Hi Everyone,
I have always wanted one of these C5 RS6's, I just didn't have the money to buy one a year before I moved here from the UK,
So I have been to the dealer and looked over it three times and gone through the paper work with the car. I found the salesmen there a bit pushy, you just want to be left alone to look over the car and go through the paperwork.
It has been up for sale since Feb 2014 (advertised privately at $48000), Elderly owners apparently moved back to Singapore and couldn't export it back.
The dealer who has it now has dropped the price $10 grand in the last 3 months or so (was $38990, $34990, $29990)
The good bits...
It has had the gearbox rebuilt in Perth at cost of around $12 grand.
It has coilovers fitted which were imported from the UK. c spanner is in the boot.
There is a lot of invoices (almost $40 grands worth) for work carried out since 2011, one of them was something to do with the turbos.
From 15m away it looks good.................
Then there is the Bad.......its a long list i'm afraid.
External
The paint work is shocking....
Front bumper has been very badly repainted, bits in the paint and dry patches in the clear;
Clear coat on the front wings and bonnet appears to be flaking off especially around the stone chips;
Drivers door has the usual chips on the door edge;
Drivers door blade is damaged (loose, chipped and scratched)
Top half of rear drivers door has been painted....badly, really badly. if you look at the pics on the advert you can see the difference between it and the rear quarter and drivers door;
There is a dent in the boot, above the right fog light (to the top right of the number plate)
Rear bumper is badly scratched and the paint on the passenger left corner is all cracked;
The lower half of the rear bumper by the passenger rear wheel arch has runs in the clear;
Passenger rear quarter panel again has been really badly painted as it is quite noticeable (less flake in the pearl)
Passenger rear arch protective sticker is missing, drivers side is all cracked;
Very small dent on the front passenger door just under the swage line;
With the paint work on the passenger quarter and damaged bumper it may have had minor damage to that corner?
The front headlights are in very poor condition (major sun damage/stone chips) Cannot be replaced with A6 ones unless they are for a V8 model.
Front end plastics are very faded;
Large-ish chip in the windscreen;
Big scratch in the drivers wing mirror brushed metal cover;
The sunroof seal has shrunk, there is a big gap between the rear of the glass and the roof;
Some of the rubber seals around the B posts have shrunk;
Roof aerial is missing;
The rims have a few kerbing marks but nothing major;
Tyres from what I can see are okay.
Engine bay looks okay, no visible damage. Inside the front wheel arches a lot of the trim clips to hold the underbody protection have not been put back in correctly;
No smoke or strange noises when I started it.
Inside
There is a lot of wear to the drivers front seat for a car with only 85k on it, (comparing it to my A6 seat which has more than double the miles)
The leather is quite worn and the piping cracked. The seat also wont go to the lowest setting to match the passenger seat and it wobbles slightly.
The rest of the interior leather trim looks okay;
Aftermarket headunit fitted with rear camera;
Some of the internal lights are not working;
The clip is missing to hold the panel in the boot lid closed;
Most of service history/paperwork is in mandarin/malay, didn't see anything on the cambelt changes, As the BCY motor should be done every 35k miles or 50k kms.
Summary
In my opinion it is defiantly not an 'absolute stunner' as they are describing it to be, To bring this car up to the standard it should be it would need to have a full re-spray and not by the epileptic donkey who has done the previous paint work.....and new headlights.
It makes me wonder what the workmanship has been like on the mechanical side of things when the bodywork is so bad, just take a look at the angle of the front number plate......was it really that hard to line it up? and as previously mentioned some of the plastic clips for the underbody plastics have not been pushed in correctly.
There must be some very good reasons why it is still for sale.............after 15 months.
It will take a fair amount of effort to do all the cosmetic work required, not sure myself its worth $28990. If it drove okay and no codes are showing and I code find someone in Perth that actually knows these cars to give it the once over I would probably be interested in it at around $25000 as I could sort the paint work myself, the issue with the seat electrics would need to be addressed for tall people as you feel on it not in it, it may just be something simple but I don't know?
I have not driven the car yet so I have no idea how it drives or if it may need items replacing such as the suspension arms as the bushes are notorious for wearing out on C5 platform. (my A6 needed all 8 arms replacing at 90k)
Anybody thinking about one of these cars please be aware they can be right little princesses at times, items such as the intercoolers leak, lambda sensors fail quite often, there is a plastic pipe that goes from the oilcooler to the block and with age/heat cycles they crack, Brian from quattro motors mentioned it was an engine out job to replace. The fuel breather on the petrol tank have a habit of cracking which means a new tank. (it was a recall item in the US)
A lot of the parts especially the body are unique to the RS6 so A6/allroad parts wont work. although they are a few breakers in the UK who specialise in RS6's so parts could be imported if needed.
I priced front replacement brake discs up out of interest from overseas and the cheapest I could find before shipping were $790 a pair.
If anybody would like any pictures or more information let me know as I go past the dealer if I drive to work.
Hope that is somewhat helpful to any one looking at this car from the eastern states, as I would be slightly annoyed shall we say if I bought this car unseen thinking it was going to be an 'absolute stunner'.
Hopefully when they revise/change the import rules next year we will be able to import these from the UK or Japan.
Regards
