2015 audi a4 quattro for sale by owner - Santa Barbara, CA - craigslist (2024)

SALVAGE title, read my novel below if that doesn’t immediately scare you off.

The super-duper short version is that if you’re looking for a great, reliable, fun, fast, and extremely roomy car this is a great find! If however you’re trying to put it in a car show – this isn’t a good option. I am selling purely because I need to get rid of my two sedans to make room for another tiny human – and because my wife says I need a taller car to see over all the SUVs…

This is my second A4 Quattro – first a ’99 and now this one, and these have been my two favorite cars I’ve owned. Between the two I fell into the trap of “well a Jetta is pretty much the same, right?” – and boy oh boy the answer is no… They aren’t the same!

On to the car:
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The great: Fast! See way down for add-ons, but even in “normal mode” this car is fast. Got someone who needs passing? Oh yeah, this will pass them. Worried because it’s damp? Not a problem – this is a Quattro (means 4 wheel drive / AWD). This car is also planted to the road and has perhaps the best driving feel you can buy. Put in “Sporty” mode, tightens it up, shifts harder, goes faster. Turn off the traction control and do the same? Even Better. Set it to Stage I or Stage II tuning? OH YEAH, IT GOES.

4 brand new (well, 1,000 miles on them) Michelins, recently replaced intake manifold due to a “normal” failure that happens around 70k miles, and aside from one instance where a Jiffy Lube had to be used, since I’ve owned this it has been dealer-serviced each time. NO I DON’T HAVE THE RECORDS.

Sound system is wonderful, I can probably blame most of my bad hearing on listening to music quite loudly. All original, and no need to improve it – and this from a guy who’s previous car stereos were worth more than the cars were when I sold them. Has the blue-tooth addon thingy to work with smart phones, not just the “standard” Bluetooth that doesn’t work well. It also has a CD player with I think 6 disks you can load? Not sure, never used it (c’mon, really, do you still have CDs?)

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The “OK”: Quite good interior – no tears or bad wear on the seats, seems for some reason that most of these types have tears or kinda squished or stretched looks to the seats – not this one!

No backup cameras, sensors, or fancy-MMI media display with Nav, just the basics.

It loses about a quart of oil over 10,000 miles – there’s a slight leak from the valve cover which is extremely normal in these cars. Similarly this engine is known for timing chain stretch – I had it checked at ~70k and was at 4-degrees, at 88K it was still there. Generally needs replacing around 10-degrees so a while to go there.

The paint by the D/S rear door, and P/S wheel flaring: D/S (part of the title explanation) has cracking on it from bad bondo that was done long before I owned it. Had a lot of it repaired, but the shop would only do so much work for the money I gave them – and to be honest when it’s clean it’s not too noticeable. P/S flaring – a wall jumped out at the car, not enough to get through the paint really, if you have some wood-filler and black paint you could probably fix that in a jiffy!

Probably going to need brake pads soon, no indicator yet, and still brakes quite strongly!

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The “Bad”: Oh those dreaded words, “Salvage Title”… Oh no, that means the car is toast, right? It won’t run, it’s not worth it, what about my insurance, or what my friends will think?!??!??

Long before I, or the previous owner, owned this car – it was hit in the back left bumper in a parking lot outside of Denver (is what I was told). For some reason they called it a Salvage, sold it to a body-shop in Los Angeles, who did the repairs by welding on a new part of the bumper and doing bondo work. The bondo (I was told by a local shop that did paint work for me right after I bought it) was not left to cure completely, so moisture started to wick up and caused the bondo and thus parts of the paint on top of it to crack.

The paint is really the only noticeable thing about the title. I’ve put 60,000 miles on this thing since 2018 and never once noticed it, and frankly think this car is much safer than most “new” cars on the road due to the handling, power, and drive feel.

Furthermore, I worked as a mechanic at the Auto Group in town, and had 3 different Audi techs check things out over the years – if I had not told them they would never have known it was a salvage title. One of them didn’t believe me until he ran the Vin. Before I purchased the car in 2018 I had it looked at by an independent and his partner (both formerly from the Auto Group as well) and they too stated no structural or other issues were present, including suspension or anything else.

Together these experts opinion’s is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the frame, chassis, or anything else except for some bad welding around the bumper area, under the carpeting, in the back, where there are no supports, airbags, or other stuff. With a tail-wind and if you are just flooring it when it’s tuned, you get some exhaust smell in the car – but honestly I’m not sure that wouldn’t be the case even with a clean title.

Otherwise, there’s a leak somewhere in the washer fluid system – where you fill it up, use the washer, then it leaks out over a day or so and you only have maybe 20 uses of it before you need to refill it. Probably an easy fix, doesn’t bother me.

Mild signs of use on things like the upholstery – the netting behind the seats is missing (wasn’t there when I bought it), the trunk area carpeting / paneling is somewhat worn, but c’mon, for a 2018 with 90K on it, it’s really quite good.

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The Add-ons:

Downpipe, intercooler, intake tube, (no oil needed) high flow air filter, have high flow cat (not installed but was), and 3” pipes to the center support. Currently not tuned but have the software / Dongle for the car with IE and had it at stage II for a while (with “optional crackle”!)