RE: Audi RS6 Avant: Spotted

[rastapasta]

Rich_W said:

briang9 said:

Rich_W said:

Gearbox. Well what can I say! £10K is for a brand new one.

Mackies in Glasgow are the only "A" rated ZF agent in the UK and charge around £3.5k for a fully refurbished box, fully fitted with a 100k mile guarantee

would never dream of taking either of my Audis anywhere near a main dealer

And that price makes complete sense. But if you want a brand new one from Audi. it's gonna cost (I guess it might be a bit less than 10, with hindsight, but not 3,5 ) I daresay they haven't got many left either

As I say dealers are hit n miss in terms of who you get. I know very good techs and some fairly shonky ones at Audi dealers. Hypothetically if I had ANY S/RS or R product I know who I'd get to work on them. But it's 1, maybe 2 guys at that 1 dealer which has a workshop staff of 10. So the odds are against you.(Id specify them by name at drop off)

The main problem is that IME dealers have high turnover of staff. And often let good people go instead of giving them a payrise of a grand or 2 to keep them sweet. Then they assume they can get someone else in for less money and they will do the same quality of work...

This is correct. They get the kids in as apprentices and train them up and move them on rather than paying a decent wage to them when fully qualified with some PQE under their belts. They are usually of the belief as you say, that is that they can get someone in to do the same job for less money when in reality all they are doing is training people and investing in people to the benefit of their rivals.

[seefarr]

The gearbox was done at 10k ago. It's had the DRC suspension replaced with quality coilovers. And it's blue. It's perfect!

[Leins]

With regards to dealers, my 2000 B5 RS4 has almost full Audi SH, and I bring it into Audi Belfast every year who are excellent to deal with, and offer reduced rates due to the car being older. That being said it's not quite as complex a car as the bigger C5, and I've also used my trusted independent for a few non-service things

[Uggers]

Rich_W said:

"Set of Konis for £600" yeah Ok.

You should be spending £1500 + 4-6 hours (depending on how rusty/seized things are when you get into it. These are not new cars anymore) Labour on some coilovers from H&R or Bilstein before some cheap Konis!

Gearbox. Well what can I say! £10K is for a brand new one. Sure a dealer is unlikely to want to rebuild it. So I would say go to a Auto specialist. Who told you the "core gearbox is the same"

KONI shocks were £500 and fitting was £150, so he was a massive 50 quid out.

Odd how everyone with KONI's in the UK and particularly the U.S are quite happy with them married to the standard DRC springs. In my case when I did have a problem, after service support was great.

H&R coilovers WILL go saggy at the back, and unless you play around with them quite a lot, expensive coilover options generally have a very hard ride. Some just want straight forward inexpensive shock absorbers to replace the good but flawed DRC versions.

With regards to the 'core' gearbox comments. The ZF5HP and ZF5HPA family of gearbox's have been used in the following cars in 2wd and 4wd format:

1996–1997 BMW E31 840Ci M62/B44
1997–2001 BMW E38 740i M62/B44
1997–2001 BMW E38 740iL M62/B44
1998-2002 BMW E38 730d M57
1997–2003 BMW E39 540i M62/B44
1997–2002 Jaguar XK8 V8 4.0L
1998–2003 BMW E53 X5 4.4i
1998–2002 Jaguar XJ8 4.0 V8
1998–2001 Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas 4.0 V8
1998–2001 Jaguar XJ8L 4.0 V8
2001–2003 BMW E53 4.6is V8
2002–2003 BMW Z8 Alpina 4.8 V8
2002–2003 Jaguar XJ Sport 4.0 V8
2003–2005 Range Rover
1997–2003 Audi A8 (D2) 4.2 V8
2001-2002 Audi A8 (D2) 6.0 W12
1998–2003 Audi S8 (D2) 4.2 V8
1999–2004 Audi A6 (C5) 2.5 V6 TDI; 4.2 V8
1999–2004 Audi S6 (C5) 4.2 V8
2000–2003 Audi A8L (D2) 4.2 V8
2002–2004 Audi RS6 (C5) 4.2 biturbo V8
2002–2014 Volkswagen Phaeton (Typ 3D)

It is therefore correct to assume they are not one off speciality boxes. But in one variation or other produced in large numbers with a commensurate amount of support, spares and knowledge surrounding them.

A new gearbox from Ayr Audi was quoted as £7800 with an equivalent courtesy car for the 3 days they need it for.

If you are the sort that take it to dealers or a specialist for every little job or niggle then they will cost you the earth to run. Just like every other old prestige high performance car. But with a bit of thought costs can be kept much lower than the internet myths suggest.

[rtz62]

Gearbox and DRC issues?
Hmmmn, I’d probably go with one of these even so, because as mentioned by others, most of the necessary work will have been carried out bowl.
PLus, the annual cost (by that I mean, putting ££ in the bank as a contingency) might be less than the depreciation that a C7 and possibly even a C6 RS6 suffer....

[Rich_W]

Uggers said:

[
...and fitting was £150, ...

On multilink front suspension? Who the hell charges £150 to fit 4 dampers? Even a decent specialist would charge more!

[Uggers]

What's so fancy about it?

Local non Audi specialist fit it in a morning.

[JazzyTopher]

Oh man, this could be a slippery slope.. I'm in the market for an estate and this is right on my doorstep.

[ZX10R NIN]

Great cars buy one with the suspension changed, budget for the gearbox at some point & you'll be fine.

[Arnold Cunningham]

One chap on rs246 has just clocked > 200K on his one.

[JazzyTopher]

@ Ecurie Ecosse - Looks lovely and extremely well cared for. Judging by those pictures (in your ad) I think your very local to me, if it wasn't Christmas I would have been round already.

[Welshbeef]

One thing I had forgotten about the RS6 Avant (or any estate) until this morning was it actually took some time for he cabin to be toasty on a bitterly cold morning.

[Arnold Cunningham]

All I can add is a mirror of what the other owners above have noted - that once sorted, they're pretty awesome cars. I actually prefer the build quality of that generation - when the anodised aluminium trim was exactly that - not crappy coated plastic. Magnesium valve covers to save weight on a turbo lux barge. Silly silly thing - I love it.

[Welshbeef]

So basically every new car was driven to its maximum fully before the first owner even sat in the drivers seat

[J4CKO]

Rich_W said:

Uggers said:

[
...and fitting was £150, ...

On multilink front suspension? Who the hell charges £150 to fit 4 dampers? Even a decent specialist would charge more!

£150 is cheap but its pretty much the same as any other A6 apart from disconnecting the DRC, on a ramp, with air tools it isnt a massive job, you can get the shocks for £600, its the gearbox that is that hard and expensive part, suspension you could DIY easy enough on the path, changing a massive autobox, that is a big job.

I did consider getting one of these a while back so looked into it, these were the two main problems, do they have turbo issues or anything else, they are getting old now !

[Terzo123]

Very tempting.

[Bluebottle]

Bought mine a couple of years ago...I was meant to be selling it on for profit, but can't bring myself to sell it...it's an awesome tow truck and after chucking a few quid at it to sought the faults the previous owner didn't, it's been a reliable daily drive

[1781cc]

If we all had a fear of costs we’d all be knocking about in Kia’s with 7 years warranty. I hope someone buys this, it’s a lovely looking car. On the major plus is it hasn’t been ‘tuned’ and appears to be stock power which is a major plus.

[anonymous-user]

Man maths would say rather than shell out the best part of £350 a month for the lease of a new hot hatch (Golf R or similar), why not buy one of these instead for £10k? Even ran the costs below for a comparison (excluding tax/insurance which should be fairly similar for both cars - (Audi RS avants have surprisingly cheap insurance).

GOLF R
Leasing Costs (10k miles per year) (with deposit spread across payments) = £350/mth
Servicing Allowance = £50/mth
Fuel (10k miles per year) = £130/mth
TOTAL costs over 3 years = £19,080

C5 RS6
Loan Costs to purchase (assume £10k loan taken out over 36 mths) = £290/mth
Servicing Allowance = £150/mth
Fuel (10k miles per year) = £230/mth
TOTAL costs over 3 years = £24,120

However at the end of 10 years you will still have an RS6 which you will own outright worth a minimum of £10,000 (possibly much more as the cars could well appreciate like the RS2 & B5 RS4's). This brings the total costs of the RS6 over 3 years to £14,120

So what would you rather have for three years - a modern Euro Box with a 4cyl engine and a farty fake exhaust sound that every man an his dog seem to be driving these days? Or perhaps save yourself £5,000 over three years and drive round in a monster 450hp, Cosworth fettled, twin turbo V8 estate with an epic reputation, that also happens to be as rare as hens teeth?

For me its a no brainer. RS6 is the sensible and the money saving option.

[DanielSan]

Andy20vt said:

Man maths would say rather than shell out the best part of £350 a month for the lease of a new hot hatch (Golf R or similar), why not buy one of these instead for £10k? Even ran the costs below for a comparison (excluding tax/insurance which should be fairly similar for both cars - (Audi RS avants have surprisingly cheap insurance).

GOLF R
Leasing Costs (10k miles per year) (with deposit spread across payments) = £350/mth
Servicing Allowance = £50/mth
Fuel (10k miles per year) = £130/mth
TOTAL costs over 3 years = £19,080

C5 RS6
Loan Costs to purchase (assume £10k loan taken out over 36 mths) = £290/mth
Servicing Allowance = £150/mth
Fuel (10k miles per year) = £230/mth
TOTAL costs over 3 years = £24,120

However at the end of 10 years you will still have an RS6 which you will own outright worth a minimum of £10,000 (possibly much more as the cars could well appreciate like the RS2 & B5 RS4's). This brings the total costs of the RS6 over 3 years to £14,120

So what would you rather have for three years - a modern Euro Box with a 4cyl engine and a farty fake exhaust sound that every man an his dog seem to be driving these days? Or perhaps save yourself £5,000 over three years and drive round in a monster 450hp, Cosworth fettled, twin turbo V8 estate with an epic reputation, that also happens to be as rare as hens teeth?

For me its a no brainer. RS6 is the sensible and the money saving option.

Don’t forget to factor in the inevitable gearbox replacement/recondition