Around here you can get a CPO '10 528i for around $25, regular ones are closer to $20. A '10 would still be under factory warranty, and sometimes you can get dealers to add on the extended warranty. Combine that with a thorough inspection and you've basically got the equivalent of a CPO car.

I have twin turbos in my A6 (2.7T). There's an engine coolant gauge and an oil temp gauge. The engine coolant reaches normal range after a few minutes. The oil temp gauge takes longer to come off the cold peg.. maybe about 8-12 minutes, it varies hugely by the temperature outside. The general advice from the Audi intelligentsia is that driving the car around normally and turning the engine off after a short trip is perfectly fine, you just don't want to really boot it (5,000RPM+) until that oil temp needle starts to move.

At the other end, you don't want to run the car hard and then immediately stop and turn the engine off. For a < 1 hour typical drive the time spent mostly idling around a parking lot or residential street and driveway is enough time for the turbos to cool off safely. For 2+ hour drives its a good idea to let the engine idle for a couple of minutes in park. What I usually do after a long drive is park, put everything away, get the suitcases or bags out, then shut off the engine.

This is pretty good practice, and I follow similar procedures just because I like to take care of my stuff. 

That said, with modern central water cooled turbo cases you're not going to get any oil coking from heat soak unless you've really been pushing hard; think track temerperatures, not a long drive.

This is pretty good practice, and I follow similar procedures just because I like to take care of my stuff. 

That said, with modern central water cooled turbo cases you're not going to get any oil coking from heat soak unless you've really been pushing hard; think track temerperatures, not a long drive.

It also depends on how much boost pressure you're running. Mine is the S-line variant that runs a bit more boost than any other 2.7 based car sold here, up from 250/254 to 265/280, but the difference is small enough to not really matter. I've seen people replace the K03 turbos with RS spec K04s and replace most of the plumbing to create something a lot closer to the Cosworth massaged B5 RS4 engine. That made 375hp from the factory, but some have pushed the 2.7 much higher than that. Obviously in those sorts of cases you have to be much more careful - that's what turbo timers are for.

Interestingly, the new supercharged 3.0T is even easier to push than the old turbo. It doesn't take much more than an ECU flash for it to be able to catch the latest and greatest RS.



Chris comes to an interesting conclusion BTW and I think he's right. Audi kept the V8 S5 around as long as they could because the NA V8 4.2 is so nice to use and sounds so good, but ultimately relented and put in the 3.0T which is just as fast and vastly more efficient. The next RS4 and RS5 will probably do the same thing - slot in the 4.0T from the S6/7/8 with even more power. I just hope they're able to keep some of the noise. BMW having to play "V8 sounds" through the speakers in the M5 is a big bag of fail.

For what it's worth, the one person I know who had a Mini absolutely hated it. TOTAL piece of junk. I've also been watching CNet's Car Tech videos since they started doing them in 2005. Since that time they've had precisely one car fail on them during a video shoot out of hundreds of cars tested - a Mini Countryman. Combine that with the doofy, cheap interiors and I remain thoroughly unimpressed by all things Mini.

http://reviews.cnet.com/wagon/2011-mini-cooper-countryman/4505-10866_7-34544855.html

Any thoughts on the Fiesta? My leading candidate if I go small and sporty.

I'm aware of the electric limited slip. It's not a concern as I don't foresee it engaging all that much. I'm mostly looking for a car that I can take fast circular on/off ramps or twisty back roads without worrying about scratching my side mirrors on the asphalt from the body roll in my current car. When I test drove the Mini S I took a circular off ramp faster than I ever have in my Grand Prix and it stayed almost level, that was fun. The GTI performed well in this situation also, but still felt like I was driving a heavy car and it wasn't wanting to turn as easily as the Mini.

The reason I got so interested in diesels is the light to light feel is phenomenal. Tons of torque at low rpm gives that feeling of speed even when you are barely moving. The Golf TDI had similar suspension to the GTI plus it had the diesel feel, so I was really in love, but the price seemed high for a small car and there was the reliability of VW and especially of the Bosch HPFP that kept me away.

My recent posting about realizing I should go less sport more mid-size for utility leads me to cars like the Mazda 6 and the Accord Sport. A trade off on the go kart handling for the space and ride as well as interior quality (in most cases), while still having a somewhat tighter handling car that weighs 400-500lbs less than my current and is double the fuel efficiency, regardless of my gas usage.

I think if I'm going to go bigger than a hatchback, it will be for the less sporty mid-size option. I'm not interested in a Civic Si (180" 3000lbs) or similar where the bigger car sacrifices quality and utility for performance because of what Mike described. You can't enjoy a car like those on streets like you can a MR-2 or GTI or Miata. If you can't enjoy a sporty car on the street and you have no intention of tracking it, it's useless, especially if there were sacrifices to quality or utility. I think I will have to narrow down both the small sporty and the mid-size less sporty to one car each and then have a showdown to see what is most important.

I need to go to a dealer to check out the Accord and also run through the mid-size class for alternatives other than Mazda. I've already narrowed the small sporty class down to 3, of which I've tested 2.

Don't mean to ramble, this thread is sort of my version of Romy's diary. A place I can collect my thoughts and get advice. It's cool that others have posted their own topics from time to time, I enjoy the variety.

These days a car (Accord Sport) with a 0-60 time of 6.7 is no longer considered a sports car, and it's done with 4 doors, usable back seats and a naturally aspirated 4 cylinder designed for fuel economy. Modern cars really are amazing. That's a full 2 seconds faster than my 2006 with a V6.