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My car was in at the new Maidstone dealership for a 10,000 mile oil service today. They were happy for me to supply my own oil (from Opie, saving me about £90 I think), and I also asked them to check the suspension and steering arms/bushes, dampers, and oil cooler pipes. The guy I dealt with - Carl - said they would do this free as part of the 100-odd point check that they do. I was also offered to have the car washed and vac'ed out, but I declined as I had done it before the Kent meet yesterday.

After a pretty decent coffee from their machine I then enquired if I could have the use of their B8 RS4 demo for the day, and after a quick licence check the keys were handed over to me without hesitation

No work for me today, so I went for a pre and post-lunch drive totalling over 100 miles of Kent's best A and B roads. At 17 mpg (I thought I was trying, but I think it's probably more economical than the B7) all it cost me was £40 in fuel

Lovely car; needs a bit more noise as standard, I like the throttle blips on down-shifts and the speed of the gear changes with the paddles makes it even more of an overtaking weapon than our cars I think. It perhaps looks a bit too subtle for an RS, but having said that it did seem to attract a fair bit of attention - maybe the colour helped with that.

Here it is:



Anyway, went to pick my car up. They have a tech there who specialises in the RS models and I was assured he had given it a very thorough check over. It's currently on 69,000 miles. No issues found with the arms or bushes, but an advisory on a very minor weep from the front near-side damper. Think I will speak to Unit 20 about this re. a repair for this as the other three were fine (all four were replaced under warranty in 2009). Might also speak to Audi UK to see if they will consider any goodwill in the circumstances.

The oil cooler pipes were just starting to corrode but not too bad, so they just coated the joints with something to help prevent it getting any worse.

Coolant was low and I agreed to a pressure test and top up. No problems found from the pressure test thankfully, so peace of mind there. Did get an advisory on rear disks and pads, which is probably fair enough as I don't think the disks have ever been done. Was quoted £900 for this, so I think I'll get a couple of indie quotes first!

Total cost inc. the pressure test and coolant top up was £180, and the oil cost me £80 ish, so pretty happy with that. All in all a very good experience, and the B8 for the day was a bonus!

p.s. have posted a few more pics of the B8 in their picture thread

Nice one buddy..contact Stoke Audi on rear discs or another site trader for best quote.

Not a bad price that mate .

That's what I call a result!!!

I must remember to get my own oil for the next service! It works out so much cheaper.

What a result... My last courtesy car experience (at a BMW main dealer) was a diesel mini for the weekend. I would love to try a B8 for a few hours

sonny wrote:Nice one buddy..contact Stoke Audi on rear discs or another site trader for best quote.

Not a bad price that mate .

Cheers sonny, will do. Perhaps Unit 20 could do the brakes at the same time as the damper... Might treat myself to a Loba clutch and flywheel at the same as the pedal tends to stick down sometimes when when giving it the full tin of beans. Will perhaps drop Grizz a pm.

Nice result from a main Stealers indeed!!!

Not a bad price and even better that you got the B8 for the day.

Paulrs4 always rates Maidstone Audi.

Not had a day as good as yours sutts, but my B7 was in for a service today at Leeds Audi, and they let me take a B8 they had in, only 20mins drive, but im liking the B8 more now, i think it looks better in the flesh than all the pictures ive been viewing, below the one at Audi Leeds i took out.

Nice one db, the B8's definitely sit better on the bigger dished wheels.

So did either of you order one then!?

The do sit well sutts, i found the suspension, seemed to be alot harder than the B7.

535dboy im seriously thinking about it now thou, was abit disappointed at what they offered me for my B7 (taking into consideration i bought it from Leeds Audi last May at a price of £30,450) only offered me £21,000 shes only got 22,000miles aswell

sutts wrote:My car was in at the new Maidstone dealership for a 10,000 mile oil service today. They were happy for me to supply my own oil (from Opie, saving me about £90 I think). They have a tech there who specializes in the RS models and I was assured he had given it a very thorough check over.

That's well worth remembering REF the oil, also I think the stealers should advertise the fact that they have RS tech's - it allows us to make more informed decisions. I've not used Maidstone Audi but I do use East Kent Audi - and I have had nothing but excellent service from them as well [Including repatriation of my A4 SLINE free under warranty from deepest France after it hit a known injector failure - they even paid for me and the wife to go out for dinner as a way of saying sorry!] - It's good to know that us owners in Kent and neighbouring counties have a specialist to hand if we have issues/questions. When mine is due for oil - I'll ask them as well If I can provide the oil. Did you give them 8 or 9l ?

Cheers

Kev

I gave them 10 litres Kev, and got about 1/2 a litre back! The manual states it takes 9.6 litres - it's a lot of oil....

Opie Oils were doing a special offer recently that was along the lines of buy 4 litres and get a one litre top up bottle free, so I ordered two lots of this. Good delivery times, and they include the black fabric 1 litre bottle holder and a top up kit with paper funnel and gloves etc.

dutchbarge wrote:The do sit well sutts, i found the suspension, seemed to be alot harder than the B7.

Yep, on rougher roads I found Dynamic mode was pretty uncomfortable and bouncy.