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Oh yeah about that...my income increased..not by much...but enough to get the ball rolling
And the senior techs are now teaching me everything they know.
I'm also learning things at an alarming rate...
By the end of the year I will be flat rate and my income will go from 25K a year to 45K
I'm pretty sure as long as I keep learning and doing bigger jobs I will be able to afford an S4.
The top guy at our shop makes 100K a year.
The second best makes 80K
The third makes 50k
The fourth makes 48K
The fourth guy is going to quit soon too so I may just end up taking his spot.
Seems like it would be smart to wait until this becomes a reality before you purchase a car you either can't afford or just barely can.
Actually I did some research and I will just get the 2005 or lower year. Some are as low as 14K and they come with the same engine as the 2007 model.
Cars like this tend to be driven very hard. I would not touch one unless it came with every receipt for every service, every oil change and every time they put gas in the car. These are expensive cars to own and maintain.
Tires are your most critical part to buy. Stickiest you can buy. If the ZO6 gets traction, they have run low 12's high 11's. They only way 3000 pounds, have lower gearing and the 04 has the best suspension for the C5.
(this isn't a life advice thread) but be careful buying a car on projected income, or financing something for ages just for the sake of getting it.
Back to the car discussion. The S4 is a fantastic performance car, along the lines of the M3, but significantly more practical with the advantage of quattro AWD. The 4.2L V8 is a fantastic engine, but it doesn't leave a lot of extra room in the bay to do many external modifications...this motor is beyond "shoehorned" in the bay, it's a tight friggin fit! It does appear there's a supercharger kit for the S4 4.2 V8, but from my quick google search, it runs ~$9000+....a tad out of the price range of the average guy.
Honestly, i'd worry significantly less about beating your friends at drag races, bragging rights will really only go so far, and your likes/desires will change as you get a little older. at which point, you'll probably regret modifying and taking all the functionality from a highly engineered german sedan away from the car, just to gain a couple tenths in a straight line. I'd buy the S4, and just enjoy it as is, with the potential for a performance tune, intake, exhaust system. If my buddies kept calling picking on me for having a slower car than them, I'd ask the ladies which car they'd rather ride in....and trust me, the S4 would win. It's classy, comfortable, beautiful, etc....and as such, leagues above the other cars in the lineup, and the only thing coming close is the M3...which is no where near as plush as the Audi model.
Cars like this tend to be driven very hard. I would not touch one unless it came with every receipt for every service, every oil change and every time they put gas in the car. These are expensive cars to own and maintain.
Probably driven hard, but likely well maintained...most folks don't destroy a car they spent $50k on...some, but definitely not most. If you can find a good "1 owner vehicle" you'd be set, cause I bet it was very well taken care of. If it's had more than 1 owner, i'd worry about another guy like you, who purchased the car for a cheap price, drove the snot out of it, and then sold it when it wouldn't beat his buddies Z06.
I tried looking up a decent race track but they all were outrageously expensive.
I've been to a bunch of places around the country.... amateur night (on Wednesdays) was held where I used to live.. 1/4 mile, decent track. $15 and you could run all evening (well, you got in line, but you could get quite a few runs. Ranged from Mom & Pop and the kids in a Lincoln Town car (which could be timed with a calendar), to vehicles to heavily modified I questioned their street legality. All in all, an evening of fun. After a few runs, you could get a bracket... interesting to watch one car get an 8-second lead at the tree...
(this isn't a life advice thread) but be careful buying a car on projected income, or financing something for ages just for the sake of getting it.
Back to the car discussion. The S4 is a fantastic performance car, along the lines of the M3, but significantly more practical with the advantage of quattro AWD. The 4.2L V8 is a fantastic engine, but it doesn't leave a lot of extra room in the bay to do many external modifications...this motor is beyond "shoehorned" in the bay, it's a tight friggin fit! It does appear there's a supercharger kit for the S4 4.2 V8, but from my quick google search, it runs ~$9000+....a tad out of the price range of the average guy.
Honestly, i'd worry significantly less about beating your friends at drag races, bragging rights will really only go so far, and your likes/desires will change as you get a little older. at which point, you'll probably regret modifying and taking all the functionality from a highly engineered german sedan away from the car, just to gain a couple tenths in a straight line. I'd buy the S4, and just enjoy it as is, with the potential for a performance tune, intake, exhaust system. If my buddies kept calling picking on me for having a slower car than them, I'd ask the ladies which car they'd rather ride in....and trust me, the S4 would win. It's classy, comfortable, beautiful, etc....and as such, leagues above the other cars in the lineup, and the only thing coming close is the M3...which is no where near as plush as the Audi model.
This is good advice.
A car that is very good on the strip, yet really practical on the street is somewhat of a contradiction of terms. You wouldn't use a philips screwdriver to take out a slotted screw.
Trying to do both will result in a compromise on both fronts. Hate to say it, but it took two different cars.
In terms of the supercharger, in my experiences with them (my favorite type motor to build), usually it is a lot more than just 'bolting it on'. The low-end torque skyrockets... take a look at the torque curves for blown vs. unblown engines. You would need to assess the lower end of the motor to see if it could handle it, then the transmission, then the drive train (snapped more than one u-joint), rear end, and then tires being able to deliver that torque to the road. It just keeps propagating. YMMV
I've been to a bunch of places around the country.... amateur night (on Wednesdays) was held where I used to live.. 1/4 mile, decent track. $15 and you could run all evening (well, you got in line, but you could get quite a few runs. Ranged from Mom & Pop and the kids in a Lincoln Town car (which could be timed with a calendar), to vehicles to heavily modified I questioned their street legality. All in all, an evening of fun. After a few runs, you could get a bracket... interesting to watch one car get an 8-second lead at the tree...
veyron was probably referring to road courses, not drag strips.
Probably driven hard, but likely well maintained...most folks don't destroy a car they spent $50k on...some, but definitely not most. If you can find a good "1 owner vehicle" you'd be set, cause I bet it was very well taken care of. If it's had more than 1 owner, i'd worry about another guy like you, who purchased the car for a cheap price, drove the snot out of it, and then sold it when it wouldn't beat his buddies Z06.
The biggest problem is the first owners on hissy fit cars like the S4 were smart enough to dump them before or shortly after the warranty ended. Just the mere mention of cam adjuster, chain guides and a few thousand dollars were enough to have many S4 owners dump their headache.
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