buy after lease?

My wife and I are thinking about buying our leased A4 2002. The car will have about 44000 km in 4 years of usage at the end of our lease (mid March 2006).

But, We are a little scared about the warranty. The dealer is forcing us to buy a 2 years warranty at 2000$ (canadian dollars). This looks to be the standard Certified pre-owned Limited Warranty of Audi. And it sure looks very "limited" to me! Just about any part that will probably get broken soon are not covered (break pads, exhaust, transmission stuff, etc).

In general, is it a good thing to buy a car that you leased? Knowing that it runs well, that it was treated good without abuse, etc. It did spent 4 canadian winters, but still works perfect.

Anyone with good or bad experience to share? Or related web sites?

Thanks a lot!

David

P.S. The car's price would be 19800$ + 2000$ warranty + taxes? It is a 1.8T quattro automatic with the sport package and sun roof

Reply to
David Chabot
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You know the history of the car, that is a major benefit of purchasing the car outright.

The dealer cannot force you to purchase an extended warranty. That is totally up to you.

If you want to look around, a friend of mine has had good luck with the following, but I have never used their services.

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Reply to
Curtis Newton

That sounds much cheaper than it would be to buy from a dealer, or what someone else would pay to buy the same car after you turned it back in at the end of your lease.

As for the extended warranty -- at $2000 (CAD) for 2 years -- that is very high. No warranty will cover "consumable items" which includes brake pads, rubber belts, wiper blades, interior/exterior trim, etc., and many will not cover exhaust system parts

I bought an off-lease 1998 A6Q 2.8 4-1/2 years ago in the US, with 27,000 miles on the clock (43,200 km). I got a 4-year/48,000 mile extended warranty (through Carmax) for $1650 (US$) which was a good buy, considering that I had well over $3000 worth of warranty work done before it expired. This warranty was a much better deal than the one you are being offered -- I would shop around and perhaps get a 3rd-party extended warranty if the deraler won't do a lot better.

But lets face it -- Audis become very expensive after the first 4 or 5 years!

-- Jay. (remove dashes for legal email address)

Reply to
Jay Somerset

In article David Chabot writes: $But, We are a little scared about the warranty. The dealer is forcing $us to buy a 2 years warranty at 2000$ (canadian dollars).

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure it is illegal for them to force you to buy an extended warranty. They can certainly offer it, and highly recommend it, and even tell you you're stupid if you don't take it (though it's not generally a good customer service idea to inform your customers that they're stupid), but I don't believe they can force you to buy it.

If they continue on that path, tell Audi Canada about it; some pressure from above will probably change the dealership's mind. Failing that, I'm sure the relevant consumer protection ministry of your provincial government would be interested in hearing of this business practice.

$In general, is it a good thing to buy a car that you leased? $Knowing that it runs well, that it was treated good without abuse, $etc. It did spent 4 canadian winters, but still works perfect.

Buying someone else's used car is a crapshoot because you don't know how it was driven. Unless the maintenance records are provided along with it, you also don't know if it received all of its usual maintenance. You also don't know what things have gone wrong with it and needed to be replaced.

Buying your own used car fixes all of these problems. If the price is reasonable, I'd say it's a good way to get a used car in good shape.

Reply to
Hi Ho Silver

I agree, I'm not sure how they can force you to buy a warranty! If you say no, what are they going to do, refuse to sell you the car? I doubt it. I plan to check out some extended warranties when I get closer to mine expiring in a couple of years. I'm not sure I would keep the car if I could not get an extended warranty.

Dan D '04 A4 1.8Tq MT-6 Central NJ USA

Reply to
Dano58

I wonder if "the dealer is forcing me to buy a warranty" actually translates to "the dealer declined to *include* a warranty in the purchase price"...

Reply to
daytripper

"the dealer is forcing me to buy a warranty" should have been written: "the dealer walked away, ignoring me, when I said I would not take it"

I guess I over reacted on this one :o) Sorry for the confusion.

Now I think I will keep my A4 for a few more years. I will see for myself if the bad rep of old audis are true :o)

Now I need to shop for warranty!

You guys gave me lots of good feedback. Thanks!

Reply to
David Chabot

David, "bad rep of old audis"? ooooh boy.....you are risking the wrath of the "Audi Gods" - time to go out and sacrifice a control arm......;-) Cheers! Steve Sears - with a stablefull of "old audis", including:

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes - and many more in boxes that gave their lives for the "fleet" (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)

Reply to
Steve Sears

As others have said, buying your own leased car is the best possible way to purchase a used car. As to warranties, the devil is in the details of what is and especially what is NOT covered, deductibles, reliability of the company offering the warranty and choice of repair facility. Assuming you continue the rate of mileage accumulation, two more years of driving is likely to add another 22,000 km for a total of 66,000 km. This is less than the point at which you'd be risking turbo, TB or water pump failure which are expensive repair items. You may have to replace brake pads and rotors but these are unlikely to be covered in any warranty you'd buy. If you haven't already, I'd be ensuring that oil and filter changes are more frequent than stated in the manual. If the car is still under the manufacturer's warranty, you should have the brakes and front steering/suspension components checked and make sure there are no oil leaks although the latter may be more of a V6 problem. If it were me, I'd not bother with the warranty since the number of miles you drive is quite low by typical standards.

Reply to
Ian S

That'll be easy -- they are self-sacrificing. :-(

-- Jay. (remove dashes for legal email address)

Reply to
Jay Somerset

I bought my 1999 A4 (TQ5sp/Sport package) at the end of the lease. Test drove several others (new 1.8/5sp, 3.0/6sp, 325i, WRX), but still preferred my old A4. Didn't get the warranty, but did have a couple major repairs soon after I bought it (ECM, steering rack), but has been running great for quite a while now. The dealer was pretty cool - right before the end of the original warranty they replaced all the brakes, even though they weren't really needed.

Go for it! Kent

Reply to
Kent Shaw

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