[Razorback1980]

I just bought an automatic for my daughter that turns 16 in October. After doing some research, here is what I found. The automatic is made by audi if I remember correctly and seems to be fairly reliable according to the owners I talked to with the exception of the plate you already mentioned. The biggest downfall from what I was told is that it is a 3 speed with no overdrive so the engine runs at a higher rpm to get the same speed and after buying one, I agree. It's very low geared on the top end. For the type driving my daughter is going to be doing, I was okay with that but definitely not something to take to a track with any straight aways at all.

As for prices for one with a bad engine...I'm not sure but I can tell you that I bought mine for 1800 with everything good except a battery and some minor problems that needed to be fixed such as the brake pad light was on, sunroof doesn't work correctly..I'm guessing gears but I haven't got that far yet, normal interior wear such as cracked dash, etc. I have seen others around the 2000 range for the same type car. It appears that automatics are less popular than 5 speeds so the purchase price is generally just a little less.

They towed my car home, but they did it on a flatbed truck, I'm not sure about any other towing methods.

As for if the engines are any different than a 5 speed. Not that I know of and there are many posts on converting autos to 5 speeds with a lot of comments from a lot of people smarter than I am about these cars. Probably good to look at some of those. The differences are pretty small but in some strange places such as the instrument cluster is different. There are other differences as well and they are covered in the other posts I referenced.

Hope this helps....