Six months ownership - a warning to Newbies!!

[chunky79]

I change my mind a lot but spending this sort of money on a C5 in a year shows a lot of dedication and madness. Saying that,I think I was on 14k a year last time I added it all up and even thinking about that pisses me off now. As with the purchase price plus £14k I could have had myself a nice 997 Turbo. I know which I'd rather have. To make it worse I've been driving a brand new A8 around lately and I see where DK is coming from when he calls the C5 a dinosaur. Getting back in the C5 was like going back to a Nokia 3210. To make it worse the ride is hard, it doesn't handle well I don't think the interior build is that great and the seats aren't supportive enough. Looks, twin turbos, rarity and the fact it was my one of my dreams to own one is why I've kept it, and I love the 844nm of torque and that V8 noise a lot. But it isn't worth 14k a year.

But things get better with age mate, just look at that girl who fecked you off at the weekend. The C5 RS6 is a beaut. Said the true fisherman.

[Mr V10]

Well at least I didn't blow 14k on her, she'll be back. She's just back and forth with a bf, soon as he sees me and her in the audience on TV at the comedy show I took her to after dinner, it'll be over.

[chunky79]

Did you grab her jugs every time you were on camera?

Just getting back on topic. Newbies/ potential buyers, if you purchase a well looked after car from on here then you shouldn't really be spending anywhere near this much money on repairs. However, if you buy a cheap -£10k pile of dump then you are looking for trouble imo.

[Daveperc]

However, if you buy a cheap -£10k pile of dump then you are looking for trouble imo.

Thanks for your vote of confidence in my buying skills!!

Sure you may not need a box (=50% of my outlay), but £2K to stage 1 and a further £3.5 K to stage 2, bearing in mind that each upgrade will unearth underlying weaknesses is not that bad. Add in £1K for tyres and £500 for servicing (I've done 10K miles in the past 6 months) and you'll have a bill like mine.

Of course - you could just park it in a garage and smile at it as you walk past - that works out cheaper!

Dave

[chunky79]

I agree with servicing and tyres but upgrades surely can't go into the normal price of running the car.
So, I take it your new one was in the cheap pile of dump bracket then Dave?

[ChrisRS6]

As a comparison to the upgrade route that others in this thread have talked about, in the 3-ish years that I have owned my RS6 I have just gone down the normal maintenance and servicing route - no fancy upgrades and from memory it's probably around:

Servicing - 2 main services and one mini-service (mix of Audi main dealer and MRC) probably come in at £1.5k
4 tyres which were needed when I bought it came in at just over £1k
Front brake discs and pads were around £1.2k
Air-con re-gas and replace pressure sensor around £200
And apart from immaterial bits and bobs like cleaning products, tax and MOTs, this is just under £4k for 3 years and 15k miles.

A bit higher than other sensible family estate cars, granted, but what other family estate cars sound as good and offer you such 'safe overtaking' on sweeping A roads


Budgeting for a gearbox replacement is also a prudent step to prevent you having to do something rash, like break / sell / scrap it when the inevitable happens.

[swannny]

I've owned mine since January of this year, to date I've spent just under £8k,

Although £3k of that was just spent on odd bits and bobs to bring it up to standard. Next year I plan on new leather interior, so that'll hit the pocket too!

[yorkrs6+]

these cars are for the enthusiast, which means that we all suffer from the same mental disorder when we find out something is wrong ... We have to fix... A squeak... A knock... Stone chip. You name it, if we spot it or find out something is wrong - it finds itself on a endless must get it sorted ASAP shopping list.

The c5 rs6 is a rare motor and will get rarer as time goes on, which is why its important to keep those that are left in perfect fettle. Eventually they will become an appreciating asset (be it an expensive one to run - thats a given) but at some point the best examples will break even and will command a higher price!

Look at the bmw e34 m5 3.8 - good examples are pushing £15k. I almost bought one 5 years ago for £4k. Wish I had as these are another must have owned one cars!

[mik15]

you're right yorkrs6+....

bought mine a year ago and have spent so far about £6.5k and another at least £3K is about to be spent this winter when the engine will be pulled out to replace the EGT, O2, oil cooler pipe, torque converter, head gaskets and what ever else will show any signs of fatigue...the car runs well now, except for the TC error and one of the EGT sensor, all the other are ok, but most of the work is preventive since the motor will be out and wouldn't be wise not to replace the other bits and bobs which will fail at some point...definitely not cheap to maintain it and is not a car to buy with your head as any accountant would tell you that it's a black hole in your pocket, i've been thinking of selling it but TBH every time i see it in the parking when a leave work and then when i drive it all these thoughts go away like a bad dream, for me it is like a dream come true and i really love this car with all its bad habits:)....however i will buy a second car just to keep the mileage down on the RS and as a consequence the maintenance costs, a much better solution than selling it!

[Gripper1]

As a comparison to the upgrade route that others in this thread have talked about, in the 3-ish years that I have owned my RS6 I have just gone down the normal maintenance and servicing route - no fancy upgrades and from memory it's probably around:

Servicing - 2 main services and one mini-service (mix of Audi main dealer and MRC) probably come in at £1.5k
4 tyres which were needed when I bought it came in at just over £1k
Front brake discs and pads were around £1.2k
Air-con re-gas and replace pressure sensor around £200
And apart from immaterial bits and bobs like cleaning products, tax and MOTs, this is just under £4k for 3 years and 15k miles.

A bit higher than other sensible family estate cars, granted, but what other family estate cars sound as good and offer you such 'safe overtaking' on sweeping A roads

Budgeting for a gearbox replacement is also a prudent step to prevent you having to do something rash, like break / sell / scrap it when the inevitable happens.

I'm of the same thoughts regarding the 6. You can make it as expensive as you want or take steps to keep costs within certain limits. Bills of £20K+ in a year on cars like these seems like pure folly to me. Especially when you look at what else is available for what you spent.

No doubt about it parts are expensive but if you don't need anymore than the plentyful power already available. You don't take take it to the dealer for every little niggle and can live with the odd stonechip then they needn't be ruinously expensive, just expensive!

I'm one of those who bought a sub £10K piece of <beep> as if price always in every instance reflects condition. However spending more on a 'cared for forum owned' example doesn't look like it's necassarily the right path to walk. Mine had all the right bills/receipts from TPS and MRC, and through conversation with the owner made my decision to purchase. So far so good.
Time will tell how things will go, but if the worst should happen I've promised myself not to get so attached to a car that breaking it proves a problem to me. It will be a purely cost vs value decision.

In the meantime I'll enjoy it for what it is (which is a great/amazing car) and not go through the modifying heartache and financial ruin again.

[ChrisRS6]

Don't get me wrong Gripper, I probably would take it to have every little niggle fixed, it's just there haven't been many niggles other than the ones I talked about having fixed... have I just tempted fate by saying that?!

I took my time to ensure I bought one with bits already sorted out (DRC, cam-belt changed, low milage, s/h and bills from some of the specialists talked about on here etc) and was willing to pay a premium (paid around £17.5k a few years ago) on the purchase to try to minimise payments on fixing/maintaining.

Modifying isn't my personal cup of tea, so I have 'saved' cash by not doing any, but am prepared to spend cash to ensure it is maintained in tip-top condition.

Eg, if I knew a cam-belt change was due, I'd probably get the alternator replcaed at the same time as a precautionary measure (hovering around the 60k mile mark which is a known time for alternator failure to hit).

A mixture of buying a good-un, doing low milage (7k a year), strict maintenance, not modifying... oh, and I suspect, a big dollop of luck, have kept my bills down.

[SteveH]

*Phenomenal

Well done Dave, I have nominated you for a knighthood for services to RS6 ownership. Good Man. After all, the main thing these days, with the age of the cars, they are not really depreciating.

In the last 4 years of my current car ownership and 100,000 miles, total cost of maintenance including tyres on my 6 Series is probably about 4 grand total (I have no idea how I am still on my original discs and pads on the front!? when my RS6 used to last 10,000 miles between pad change, plus the tyres on the 635d last nearly 50,000 miles between changes), so a massive cost of £1,000 per year, however its probably depreciated by about £40,000 so true cost to me is about £1,000 per month! plus fuel and insurance etc.

There is a new shape M6 in my local stealers... price tag of £103,000. That bad boy is going to lose £1,000 per week in the first year of ownership at least in depreciation.

Bizarrely, I reckon that the best value premium performance saloon car on the market is probably the Porsche Panamera. Those things are holding their value quite well and not too bad running costs.

[Daveperc]

Thanks Steve

"Sir Daveperc" sounds OK I think!!

The total spend is obviously heavily influenced by the decision to put in the new box. I could have live with the slipping TC for a while, but as I intend to keep it, there was little benefit in waiting.

After that, most of the items were preventative maintenance - sure I could have gone on with things like the corroded oil pipes - but one day they are going to break and then it could be a whole lot more expensive!

I think that's the point newbies don't get. They buy an 8-10 year old car and don't realise that plenty of bits are getting to the end of their life. If you plan to keep the car you really do need to invest in them. Of course I could spend less - but I would be building up the risk in the form of a "debt to the car" which one day will come and get me!

TBH if I were buying and the owner of a car this age told me it hadn't cost too much in maintenance over the past few years I would be thinking "stored up problems"! I bought mine knowing there were several items needing fixing, and when we have found other faults have taken the view better to fix now rather than leave them.

Glad you're enjoying the BM - but you'll not get me out in one of them!!

Dave

[SteveH]

Wonder what the highest mileage RS6 is? if I still had mine now it would be nearly 200,000 miles, would be intrigued Bam to know the mileage on my previous'un...

[bam_bam]

121-ish.