Some stats from my C5 ownership. Bought in April 2011 for AU$60k (£39k back then, £35k in today's money) - only approx 50 were brought to Australia in 2003/4 for an asking price of AU$250k back then. And since I collected it from the Melbourne dealer, I've had to do this little list: timing belt/water pump/thermostat, replace DRC with Bilstein PSS9s (thank you Unit20!), Hotchkis anti-roll bars front and rear, deal with major secondary coolant leak (thank you Audi in Brisbane for under-estimating the work needed for that major repair), deglaze brake discs, replace transmission output seal (which also required gear box oil top up (??) but cured the often jerky/thumpy changes in 1st/2nd/3rd), drive shaft boots all round, fuel tank leak (recalled in the US but not anywhere else it seems), replaced the upper control arms with adjustables from Gruvenparts (big win!), replaced the airconditioning compressor after the original disintegrated, new front pads and rotors after getting totally fed up with screeching and fading of the rubbish 3rd party ones the previous owner had installed, a new battery, and finally the compression bushes for the front suspension which was creaking badly. Also remove old knobbly so that Goodyear F1 Asy2 would fit. And also got some "potato peeler" alloys as hand me downs from a late model S5 with Pirelli Pzero Rossos - the factory versions. For the last 3 years the car has run beautifully, hardly missing a beat. Cost of all this was AU$17k for parts repairs labour - and servicing was an additional AU$4k. When I compare with my previous drives, this was actually very reasonable.
An unexpected occurrence (rush of blood to the head/giving in to temptation, whatever) recently means I'm now living in C7 land. Quite a jump, and a totally different beast. Totally mad performance when asked to do so, but runs like a limo the rest of the time. The C7 doesn't have the raw appeal of the C5 though, I'm still in two minds about whether I've done the right thing here. But the comfort of the C7's air suspension is a welcome change from the more direct ride of the PSS9s. Then there is still that V8 sound, the 0-100km/h sprint, insane overtaking ability, and now the load space of the Avant too.
The C5 is now in the hands of a new owner somewhere in Oz, and I'd like to think driving perhaps one of the most sorted C5s in the country (although I was living every day wondering when the gearbox would finally tell me it needed some serious TLC). 2003 C5s have dropped in price to about AU$22k now. As for the C7, well, scary prices new, where they can easily hit AU$300k with a few options ticked. The one I picked up is just over three years old but with only 14000km on the clock - hardly run in at all and well under half its new price.
Here is one of the last photos I took of my old C5 RS6.
