10k it's a buy. At $21, not so much.