CAB813

Hey There,

I have been looking for a full size Euro Wagon for a period of time, to be fair, mostly 5 series as the the A6 are so hard to come by. So happens that a single owner vehicle, serviced at a single dealership for it's life, has been traded into a sister dealership and available for sale.

I don't know the bugs to look for in an A6 Wagon. This one has just over 120,000 miles on it, looking around $10,000 for a sell price. Vehicle appears to be stunning inside and out.

Outside of normal stuff what insight can you guys help with? I am trying to get the full service history.

Any insight you can offer will be appreciated.

Steve

uberwgn

At 120,000 miles, you need to be prepared to start going thru the entire car. Is the suspension all original? What works? What doesn't? Water leaks?

These cars get to be very expensive to repair unless you can source and handle the repairs personally.

I would spend a good amount of time reading in this forum before saying "I do". While the cars are somewhat unique in the USA, I'd never give $10k for a car with that many miles unless it was covered by something like a CPO warranty.

Steve, welcome aboard !

CAB813

Thanks for the quick response. I am working to try and get service records to see what has and hasn't been done.

No car is perfect...it's just a matter of how much is around the corner. hahahaha

Steve

G-Can

At that mileage, although it might look awesome in and out, a shot load of stuff will need replacing....
Suspension, brakes, gaskets, tensioners, etc 3tc...

Without a good look under the car, and a good scan, don't put any money down.
Or set aside another 3-4k for service.

C6Avant

145,000 miles on my 09
The only thing I have involuntarily sunk money in to was the replacement of two wheel bearings right after purchase. I do most of my own routine maintenance (car is fairly easy to work on for some things).
I have voluntarily spent money replacing the oil separator and a walnut blast of the intake valves.
Purchased with 95,000 miles on it in 2016 for 15k, so I have put 50k on her with pretty much no issues mechanically.
I should also note that there was ZERO maintenance history on it when purchased.
Perhaps I just got lucky, but this thing has been a beast.

I should note that I do add a liter of oil about every 1k miles. Have some oil leaking from (I believe) the rear main seal. Not worth it to fix given the miles on the car, so I just check the oil every time I fill up with gas and add when necessary.

Unruled

I'd agree with the latter experience. Bought mine with about 150.000 miles on it. Audi uses quality stuff, and it the car's been taken care of it just won't be worn out at that point. You'll always have little bits to replace but 3-4,000 dollars worth of replacements? That's just nonsense unless you want everything to be ab-so-lutely perfect and as-new.

G-Can

is there any other way?

either is 100% or nothing. I cant stand clunky, oil leaking, rattling, buzzing cars, chk engine loights, etc etc...

Unruled

Mine is not clunky, rattly or buzzing. Or any kind of annoying. It might handle a little tighter if I change all the bushings as they're original. However as there are no real symptoms, I can't be bothered... It's the law of diminishing returns. The closer to perfect it is, the more expensive it becomes to get it even better. The final 5 per cent aren't worth it. These things are hardly tight handling cars to begin with, they're comfortable autobahn stormers and (second hand) a lot of car for your cash. If you then start pouring excessive amounts of 'maintenance' into it the value for money goes awry if you ask me. Yes it has to be well maintained and if something rattles, buzzes or vibrates that needs fixing. But if I notice things that I know will cost 3-4,000 dollars to fix I'm not buying that car. I'm sure as hell not budgetting that amount (if I had that extra cash available, I'd just buy a better one)

C6Avant

Mine too!