80 Diesel Estate - How good are they?

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Hello folks,

I'm looking to replace my daily driver with a diesel estate car. I've always liked the look of the Audi 80 though I've never owned an Audi, and have found that they have fallen into my meagre budget (about £1,000). I'm just a little concerned that I might be asking for trouble.

The classifieds are full of everyday french diesel estates such as pug 405 and 406 and Vectras for this money and they would seem the natural choice but I was thinking that prehaps the build quality of the Audi might make it more reliable and the fact that Audi are a bit more prestige than the others might mean they've been better looked after rather than used as a general hack.

Can anyone give me any idea as to how economical they are? Are they much worse than the newer A4 and A6? Is there anything to watch out for and how steep are parts prices?

Thanks for any help, all advice is much appreciated.

Cheers,

Smiler.

[TobiC]

I bought mine off Ebay 2 years ago I Didnt check it out before hand and it was a rush swap for him to catch the train home as we met somewhere central. It was a HECK of risk but it's what I did. Mine has now 221,000 miles the clutch was done for £250 including the parts and I just fitted 2 drive shafts and two hubs which I broke being stupid and top mount bearings.

Total repair cost in 2 year ownership. damn good cars and one of the best looking estates arround especially of the era. Not ballistically quick but not a lot slower than an a4 tdi 110 and with injectors slightly uprated it makes it a little faster. they do 42-56 mpg in my experience

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Cheers for that, they certainly seem to be highly rated cars and seem to return better mpg than the Vectra and pugs.