High mileage diesel S4 worth a punt?

murphaph

Hi all,

My friend is looking to sell his S4 next year. He is a sales rep for his own company and has clocked up 240k km on it in the 5 years he's owned it from new but I know that these are almost all Autobahn miles. He drives very long distances for work, like right across Germany in one go sort of driving. He is of the opinion that the car is starting to become more trouble than it's worth and that he "needs" a new car (to be fair he distributes products in the automotive sector and showing up in an older car probably would raise a few eyebrows, although to me the car he has still looks lovely). He only just had the TB replaced on it at great expense and he's going to have the 4 discs and sets of pads done in the next couple of weeks. It's a lovely car despite the mileage. Inside is like new, with hardly any wear and tear. I am "pretty handy" at looking after cars myself but this one is full of expensive stuff to go wrong. We do not need a flash car and we don't drive all that much really but he's talking about flogging it for just 12k. I can't help but think that it could be worth a gamble at that sort of price which seems below market value to me. Obviously it would be entirely sold as seen with no comeback should the automatic gearbox pack it in a week later, but he would say if he thought anything was "off". I haven't even asked him the exact spec of the car as it hasn't interested me up to now. I haven't yet mentioned that I may be interested in buying it either.

Thoughts? Leave well alone and be happy our little cheapo Dacia is the simplest thing in the world to fix. It just seems like a lot of nice car for relatively little money so it's got me thinking. I wasn't in the market for a different car at all.

Cheers.

Buddy Bubs

12k for a 5 year old S4? This isn't in Ireland I'm guessing based on your post. Either way, super value. I got 17.5k for an 8 year old 2.0tdi A6 in September. Half the mileage of the S4 but still.......if you don't want the S4 ill take it! It's not an RS4 as regards expensive parts, more a top of the range diesel A4 but I'm sure it's a lovely car.

User1998

You need to figure out if its actually worth €12k. It may be below market value but its very high mileage. Are there any other higher mileage examples that you can compare it against?

If its good value and you have a bit set aside for potential repairs then yeah why not. The driving he was doing is ideal in terms of minimising engine wear. I assume its always been serviced on time?

murphaph

Yeah it's in Germany. The car would have been serviced according to the schedule and always at his Audi dealer. It is a good bit cheaper than other high mileage (older) examples I can find. German cars fetch more than equivalent non-German cars here as Germans seem to think German cars are invariably better, something I don't believe is true. I'm going to have to look at the insurance and tax and see how much that would cost us also. I don't care about prestige etc. so if the insurance is silly money compared to what we pay currently I would probably be out. Oh there are two sets of alloys included, one summer set and one winter set.

bazz26

Diesel S4? I don't think Audi ever made a diesel S4. Do you mean A4?

Edit: Looks like they sold a diesel S4 on the Continent alright.

littlevillage

OP, you haven't mentioned the Elephant in the room ? Its left hand drive, correct? Which means if you import it into Ireland it'll be a pain in the hoop driving it on anything other than motorways.

Also you will have to pay vrt etc.

what engine does it have ? presumably the 3.0 petrol ? with permanent 4wd. That's going to be thirsty.

I think, regardless of it being a bargain, decide if it suits you?

GavPJ

This is a left hand drive car yeah?

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120025837#Comment_120025837

Didn't they go diesel with the S4 and S6 in the 2010s? Or was it just the S6?

bazz26

Only with the later C8 and B9 models afaik but I'm no Audi expert.

Is the OP living in Germany too or looking at importing to Ireland? If importing then VRT could be fairly helty on that car making it less of a bargain. Running and maintenance costs will be substantially higher than a Duster too irespecitively.

User1998

I assumed OP was living in Germany. Definitely wouldn’t be worth importing with VRT and high road rax, and left hand drive.

murphaph

Yeah I live in Germany. The car would be staying here, no VRT issues. It's the high mileage I'm concerned about but they are 90% motorway miles. He sells to places that wouldn't even be in city centres, on the outskirts in industrial estates, usually close to motorway exits. Genuinely very little urban mileage on the car. He lives down the road from me about 3 minutes drive to the Autobahn from his house.

Buddy Bubs

If you're a person into cars and can accept it may need more care (money) thrown at it than the dacia you mentioned then go for it.

Also living in Germany you will get to use the power if you so desire. It should be a very well specced car too, I imagine an S4 in Germany would be.

User1998

The most reliable cars I’ve had were the high mileage ones that were relatively new. VW’s with 250km+ and full service history but only 6/7 years old. Never had a problem with any of them and I had a few.

murphaph

Thanks for your thoughts folks. Yeah it looks like I will have to seriously consider it then.