Audi B5 RS4

Author
Discussion

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Friday 20th November 2015
quotequote all
Well, this isn't something I thought I'd be saying at the beginning of the year but I now own two cars, and that's down from a peak of five not so very long ago. It's taken me a while to realise it, but trying to own and run multiple cars is both a time and wallet-content consuming task, especially here in car-hating Ireland. It just meant I wasn't using them enough, so something had to give - well three BMWs to be precise, and so I've just agreed the sale of my E34 M5 3.8, to follow the departure of my E30 Alpina and E46 M3 CSL. My Mini GP has let out a sigh of relief that it has escaped the cull (actually it probably hasn't knowing my driving skills! smile), and a sort of replacement turned up last weekend in the shape of an old Audi estate




So why an RS4? Well my previous Audi history is both brief and distant, being an 80 1.8S back in the late 90s, but for one reason or another I fancied a bit of a change from the BMWs. So in the place of N/A straight 6s, I've gone for a twin-turbo V6, and swapped RWD for all four wheels being powered, well some of the time anyway. But mostly it's because something about these particular cars has grabbed my imagination ever since I saw a new one pootling around the local roads 15 years ago and thought "I quite like that!" TBH there's not a whole heap of reasoning to it other than that, which to a lot of folks probably sounds crazy. But, in saying that, I absolutely love it so far, and have no regrets on selling up with the others

A drive back across North Wales on Saturday evening to the ferry, through seriously nasty weather, only helped quicken the bonding process, and once on the ferry I had to be told to get off the car deck because I spent too long continuously circling the thing biggrin





The car itself is a year 2000, 2-owner with 65k miles on the clock, and is completely standard from what I've been able to work out. It came with a stack of old invoices & MOTs, a well stamped-up service book (all Audi main dealer bar two specialist ones from the mid-00s), and I'm delighted to say very few rattles. Actually, I really do notice an improvement in build quality over contemporary cars from Munich

The performance is accessible and there's a fair old shove in the back once the turbos are on song, and whilst not the most "feelsome" of driving experiences I do love the all-weather ability the car possesses. It also seems to have a real character to it. It's not a car I've bought for weekend giggles (my Mini GP will hopefully take care of that), but more for longer trips away, especially abroad. Although it does seem to like these establishments nearly as much as my old M5 did:




Other than that, I'm getting a few bits & pieces, mainly suspension-related, replaced on it and then it's time for a bit of driving!




Thanks for reading! smile

Edited by Leins on Friday 20th November 19:25

mark.c

1,090 posts

179 months

Friday 20th November 2015
quotequote all
Lovely thumbup

I have a big soft spot for these and narrowly missed out on buying one from a good friend last year, same colour as yours and equally as unmodified. Have fun and if you can update this thread with how you get on with it I'll gloss over my phone not ringing over the sale of the C2.7 AND the M5 wink

Congrats smile

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
mark.c said:
Lovely thumbup

I have a big soft spot for these and narrowly missed out on buying one from a good friend last year, same colour as yours and equally as unmodified. Have fun and if you can update this thread with how you get on with it I'll gloss over my phone not ringing over the sale of the C2.7 AND the M5 wink

Congrats smile
Will do Mark. Actually there's quite a few Alpina fans in a bit of a mood with me lately for not selling them that particular car biggrin

I suspect I will be on the search for something else a bit more "old school" again in the not too distant future to go with these


Ecurie Ecosse said:
Magnificent!
Thanks very much. It's my first foray into performance Audis, but I'm very impressed already

James 33

366 posts

103 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Would love to own a good clean one of these. Prices seem toi be on the up and up though so dobt i will ever be in a position. Good investment though. Enjoy.

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
^^^ Thanks James. Hard to know where the whole market is going longer-term, but I'm actually hoping for all our sakes that it sorts itself out. Too many other cars I'd also like to own down the line that are currently commanding house-like prices

James 33

366 posts

103 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Was looking at them the other day and seeing good ones up for sale for around £20k now. They where around the £12k mark not so long ago.

Spoof

1,854 posts

214 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
I loved mine. far from standard, but unbelievably quick.



Replaced with a B7, not anywhere near as quick, but dynamically a bit better.


Escort3500

11,829 posts

144 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Lovely car and a nice report OP. The design of these cars is pretty timeless and they still look really good IMHO. Nicely understated, so a semi-sleeper as only those in the know are aware what they are smile

Onetrackmind

813 posts

212 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Looks great. I'm probably going to be moving to Ireland and have noticed it doesn't seem very performance car friendly. Especially the tax. 5 cars must have been horrendous. Out of interest, is there much of a petrolhead community over there?

gforceg

3,524 posts

178 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Good job Leins, it looks great. I think this is the last generation of Audi I liked and that is a bit of a favourite.

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Spoof said:
I loved mine. far from standard, but unbelievably quick.

Replaced with a B7, not anywhere near as quick, but dynamically a bit better.
Very nice. Planning to keep this one standard for the moment


Escort3500 said:
Lovely car and a nice report OP. The design of these cars is pretty timeless and they still look really good IMHO. Nicely understated, so a semi-sleeper as only those in the know are aware what they are smile
Thanks. There are quite a number of TDIs floating about here with "RS4" badges stuck to them, so it doesn't seem to attract too much attention - which suits me just fine!



gforceg said:
Good job Leins, it looks great. I think this is the last generation of Audi I liked and that is a bit of a favourite.
Cheers, kind of feel the same myself. I love the first three RS Audis, but just can't get as excited about the later ones, even though they might be "better" cars


Onetrackmind said:
Looks great. I'm probably going to be moving to Ireland and have noticed it doesn't seem very performance car friendly. Especially the tax. 5 cars must have been horrendous. Out of interest, is there much of a petrolhead community over there?
Thanks. No the tax is pretty horrific, so what happens is people put their performance cars away during the winter and only tax for 3 or 6 months. There is quite a bit of petrolhead stuff to do during the summer though, usually organised through some of the Irish web-sites and especially in the larger cities. Around Dublin, there are monthly Cars & Coffee meets, track days in Mondello, classic and brand-specific shows, ... So it's not too bad. Also, there are some great driving roads over here

One thing though, try and get you cars sorted 6 months before you move over here, that way you can bring them in "VRT exempt". That means you won't have to pay to register the cars here and get your Irish plates

frg530

453 posts

157 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Lovely looking motor. I've admired these since '99/00 when I first started seeing them on the road. Test driven a couple over the years but never found the right one, a misano one that is. I was in the position to buy this time last year but impatience got the better of me by January and I made the massive mistake of buying a C5 RS6. I'm sure I'd still have it if I'd bought a B5.

Hope you get plenty of enjoyment out of it.

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
^^^ Thanks very much. I'm not usually a fan of red cars, but Misano is a great colour for these cars - the mirror caps and roof rails work really well with it I think

Pity about your C5 though

mwstewart

7,554 posts

187 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
I had a glance at this (advert - not car) and it seemed like the best for a while. They are very thin on the ground now, as I'm sure you're aware! Enjoy.

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Saturday 21st November 2015
quotequote all
Thanks, yes not that's anything wrong with modified or higher mileage cars, just that personally I wanted a standard, lower-miles one. It's not 100% perfect (what secondhand car is?!), but it is very tidy, just requiring a bit of time and effort to really get it to how I want. Plus the history is quite comprehensive:



Edited by Leins on Saturday 21st November 23:30

djdest

6,542 posts

177 months

Sunday 22nd November 2015
quotequote all
Awesome car, I loved mine!
I too had an Avus, but was modded.
I run a register for them on Audi SRS with over 500 cars on, I've also got old photos for pretty much all of them too.
If you're happy to PM me the reg I can see if its already on there, I might also have an old photo of it too smile

Edit:
Thread here: http://audisrs.com/about36097.html

And a gratuitous shot of my old one biggrin



Edited by djdest on Sunday 22 November 12:42

E30M3SE

8,465 posts

195 months

Sunday 22nd November 2015
quotequote all
thumbup

frg530

453 posts

157 months

Sunday 22nd November 2015
quotequote all
Leins said:
^^^ Thanks very much. I'm not usually a fan of red cars, but Misano is a great colour for these cars - the mirror caps and roof rails work really well with it I think

Pity about your C5 though
I love the colour, I had a TT240 in it, looked brilliant in the evening sunlight. I think it was the C5 gearbox that put me off, I'd traded in an SMG E46 M3 for it and had a ZF 8 speeder in my daily 530d at the time, in comparison the tiptronic 'box felt like it had come from the ark!


Escort3500

11,829 posts

144 months

Sunday 22nd November 2015
quotequote all
M
djdest said:
Awesome car, I loved mine!
I too had an Avus, but was modded.
I run a register for them on Audi SRS with over 500 cars on, I've also got old photos for pretty much all of them too.
If you're happy to PM me the reg I can see if its already on there, I might also have an old photo of it too smile

Edit:
Thread here: http://audisrs.com/about36097.html

And a gratuitous shot of my old one biggrin



Edited by djdest on Sunday 22 November 12:42
Those B7 rims look really good cloud9

Leins

Original Poster:

9,422 posts

147 months

Sunday 22nd November 2015
quotequote all
djdest said:
Awesome car, I loved mine!
I too had an Avus, but was modded.
I run a register for them on Audi SRS with over 500 cars on, I've also got old photos for pretty much all of them too.
If you're happy to PM me the reg I can see if its already on there, I might also have an old photo of it too smile

Edit:
Thread here: http://audisrs.com/about36097.html

And a gratuitous shot of my old one biggrin
PM sent, much appreciated! smile. That B5 looks great btw


E30M3SE said:
thumbup
Have to say it does feel a little bit strange being without a single BMW for the first time in 15 years



frg530 said:
I love the colour, I had a TT240 in it, looked brilliant in the evening sunlight. I think it was the C5 gearbox that put me off, I'd traded in an SMG E46 M3 for it and had a ZF 8 speeder in my daily 530d at the time, in comparison the tiptronic 'box felt like it had come from the ark!
That gearbox really does have a terrible reputation