ive often kicked around the idea of a b5 s4. awesome looking and performing cars but imo its just not worth it after all the upkeep. i mean yea if you find a nice one for 17 thats cool but im sure somewhere along the way if you mod it you will need to put another 3k into it if not more. modding this car can be very expensive…
then i had a thought…b6 s4…4.2l v8, can still find them cpo, 340 hp, way nicer interior, no control arm, turbo, cluster probs like the b5’s. come spring im selling both my cars to get into an 04/05 s4 avant. they are just a smooth operator for daily driving and before anyone says it i dont give a shit about the 15-24mpg’s it gets. these can be had for like 27ish with 30-40k on them. personally after driving an sti, r32 and some other competetion (unfortunatly not an e46 m3 they are still getting 35-40k which is a bit out of my range) but regardless i would much rather make this a daily over the competition, its so solid and just a pleasure to drive. it seems real grown up and classy.
anyway good luck with the search…