Sooo, when the Outback blew up, back in May, I had to get wheels under me.
So I made the biggest mistake in my automotive life, and bought a $900 Audi A4 1.8t from my boss, knowing that he had done a lot of maintenance recently. Then I got fired for flipping out on my assistant manager (Who totally deserved it.)
I am not a smart man.
This thing came with a huge exhaust leak, a vacuum leak, a misfire at idle, a hard-shifting transmission, and a whole heap of "just in case" parts. Exhaust is fixed, transmission has been flushed, and is shifting marginally better, and the vacuum leak is next, hopefully that'll fix the misfire at idle.
I'm in it for about $1,500, and I refuse to put more than $2,000 in, and that is on the high end.