I am being offered a 97 station wagon for $3900 with 131K. It supposedly has a new transmission.

I havent heard good things about audi reliability. What should I look for and how expensive are they to run and maintain>

audi' will only rape your wallet if you let them. i have owned them all chevy, buick,honda, nissan... all junk compared to my audi's. i will never own anything else, but do you homework. check out the a6 buyers guide on the forum i followed it to a tee. so far all ive put in to mine is $80

As yergie21 suggests, hit the "Buyer's Guide" in our FAQ's hard.

For what was once a $40,000 car, $3,900 is a screaming deal, especially if it really did get a "new" transmission, and not a "rebuilt" or a "used."

No, I would definitely assume a used tranny and not a new one. What scares the crap out of me is the water pump etc. They are saying that the timing belt had been done.

i only have minor matnence.

The vehicle is at a transmission shop, owned by a friend of a friend. They claim that the TB was done, however unless there are receipts how do you know?

I suspect a customer had a blown tranny and didnt want to pay to fix it and gave it up.

These "C4" body cars are very easy to work on because you don't have to remove the nose. Someone with experience can do a timing belt/waterpump job in under an hour. Someone with minimal experience can do it in about 2-3.