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Hi RS'ers

An entire family (from Denmark) loving Audis and driving A4 cab and A8 at the moment being on the 6'th Audi in the family, me having had an B5 RS4 a little while ago- loved it to bits.

When the three of us started looking for a car we could all enjoy for the summerhouse we contemplated the E60 530DA Touring. But having found out we only drive about 4.000 miles a year during vacation and finding RS6's being close in price, we actually decided on an RS6 for the summerhouse because it's such a fun car.

Then I stumpled upon this forum and got pretty dismayed reading about the costs of having an RS6 on the road.
Now we are contemplating an B6 S4 Tip. instead as there seems to be less (almost zero) problems associated with running these.

I gather these are the main issues with the RS6: DRC, Gearbox, Chainbelt.
How expensive are the Bilstein, a new gearbox (if it goes wrong), and chainbelt service (how often)?

From what I can read there isn't any worries associated with the S4, correct me if I am wrong.

We all love the looks of the RS6, the noise and the immense power. But it looks to be 4.000 very expensive miles a year if going the RS6 route when factoring in the costs?

Anyone had both that can give a comparison?

Thanks a lot everyone, I enjoy having found this forum there are lots of incredibly knowledgable people inhere!

Best regards

well, there are many tails of woe on the drc and gearbox front in this ad other forums. so you have been warned. warranty is your friend...

for me, i have had 0 of these issues with my car over 20k kms. i still have the original gearbox and drc is flawless.

but i have a full audi-backed warranty.

Hi Skiwi

Thanks for your reply.
I'm very happy to hear your car has been faultless.
A warranty is not possible for me though since I will be buying the car in Germany and exporting it to France. The Germans cancel their warranties when the car is exported unfortunately.
A friend of mine if on his 3rd RS6 now and he loves them to bits as well. That being said his first had the DRC, gearbox and both turbos changed under warranty around the 90k km mark. The turbo failure is supposed to be quite rare I gather though. But he drives the cars rough and doesnt let the turbos and oil cool down. His other 2 cars have been good though.

Have a great weekend.

Best regards

The RS6 has an engine that wouldn't be out of its depth in a supercar, the S4's would, consequently the running costs would be higher..

The s4 probably gives 80% percent of the real world perfomance but a lot lesser sense of occasion, and for the miles you are quoting i wouldn't get to hung up on the details, the days of cars like the RS6 are probably numbered with all the ecomentalists out there

Have you thought about an S6?
A late one has the same spec, space, and v8 engine note, minus the turbos, DRC, and gearbox woes.
For half the price

Have been driving my wife's A4 Avant diesel this week and got used to it and was thinking yeah this is a nice car with plenty of torque.

Got into the beast today and went, hell yes this is why I bought it!

High running costs but have never driven a car like it in my life.

I might well have to get a second car for the miles I am doing and it is an expensive (and large) toy but wow!!

If you have the money, do it.

round town, a diesel is the way to go, preferably in a small car with auto.

i had an a3 dsg last week for a few days whilst the car was in the shop, and was not enamoured of dsg - give me a proper slush-box for around town. any day.

Hi again

Thank you very much for all the great replies.

There is much to consider and I am very happy to now be able to take these angles you suggest into account when deciding.

To Golfather : Great suggestion! Yes I have thought of the S6 and that is a very good alternative I think. To be honest, I think the S6 is a great car. However I think it is very discreet and seem to be very close in personality and appearance to the A6 4.2 but of course with better brakes and suspension. I think the S6 is a sporty version of the A6 whereas the RS6 is a supercar.
Therefore I actually contemplated the S4 because that - to me at least - is a bit more special and sporty than the A4 range, and more of a sportscar than the S6. A friend of mine has an S6 he bought 5 years ago though and he still loves that car. No doubt that is a great car, but, to me, more of a cruiser. Didn't know the lates S6s have the same engine note as the RS6 - very appealing! That's at least 20% of what I love about the RS6. Sounds like a classic Riva Aquarama! Or a Nascar hehe
I contemplated the old RS4 again but can't justify buying that with such a hard clutch. 50% or the car's running time will be in heavy traffic unfortunately. So it has to be an automatic.

Again thank you all very much for the replies, greatly appreciated!!

Best regards

worth a drive of both to make up your mind. i personally find thes6 to be stodgy and dead - steering and general heaviness, whilst the rs6 is much more "alive" in feel.

i compared the s6 with the s8 and bought the s8 (for the reasons outlined above) before i saw the error of my ways and got the rs6. absolutely no (zero, none, 0, nada) regrets on this move. there are so few around, they are great point-to-point (don't mind what the journalists say - if you've every driven against them on a track you will know that the vast majority can't drive to save themselves), and they have the stealth factor combined with crushing performance....

I hankered after an S6 right up until I drove the RS6. It really depends on what you want, the RS6 is an experience and makes me feel like a kid on Christmas day every time I drive her. Awesome.