Audi A4 (B7) Avant S Line | Shed of the Week
There was a small mountain of semi-fast wagons available to Shed this week - this is the molehill we chose...
Shed has been in a state this week. Or rather, in estates. Almost all of the cars on his SOTW shortlist of sub-£2k cars from PH Classifieds were wagonishly inclined. There was an apparently sound but also apparently re-speedo’ed W124 E280 Merc, a leathery Audi A6 3.0 TDI Avant, a battered old Volvo 850 T5, and even a £1,994 Porsche Cayenne V8. Yep, you read that right, a Cayenne for under £2k. Only the knocking engine, potentially a sign of munched and uneconomic-to-repair cylinder bores, stopped it from appearing here.
Fortunately, there was yet another estate for Shed to chuck his virtual trankliments into, namely this B7 Audi A4 T Avant S Line with the belt/chain-driven EA113 2.0-litre TFSI petrol motor that preceded the all-chain-drive EA888. There was a ‘DTM Edition’ version of the EA113 which was remapped to 217hp/221lb ft but the one we’re looking at here has the 197hp/207lb ft unit which in manual quattro Avant form made it good for a 0-62mph time of 7.5 seconds and a top whack of 145mph. The official combined fuel consumption figure was 32.1mpg and today there’ll be an annual UK road tax burden of £365 a year.
Like the (also directly injected) EA888, the EA113 was a good motor, but also like the EA888 it wasn’t issue-free. The bullet points are worn cam followers, high oil consumption, carbon buildup in the valvegear and turbo difficulties usually connected with diverter valve membrane failures. The carbon problems associated with direct injection engines have been more or less sorted now on modern lumps with combined direct/indirect injection, but for owners of direct injection cars like this one possible solutions included removing the EGR or replacing the PCV valve with a PCV block kit and oil catch tank.
Audis of this vintage were rarely praised for the wonderosity of their drive experience, and the B7 A4 Avants weren’t especially spacious, but they were nicely made. Expressing your respect for the build quality and cabin design was a copy-and-paste exercise for journos back then, and the shine on our 17-year-old shed justifies the praise. A wheel refurb looks overdue but they have rolled over 174,000 miles so that’s fair enough.
Contemporary road tests rated the zippy performance. Scribblers weren’t to know about the problems that would rear up in later years. Talking of rearing up problems, for Shed the ’S’ in early S line Audis often stood for sore. The firm ride you got with that spec played absolute havoc with his farmers. Audi softened the S line ride up a bit as the years went by so our shed shouldn’t be too bad. It has full leather, Bose sound, a towbar and dare we say it a modern feel that doesn’t always feature in Shed’s selections.
Bearing in mind what was said a para or two ago, a good service history on one of these is pretty much essential. In this case, we’re told the car has a full Audi and VAG specialist service history. Most likely this will be the usual three-part lifecycle blend of dealer to start with followed by independent specialists and ending up with Billy Grease-Monkey down a back street somewhere.
Nowt wrong with that of course. Since the postmistress bought an A1, Shed himself has been able to carry out plenty of private VAG servicing in his village workshop and he is also perfectly happy to use the tradesman’s entrance when the situation demands it for his own vehicles.
His view on taking the sump plug out, bunging some new oil in and replacing the odd filter is that there’s very little point in paying dealers big dollar for that just so they can ‘deliver’ a customer experience of carpets, cappuccino machines and thinly-disguised contempt. He can achieve the same result for peanuts (plus the cost of a John Bull printing set for that all-important book stamp) while happily throwing in some of his own home-brewed contempt on a complimentary basis.
I used to have a B6 S4 Avant and it was epic. It is still the favourite car according to the oh.
This looks great for a shed! Surely this is one of the best one this year!
I remember it being a well built car, but with quite a gutless engine mated to a dreadful CVT Transmission. I remember thinking a nice powerful engine and decent transmission would transform it. She kept it for 3 years and it provided reliable service.
I remember it being a well built car, but with quite a gutless engine mated to a dreadful CVT Transmission. I remember thinking a nice powerful engine and decent transmission would transform it. She kept it for 3 years and it provided reliable service.
A colleague had one albeit a diesel. I remember it feeling really well made but not that big because five adults was a but of a squeeze.
Some good VAG innuendo this week.
Obviously this has done decent miles though, so they will do the miles by the look of it, but I'm now wondering if we ended up with a ropey Friday afternoon engine perhaps?
Could be tempted by the T5 as well as it's a fine shed but needs more than a bit of spit and polish, the Cayenne is brave pill territory and is going to put a dent in your wallet which ever way it goes.
Credit where it is due, this is 17 years old and looks really good, like it has plenty of life left in it.
I remember years ago I had a new gen Saab 9-3 Aero, my mate got a 2.0 diesel A4 Avant at the same time (also in black) and my first abiding memory of it was the utter gulf, nay chasm in interior quality, the Saab was to be honest like cracker toy quality and the Audi just felt like it would be around forever. The second abiding memory is the horrendous rubbery, chemical smell from the floor mats he bought for it, no matter what he did they just kept leeching this toxic aroma that was bad enough to need the windows cracked lest you passed out. It was strange as I got some work shoes from TK Maxx at the same time and they had the exact same smell, think it was stuff made in India from chemical spill mop ups.
My last Audi was a badly neglected disaster of a Mk1 TT, bought in haste as I liked the wheel/paint combo but that had the same feeling, even if it was always breaking.
Get one that hasnt been neglected, keep on top of it and could last decades. I had a 100 in the early 90s, was my first introduction to cars not rusting, was like witchcraft at the time.
Good shed.
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