Three generations of RS4 Avant, all within £995 of each other - which will it be?
At the moment, the first of the new
Audi RS5s are arriving in the UK. PH has one on loan actually, with a full review to follow next week, and initial impressions are exactly as you might expect: it's very fast, rather plush and, er, very fast.
Anyway, more on that to follow. What's exciting about the RS5, being the curious bunch that we are, is that its arrival means the
RS4 counterpart can't be far away. And we all know a fast estate is cooler than a fast coupe.
Indeed, there's an argument to say that the RS4 is the quintessential RS product. It can trace its heritage back to the RS2, the most successful RS products have been Avants and - dare it be said - one or two of them have been quite good.
Now, in a fortuitous twist of residual values and availability, all three generations of RS4 - B5, B7 and B8 - are for sale at the same money in the PH classifieds. Alright, so two are £34,000 and one is £34,995, but they are certainly close enough for a generation game classifieds comparison to, well, commence.
In all honesty, £34,000 is the very top of B5 (the twin-turbo V6 model) values; this
Imola Yellow RS4 is said to be in immaculate condition and has covered just 60,000 miles, though £20,000 is enough to get into the
original RS4. That being said, those are going to be cars with comfortably in excess of 100,000 miles, and RS4s have a reputation for being a bit pricey to run. Still, it looks great, goes fast and would appear to be rather collectible at the moment - it was only on sale for a year, remember.
The B7 V8 RS4 was not only more widely available, it was also a better received car: indeed, pre-R8, this was the model that proved Audi could make real driver's cars. As such, there are more cars on offer used, which means the very earliest and leggiest version are now less than £15K. However, for the basis of this comparison there's a black Avant with just 19,000 miles on it for sale at £34,995. It's the only manual V8 here, indeed one of few estates with this much power and a manual gearbox, which must always hold appeal. But would it be the one you'd have?
Because also there for £34,000 is this B8 RS4, the later car that came exclusively with the dual-clutch transmission. Not only was it a good gearbox, it was also paired to the most powerful engine yet seen in an RS4 - the V8 was now up to 450hp by 2012. For sale at Huddersfield Audi, this
white car has 35K on it and comes with the optional sports exhaust (hurrah) and the optional dynamic steering (boo). However, at this sort of level many more of the most recent RS4s are for sale, this
Sepang Blue car looking especially appealing for a couple of thousand pounds more. The B8 may not have been as lauded as the B7 at the time - you can partly blame the fantastic C63 for that - but it shouldn't be dismissed. It's amazing just how much more enticing 8,500rpm V8s become when they continue to be replaced by turbos...
So there you have it: one amount of money, one badge, and three generations of fast Audi estate history. Each has their appeal, but which will it be: the rare original, the surprise class act or the modern V8 uberwagon? We'd love to know your thoughts...
