[Closed] another car thread - RS4 Avant

Open your wallet and smile.

Love my mates when he takes me out . Nice place to be and flys. Cost of parts (not inc labour) is eyewatering.

Cost up a set of front disks for example.

Guy on the Lotus forum reckons on being more expensive to run than his Aston Vantage. Lots of bits under the bonnet means lots of work to get to the broken bits. Lovely cars mind you.

Price up a set of discs and pads. Weep.

My old man had one, parts are expensive not that it went wrong, but service items Discs and pads, tyres were best part of £250 a piece! 22mpg was average in town it was about 15mpg on a run it would get to about 28.

Seriously fast and sound awesome! Worth every penny! I keep threatening to buy one now that they are sensible money.

I would genuinely love one of these, but its the running costs, insurance and tax that is a killer

Its a good way of having a car that is both practical and fun

I don't really ever drive in town, most of my trips are 200 milers in a day to go snowboarding up north or go cycling somewhere so I can live with the running costs I think. Seriously tempted by a couple on Autotrader.

I did look briefly at these when I last changed my car. To be honest a later tuned S4 (as fast - look at the video on Pistonheads) looked more tempting.

As long as you go into ownership expecting mega bills occasionally you will be OK.

I was looking at a couple, but tbh a 3.0i will probably be fun enough and a damn site cheaper to run.

A few years ago I was looking into getting an A6 RS Avant - the previous model with the turbo v8 engine. I did quite alot of research on it to understand running costs. Routine servicing costs are not bad via a specialist rather than an Audi dealer. They are pretty reliable, especially with the Tiptronic boxes as the manuals can eat clutches, so you shouldn't expect any major breakdowns or failures unless your unlucky or buy a pup.

However brakes are pricy as are tyres and on the A6 there was a 35k timing belt replacement which basically involved dismantling the front of the engine to gain access, so about £1500 - however I think the normally aspirated A4 RS Avant has a chain and not a belt?

The main problem is access so any work in the engine bay is time consuming so clocks up alot of labour charges. But other than that I think they're pretty reliable and bullet proof cars.

Anyway, I determined that it was ultimately too pricy to run given all the other things I wanted to keep doing, so could do with the financial risk and burden around my neck so went for a sensible SMax instead.

I love cars, but they are a monumental waste of money.

Mine drank fuel like it was going out of fashion, even on a run it only averaged 23mpg, around town it was 13-15mpg. Tax is ~£500 per year, tyres, servicing and parts you should budget around another £1500 per year, more if you're doing more than the 7k miles per year I was doing. I booted it as it started to developed lots of annoying electrical niggles which required expensive and inconclusive dealer attention.

Fixed costs are around £2500 per year without depreciation and fuel.

[edit] I've just reread this and it's really negative, which doesn't reflect my ownership experience. I liked the car immensely while i owned it, but was strangely relieved when I sold it. I wouldn't buy another unless I could half the running costs.

Its not a direct experience but worth bearing in mind. I got an A6 avant thinking it would be great for the bikes and other outdoor kit but while the boot was long it was low and a pain in the arse to use.

There are stories circulating at the moment of RS4s being broken into for the seats, and that insurers are doing economic write-offs of the cars because the seats are prohibitively expensive to replace...

thanks for the feedback. lots to think about. cheers.

BIL had one and said it cost over £1000 for a set of brake pads and disks (that may have just been fronts).

Another mate had one and it was nicked to do a 'bank job'. Car was stolen from their driveway which was behind electric gates so he had been followed home some time. Luckily they had just gone on holiday the night they came for the car as the house was broken into and a large kitchen knife had been taken upstairs!

Read something the other day that they are still being targeted as they make great getaway vehicles.

So although they're nice they cost a shed load to run and could bring you a whole world of pain if you're unlucky 🙁

I've had an RS6 for the last 7 years. Same engine with a couple of turbos strapped on.

Can echo the above comments.

Thirsty, expensive brakes...and mine was also knicked by being burgled for the keys. (Though recovered less than a mile away with a flat tyre!)

Front pads and disks cost me £900 at an independant ( changed twice since owning the car) and the rears £850 ( changed once)

Cambelt was around £700 as so much of the car comes out to do it.

BUT what a car. It's immaculate, gets comments all the time even though its now 10 years old and can drop most modern day sports cars at the lights fully loaded. It's a heavy car so not suited to driving the back roads, but if effortless overtaking and power is what you're after then you won't go wrong.

Just had a look through pistonheads at the RS4 avants. Lot of car for the money. DO IT!

Sprint blue/ buckets/optic kit would be my choice!

haha, DO IT that's what I want to hear!

I looked at them too and the 1k for pads and discs then made me look at Porsches. The main thing that is swaying me against them though is the fact that they are the blaggers car of choice and i really dont fancy the front door going through just for the car on my driveway.
So now decided for me its going to be a circa 2k van and the best example of a Golf r32 i can find for the money...van for most daily stuff and biking and the r32 for fun and non biking holidays.

B5 Rs4 was an awesome car but never got on with the B7. Too many around to be a classic. RS6 would get my vote now.

Quite liking the new one

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Saw a new one at bedruthan steps on wed morning, big want! Think its nz col who had one for a good while and hugely recommends them whenever they're mentioned...

Eye wateringly expensive to run. You will get an Xmas card from BP. Lots of crazy stuff to go wrong and brakes are 2k plus every 50000kms, tyres not cheap.
Best car I ever had by a country mile. New one is a lame video game in comparison.
Sold mine with regret and would by another tomorrow

My brother has the cabriolet version (he's got three kids as well. Go figure).

If you think £1000 for brakes is costly try pricing up the ceramic ones he has on his.

£5,000 😯 a pair.

Mate had a saloon version. Freakin emense car. Super fast. He got rid though cos people kept trying to nick it!!

He downgraded to a porsche.....

From what I see on here it's cheaper to run a Porsche. Why is the car so heavy on brakes and especially discs ?

geetee1972 - Member
My brother has the cabriolet version (he's got three kids as well. Go figure).

If you think £1000 for brakes is costly try pricing up the ceramic ones he has on his.

£5,000 a pair.

...but the carbon ones should last the life of the car unless it's been heavily tracked, or ragged to within an inch of its life everywhere it's been driven...

Mate had a 2007 B7 RS4 saloon with all that ABT tuning could throw at it from new, i've posted pics of it on here before, eye wateringly expensive to buy and run, weepingly sad to see it go for way less than 50% of it's cost price. Fantastic car for the track/nurburgring and oh so effortlessly fast to drive with over 560bhp and so much torque and grip it cost me 4 sessions at the osteopath to get my neck sorted after i first drove it, not the most comfortable of places to be for a long distance though but in such a car a long distance can usually be covered pretty quickly.

He sold it last year with less than 7000 miles on the clock, full service history, recent new ceramic discs/pads all round and new Pzero tyres with a separate set of oz racing track wheels/sticky tyres included for not much more than a middle of the range bog standard Bmw rep mobile.

I was utterly gutted!, but he is considering a weekend test in an R8 V10, gonna have to prompt him on that one.

jambalaya - Member
From what I see on here it's cheaper to run a Porsche. Why is the car so heavy on brakes and especially discs ?
POSTED 5 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

It's a big car with a lot of power takes a lot to slow them down.

The Audi will be harder on brakes cause its such a heavy barge to haul up, also a Porsche is better balanced than a front end heavy Audi, so the braking is shared more around all 4 brakes rather than 90% of it being done by the front. Also as it is a performance car the brake pad compound will be much more abrasive so you get a higher wear rate anyway.

Not sure carbon brakes would last the life of the car, but they are supposed to work out cheaper on a cost per mile basis. However they are very fragile. If you don't take care when removing a wheel and bash the wheel against the disk it will most likely chip and therefore be scrap - so you have to trust the grease monkey at your local Kwik Fit at tyre change time. You can always swap over to the steel equivalents though.

...but the carbon ones should last the life of the car unless it's been heavily tracked, or ragged to within an inch of its life everywhere it's been driven...

Is that right? Wow, I knew they lasted a long time but thought it was around 100-150k miles.

Girl at work has one, 4.2ltr V8 = it sounds awesome when she starts it up.

@boxxer, @wobbliscott - thanks.

RS's sadly don't hold their value well, a colleague loved his (more than his 911 cab) but lost a lot of money on it.

The question is is it worth the extra costs over an S for what is still an estate car ?

Update: FWIW I am a big Audi fan, have had a A6 Quattro for 7 years, just a standard one - I did look at the RS but the new price was eye watering.

but lost a lot of money on it.

I'm still hankering about a UR Quattro...

Just reading above about how much the brake discs and pads. These are really easy to change for a home mechanic and there are lots of high quality non-Audi suppliers....hi-spec for one.....High performance car servicing need not be so expensive, but there's no way of getting out of the petrol and insurance costs...I was looking at the Jag s type R....

I had one - as mentioned parts are mega money (discs and tyres spring to mind - you'll get through lots). Also book it in to MRC or somewhere similar for a decoke. They have issues where they coke up (not as exciting as it sounds) and you lose lots of power because of it. Mine prior to a decoke was only making 360bhp. They never (as standard) make the claimed 420.

Mine was also stolen - they broke into the house and took both sets of keys

This is mine, pictured where it spent most of its time

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Ah yes I had mine carbon cleaned twice and also remapped. Made a big difference on both counts.

As far as i was aware from my mates RS4 the engine coke "thing" regarding the build up on the valves was a factory recall and remedied for free, because his was ABT full factory spec they gave him a TT 3.2 with full ABT spec while his was trailered away for remedial work to the german HQ @ Kempten im Algau, the TT was a nice enough drive but certainly no match for the RS4, it was very nose heavy and prone to understeer no matter how you drove it.

Unsure on the RS4, but there are no after market disks for the RS6 so you have to pay full wack.

There are disks made by the same company who make the OEM disks without the Audi markings but they are not much cheaper.

I've always wanted to take the plunge with one of these as they're a lot of car for the money. It's always the fuel consumption and running costs that put me off. I've also been looking at the M5 touring which can be had for around £20k now. I have the ability to buy one and wish I could lose my sensible head and just have a really fun car for a year or two but I always end up just keeping my 7 year old Mondeo instead and money in the bank for the mortgage. I'm so boring.... 🙁

I've also heard many stories of the fast estates being nicked as they make great criminal getaway cars, one of my clients had their R32 pinched which was recovered after being used in a raid up north.

If you like them and can afford it, do it. They'll never make a car like this again and that engine is a gem...the noise is sublime. So much better than BM V8's. I know when I was looking at an S4 vs an E46 M3 the Audi seemed to be more reliable with much fewer known faults.

My step uncle had one that he let me drive...loved it. Grey, bucket seats (must have option), carbon interior trim, nav etc. It did drink fuel though at a fairly alarming rate, but our 330 auto is only doing 25mpg at the mo. He's now got an RS6 which I drove at the weekend....hmmmm. Very fast but I preferred the RS4.

My other half's uncle had one to complement is two 993 C4's which was borrowed from his drive and recovered.

MrTall - Member
I've always wanted to take the plunge with one of these as they're a lot of car for the money. It's always the fuel consumption and running costs that put me off. I've also been looking at the M5 touring which can be had for around £20k now. I have the ability to buy one and wish I could lose my sensible head and just have a really fun car for a year or two but I always end up just keeping my 7 year old Mondeo instead and money in the bank for the mortgage. I'm so boring....

Get a more sensible happy median, S4 Saloon/Avant, 335i/d Saloon/touring, 535d Saloon / Touring etc!

Was about to hit the button on one when some kind souls broke into my house to nick my S3 off the drive (was recovered 2 months later re-sprayed, plated and badged. Then a mate with an RS4 got car jacked and beaten before they made off with it.

Hassle if you ask me 😯

@10p. Bloody hell, do you live in SA? 😯

No, Surrey 🙂

My S3 was nicked in Surbiton. Mate's Car Jacking was in Old Windsor. As he parked they walked up asking directions then just opened the door and laid into him. I think he would have got less of a beating had he not resolutely held onto the keys. They found the car a few weeks later on false plates with shotgun cartridges under the seat.

Surrey for ya

great thread, thanks. Maybe I'll stick with the Volvo!

Alpina B3? A lot more stealth.....

I do love a stealth motor