I was looking at Autotraders the other day and found an '03 Audi TT for sale. About a month ago I saw that ad on Craigslist and thought someone might have bought it since it's no longer there. I figured this AT ad was probably old (how come AT doesn't date their ads?), but I decided to e-mail the guy since the price of $8700 looked good for an '03. The mileage was very high though (138k), so that may explain the low price.

The ad states the car is "very clean inside and out," and the pictures seemed to confirm that. I asked the seller if there were any dents or scratches on the body, and he said that there is a very small ding on the driverside door otherwise body is sharp. When I asked about how noticeable the ding is he said he could send a pic of it. I asked if he could take a pic of the engine bay as well. Boy, I was shocked when I saw the engine. It was dirty, filthy. The car seemed very promising, but that dirty engine raises red flags for me. That and the fact that he spent over $5k to rebuild the transmission sometimes last year. Why would someone spend that much money in repairs and then sell the car? Darn, I was excited about checking it out but am no longer interested.

So would any of you consider a car that looks sharp on the outside but has a dirty engine?