Thanks to all who spend time repling to my original posting about purchasing the Sportwheels A4. Almsot everyone i have talked has told me not to buy the car, so i will continue my search for another A4tq.
It seems that the market here in CO for A4s is more expensive than it was back East in NJ where is used to live. For an 97 tq with 30-40k miles i'm lookin at $18-20k, depending on options. Would 17" tires with stock suspension handle better than the 16" stock tires with modifed suspension? Which should I change first, the stock suspension or the stock tires? Does anyone in the Denver area want to unload some 17" wheels? Is a sport exhuast neccessary with a .8 bar Wett. chip...or worth the hsp gain?

Thanks eh

Thanks

I think the stock-sport 16" wheel tire combo has some capability the sport suspension doesnt exploit so if you are looking at steps to better performance without regard to personal style (I think a lot of the reason to go with larger wheels and tires is more related to vanity than performance) I would improve the suspension bits first. I am extremely with the improvements from the Eurosport springs. I am still running relatively new stock sport shocks but expect they will go in a year or less in favor of Bilstein sports. The stock sport shocks do pretty well except at the low frequency end of rebound damping they are a bit weak. I am also waiting on a 19mm Neuspeed rear sway bar. I am adding this in favor of the stock sport bar after the Audi Quattro challenge where I felt understeer was more pronounced even at the limits than I would like.

I actually replaced the original wheels/tires on my car on day 1 with 18" SSR Integrals and 225/40x18 Michelin Pilot Sports. It is very obvious to me that they posess one hell of a lot more traction than the stock setup on dry and wet pavement and the overall weight is a bit less than the stock wheel tire/wheel combo so I am not giving much if any acceleration and bump handling for the increased cornering. But the price is pretty steep for the gains compared to the suspension stuff I did. I love the look though...

My personal opinion on exhaust upgrades is that the price:performance gain ratio is not very good given a stock turbo and echaust manifold is still in place. Again this decision may have more to do with vanity than real performance improvements so the whether the money spent is worth it or not depends more on how much you want to change the exhaust note and look of the exhaust tips (the vanity part).