1988 Audi 5000 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Mine was a 2WD supposed luxury car, my first. I bought it used (7 years old, maybe 100K miles?) at a time when I had never had any power features. But, while the original owner had paid for all that new fancy stuff (power windows, power locks, sunroof, etc.), NONE of them still worked except the power locks. I thought Id be buying an attractive, comfortable, and mechanically sound car (that was just missing the bells and whistles) for a reasonable price. However, I first learned that the heater vent actuator was broken, too (no heat! - and I lived in a cold climate). Then the power locks broke and one back door got stuck in the locked position. I left the other back door permanently unlocked, so I could access the back seat. Then a thief stole some incidental things. The final kicker - and had the car for less than a year in total - was the automatic transmission started to slip. I took a $1000 loss (which sounds small but was kind-of a big deal for me at the time) and sold it to someone who thought it was still worth that despite all those things wrong with it. I thought to myself, Good riddance! Never again will I buy an Audi. Jan 15, 2023

When my dad one day came home with the 1988 Audi 5000 Quattro, little did he know he just instantly upgraded our standing with keeping up with the Joneses (at least back in the late 80's). Now, in the inner city, all kids said all kinds of cool stuff like, "Fresh" and "Audi 5000". Today, the Audi 5000 looks like a piece of crap but in those days all the cool kids said "Bye, I'm Audi [5000]" slang for 'see you later'. For a young guy like me, it was as close to owning a Mercedes Benz as we would get. It was tan, it was fast, it was a huge tan box! One day, I was looking forward to what would be the biggest date in my life with a girl I had just met. The Audi was perfect for a stupid, naive guy to impress on a beautiful girl. But that same day, my dad had grounded me. So when he fell asleep, I snuck out and took the Audi 5000. This vehicle model was notorious for having a bad transmission recall. It was known to drive on its own in NEUTRAL--scary! Of all nights, the transmission started to fail on me. The known work-around was to put it in neutral and rev the acceleration for 5-10 minutes. So I pick her up and we meet up with some friends at a party in DC. It was snowing and cold. But another thing about this car, if you turn on the defrost sometimes, it will emit a visible smoke that smelled like maple syrup and the transmission would stick. So I asked my date if she didn't mind if we not use the heat. After a night of all of us dancing, we worked up a good sweat and body heat. Once we get back to the car, I asked my friends to follow my Audi 5000 out of DC. So 4 cars are following me. Gradually, the windows in the Audi are fogging up from our perspiration. I could not see where I was going, wiping the inside windshield every fricken 3 seconds. My date constantly asking why we just can't turn on the heat. She's in a skirt and says her nose is ice cold. So she turns on the heat, the maple syrup fumes waft out the vents and vehicle transmission gets stuck. I'm getting stressed because I don't have vehicle registration. After a few minutes, my pissed off friends come up to the car, knocks on the window and asks if we had stopped to have a steamy make out session or something because the windows were sauna steamy. I asked my long time high school friend if he could drive her home. Yea, because of the Audi 5000 Quattro, they started going out a little thereafter. Damn you Audi 5000! To make matters worse, when I got home sure enough, my dad was waiting for me. and that is all, until next time, I'm Audi...5000! Jan 28, 2012

Loved this car. One of Audi's great ones. A classic sleeper. Bought it with 60k miles did lots of repairs to keep her going (see below). Powertrain-2.2L Turbo Quattro with 5spd. Had trouble in the end with either a warped or cracked head-I never pulled the head to see. Body-Audi did great with galvanized steel, so no rust here. Audi Pearl, black suade leather combo can't be beat. Winter pkg (heatd seats, ski bag) Costs-Not easy to fix, very little room in engine bay. Replaced suspension, radiator, brake and clutch master cyl, brakes and brake lines. Indeed it was a labor of love.Aug 04, 2008