B6 S4 Cab - man maths, not brave

Getting my S4 out of winter hibernation I thought I’ll contribute instead of just reading PH and with a V8 S4 being a recurring brave pill here’s my experience
Previously owned S4 cab for 5 yrs / 20k miles, was a great weekend toy and overall a cheap ownership, sold it 2 years ago due to personal circumstances and it was getting a bit tired in the legs.
Last year the itch returned…I was open to other options but a soft top weekend car with 4 seats, an interesting engine and a manual it’s unique at the price.
So skimming through ads last year the man maths started whirring in my head and this one popped up, similar prices to others but only 60k on a rebuilt engine sounded good. Deliberated for a day then gave the chap a ring and it sounded too good to be true, so impulsively booked easyjet flight from Glasgow to Birmingham to pick it up.
Car drove well, concerned with grotty wheels, hood is tired and bizarrely the dash was cracked California style after being off the road for 8 years under a cover. Engine, Clutch, Suspension felt tight but the gearknob was resting in the wrong place. After driving one for 5 years it has a natural place, you know where it should be, but maybe a spring or something had failed?
There was a back-story to the car, I learned the engine rebuild was via non-recorded insurance from theft with a £16.5k main dealer bill! He was only owner and largely parked it up from 2012 to 2022 as he moved onto more exotic cars. What I learned was that in 2014 and only 4k miles ago he paid £6.2k to a main dealer for the full monty engine out chain replacement!!
So I was at Birmingham airport in the evening 350 miles from home and needed to be at work at 06:30. A proper dilemma, car worse in some ways than expected (but all fixable), but it had a low mileage engine, brand new chains/guides, new brakes and tyres all round. I scratched my chin for a while and thought of my options and after negotiating a couple hundred off it sailed home at 22 mpg reaching some decent speeds up the M6 through the lakes. It’s turned out to be a great purchase for the £6.1k paid and next week it’s in for a few bodywork issues and wheels getting dipped. If there’s interest I’ll follow up with my experience so far, thanks for reading.

The convertible is a good looking car. I don't have the bandwidth in my life for the sort of problems those V8s could throw up or the fuel consumption.

thanks chaps, good to get some appreciation. Mrs thinks I'm bonkers with a 18 yr old car with a cracked dash but I see it that I've bought a great engine in great nick! mpg not a concern, 3-4k miles per yr. Average probably 23/24mpg, it will do probably 80% of its weekend miles top down so who cares! What I like is that any good mechanic can work on it so no specialist costs or M-sport/RS type tax, parts are cheap. Having owned one before I think has helped my confidence with the car. Updates on key priorities

1. Realised it wasn't holding temperature properly on a run, coolant smelt of nothing and my suspicions of water based coolant confirmed by garage. The errant gearstick location which was my main concern turned out to be a linkage needing adjustment. Both fixed for just under £200 by local garage
2. Exhaust. It's nice to buy a car 100% standard but this is an era when cars were very muted. Last one I had custom back boxes made which were fine and loud enough to get some appreciation. It seems prices of steel have gone up so an exhaust is 50% more than 7 yrs ago?? Localish firm suggested a central resonator delete would be perfect and it was the cheapest option. I was dubious so waited 2 months to get it done and I've never been more disappointed leaving the garage, a waste of time unless you're north of 5000 rpm. This is a V8 its magic is between 2 and 4000 rpm, you don't need to thrash it. So found another well reviewed place in Glasgow, another 2 month wait for a booking. Mulled it over and wasn't sure but then thought it could be my last V8 so went for a straight-pipe. So normal cats and just brand new steel all the way back with OEM looking tips. It makes the car marmite to some, I love it. For limited use it's fine, can sound mad-max like, proper V8 howl up the rev range and deep grumble low down. I wouldn't want to commute in it but for the weekend it's great and although I've been narrowly out dragged by a Golf R, their fake noise, fake exhaust tips and slushy autos makes me happy to be half a second slower and to have it all natural. Maybe I'll do a vid of the sound one day.....total cost of both exhausts £700
3. Engine, it's perfect power as expected. Last one used the 1 litre oil per 1000 miles which is in audi spec, this uses almost none at all less than 1 litre in 3000 miles. So now confident to spend money on car if the engine has many years life in it

These were my priorities, will get up to speed with niggles on next post

Cheers

It's a B6. No such thing as a B4.

Glad you stopped by to point that out.

I like that. Very understated. Classy. And a V8.

Just before Audi (and pretty much everybody else) started adding bling and design 'features'. At that price seems like a bargain with the rebuilt/fettled engine.

I look forward to reading/seeing more.

I've been through that thought process myself. The main blocker was the idea that any cheap enough to buy as a bit of fun are leggy enough that without the timing chain replacement you're basically buying a live hand grenade and it will cost the price of the car or more to put the pin back in. Getting one where that's been done, for only a grand or two over what you'd pay for one of the hand grenades, is a steal.

Thanks all good to see some appreciation. It is under appreciated and by sharing my experience maybe others think it's not so brave, specialists say it's 80% of an RS4 at half the price, a friend with M3 V8 is dumfounded how little his car is better for double the money. Maybe I was lucky but if you buy right...... I had confidence from last one, in 5 yrs / 20k miles I spent about 2k in servicing and repairs mainly - suspension arms (bushes), 1 wheel bearing, 2 springs & servicing (good quality oil every 5-6000 miles), not bad for 340 bhp V8 . It's from an age when Germany knew how to make a car properly so it's very durable underneath, parts are cheap, indie labour is cheap. As pointed out chains are the weak spot and I wouldn't buy one of this age without. I look forward to sharing some photos in a week or 2 with refurb wheels which will make it look superb and thanks for understanding my man maths purchase!

I owned a B6 cab once, albeit a 1.8T. It looked absolutely lovely, but it had so many issues that I couldn't fix them quickly enough before something else went wrong.

I was working in Australia and coming back to the UK every three months and I barely got to drive it in the time I owned it as it was always broken when I was in the UK, and by the time it was working again I had to go back to Australia.

In the end someone caught the rear arch and bent the wheel as they tried to squeeze past in heavy traffic (They carried on and didn't stop although the side of their newish mini was all creased up) to do a right and it bent something on the rear wheel. At the time it had an undiagnosed vacuum leak triggering the EML, had a noisy power steering pump and several other issues. The last straw was when I got home that evening I went to close the window and it refused to move.

It was on eBay that evening, I have never had a car that gave me so many issues.