I have an A4  2.5 tdi quattro saloon, tiptronic.
A4 has limited legroom in back, however ok for kids. The driver has plenty
of room

My car has high miles but the engine stills sounds sweet and the interior
still looks brand new.
Since new it has had the following done during the first 130K (excluding
normal 10k servicing items)
Tyres every 25k or so
rear calipers at 20K
Rear brakes and front pads  at 40K
Light bulb
Brake fluid
Front and rear pads at 90K
Track rod ends at 120K
rear disk and pads 120K
wiper linkage 120k

I have noticed the fuel pump in the fuel tank is not fitted tight enough
which causes a diesel spill if I fill to the top of the tank.

Great car in my experience

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I drive an A6 2.5 110 KW manual Front Driven Avant.

IMO the A4 is far inferior to the a6 as far as space is concerned.
Personally I like adjusting the drivers seat to my needs and then sit
in the back behind the drivers seat (I'm 1,86m). _My_ criteria is that
I must be able to sit comfortably behind the driver in such a
situation. YMMV of course.

In addition I consider the trunk of the A4 avant as too small. The
A6's is much larger.

As with so many other things a lot depends on your personal
preferences. I originally wanted to buy the tip, but then did not and
now am very happy that I didn't. The 6 speed manual gearbox is fitting
perfectly to the engine and weight and you can cruise nicely at 50
km/h in 6th gear and accelerate casually if needed. The tips that I
drove all had a slight pause when accelerating which I found
irritating.

The quattro might have many advantages in adverse weather and here at
least legally if you want to tow heavy loads. But in fact in the 4
years and 110.000 km I've owned the car I might have missed it maybe
once. But I _never_ got stuck anywhere in snow or uphill. The
electronic difflock is almost unnoticable but very effective.

As far as overall ownership experience is concerned:

.) Try to get a post September 99 build. They have the longlife
service (35.000 km between oil changes and services).
.) the 2,5 l engines have had problems in the beginning with
undersized crankshaft housing vents. They got filled with old oil over
time and then the pressure increased pressing the oil out through
seals and head gasket. The oil consumption does increase as well then.
You can actually see the oil coating the block. There's a free of
charge service bulletin (recall?) which includes changes of gaskets,
several piping changes and the change of the oilfilter mast. This
rectifies the problem. Mine was leaking a bit in the beginnin. That
recall work was done and not a single droplet of oil since.
.) At the front suspension two levers (sorry, don't know the exact
term) were replaced.
.) At the moment the engine runs roughly and they are working to find
out why. Looks like some sort of unbalanced mass. You only notice it
however, if you know the car.
.) MAF (Mass Airflow Sensor)
That's a pain. This gadget tends to break down fairly often. Basically
and most interestingly with every manufacturer but Audis engine power
output suffer dramatically. I have my forth and since the last change
1,5 years ago, there was no further incident. There's another service
bulleting for car's up to September 1999 (past that, they changed to
toshiba as supplier for the MAF) modifying the electrical system to
switch off automatic post operation heating for the sensor.

One other thing: Of the things I wrote above, I did not pay a single
one. They were all covred by Audi. Even the four MAF's. I only paid
for the three regular maintenances I had up to now.

Would I buy it again? YES.. Did I say Yes? YESSSSSSSSSS
Great car. Smooth. Long distance travel limousine, great seats, great
engine, qiet internal, absolutely fantastic air conditioning system
(Sorry folks, been driving several 5-type BMW's, admittedly of the
version before the current one, and their air con SUCKS in comparison
to the audi's). I love it.

The new A6 looks promising too. BUT: In Austria VAG has stopped giving
guarantees on their cars (compulsory warranty rights by consumers
obviously unaffected) and this effectivly rules out a purchase of a
new A6 for me.

I'll just keep mine for a few more years and wait and see.

Sorry, no :-)

Regards

Wolfgang