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OK I've got to say I love the look of the B5 RS4 always have since I went to Silverstone in 2000/01 and saw people being driven around on hot laps.

They look good, have purpose, are safe and can move when required.

Now i know forums do tend to pull in alot of people who've had issues with their car (just look at the Porsche owers with their RMS, Audi with their DMC and BMW with their Vanos), but are RS4's really that fragile?

I currently run a 3.2 Carrera (22 years old) as my daily hack and never really have too many issues although it does require constant maintainance.

Are B5 RS4's really high maintenance or are do they just require a little TLC to keep them in fine fettle?

Would appreciate peoples thoughts and opinions.

Thanks,

GP

Generally tough especially for a 380bhp car (just imagine what a F355 needs!) but I was amazed how much I had to spend to keep a good example (Audi Approved Used Car!) in shape over 10k miles - I am fussy and many items could have been ignored by some owners like oil leaks.
The big (but rare) problems are cam wear and turbo faults as well as gearbox issues but get a decent one without these problems and if you look after it with fresh oil and gentle driving from cold, you should be able to avoid suffering.
There are quite a few blown engines but often this due to messed gearchanges.
Brakes are £1500 for parts only all round.

I'll never understand why Audi set them up for longlife servicing when they also boasted it had the most bhp per litre of any production car at the time - to me that means shorter intervals.

Not too bad in my experience over the last few years - bought at 63k now at 74k but other than a set of tyres, track rod end, battery and cam belt cover with two services its been pretty reasonable so far. The mods have been an other matter though - full Milltek, front brakes, short shift,DTS, MRC remap..

I own one about a year now;a really mint one with 48K miles on the clock with a custom remap and didn't have any big problems so far.
A lot of little problems can be prevented by changing MAF,N75 and DV's every few years,before they wear out/fail.
Also check for boostleaks and change fuelfilter every x-miles.
As said above;also throw in fresh oil regurlarly.

One thing i would say is that this car is the first one i own,that won't be sold/traded in anymore