Monday 27th August 2012

You Know You Want To: 200K Audi RS4 (B5)

There's leggy and there's leggy but if it means a twin-turbo RS4 for £7,500 then it could be worth a punt

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The British have a fascination with mileage and used cars; buy something secondhand and you can guarantee any well-meaning friend or relative will pop the inevitable "so how many's on the clock?" before too long.

Subtle in black, there's menace here too

And, without fail, those who ask will associate a lower mileage figure with a car of superior condition. This is seemingly regardless of service history, perceived condition and driving characteristics. Apparently mileage isn't such a point of contention in other countries.

This is because the British obsession with the miles covered by a car is ridiculous, as well as often being unfounded. Offer me a the choice between two identical modern cars, one that does a couple of thousand of miles a year popping to the shops and one that is used properly and serviced properly by a knowledgeable owner and the supposedly 'fresher' car wouldn't get a look in.

Admittedly, a twin-turbo Audi RS4 with 198,000 miles on the clock may be stretching faith in that mantra a little too far. But it could also be perfect fodder for someone seeking a (fairly) practical and very fast estate.

200,000 miles something to fear?

Of course, the main prerequisite with high-mileage cars is proof of regular maintenance. If it hasn't received the sort of necessary, structured and thorough attention any 380bhp V6 car should receive, whether it's worth £7,500 or £75,000, then walk away. But then that's obvious, isn't it?

Encouragingly, the vendor of this particular RS4 states it has a full set of services from either Audi main dealers or Audi specialists. So far, so tempting. Moreover, the car looks in fine fettle cosmetically, with a small dent and the inevitable stone chips the only (apparent) imperfections. And, apart from a faulty airpump, it isn't plagued by mechanical maladies either. Now it's only natural to take the description of a near-200,000 mile car with a pinch of salt, but it could certainly appear far worse.

And more importantly that all of this, a B5 RS4 is still a hugely desirable car. To these eyes, those swollen arches still look great and yet, to many, it probably just looks like a decade-old Audi estate. Also, these were never the most incisive driving tools, so it's unlikely to have been hooned around at 10/10ths very often. It may not have covered every single yard on the motorway as claimed, but you would expect its treatment over time to have been more sympathetic than, say, an M3 of similar vintage. And given the plethora of tuned B5s, either S4 or RS4-based, the 2.7-litre V6 must be a strong unit (although stories of the opposite must exist?).

Just as colourful on the inside too!

Then there's the main hook of this RS4; an advertised price at least £2,000 less than than any equivalent car. These B5s are far from spring chickens either, with many at the £10-£11k price level having covered comfortably more than 100,000 miles. This apparent tolerance for high miles perhaps makes the black example here less of a risk than it first appears. Having had eyes on this for a while, the seller may even be open to offers under the listed amount. Not being an expert, it's difficult to say how far £2,000 (possibly more) goes towards keeping an extensively-used RS4 on the road, but it would be nice to think there's a bargain there for somebody.

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AUDI RS4 AVANT (B5)
Price: £7,500
Why you should: Still very fast and seemingly mechanically strong. A very cool performance estate for £7.5K.
Why you shouldn't: Two turbos, 380bhp, 4WD, 1,620kg, 198,000miles ... it's potentially a very expensive and painful high-mileage experiment.

See the original advert here.

 

 

[wiliferus]

Very tempting. But also very scary! The ability of that car to destroy your wallet (and possibly your relationship!) is strong.

But hell, bang for buck, you'd be doing well!