Another thinking about buying an RS4 thread. Advice/opinions needed

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

Alright guys. Need some advice/opinions. I bought a 2012 A4 Prestige Avant a couple months back and although its a great car, Im bored already. In order to make it any fun I would have to start throwing quite a bit of money at it and I just don’t think its worth it for this car. I was trying to find a clean B7 S4 Avant before I decided going with the A4 and that didn’t work out. This time Im saying screw it and just going with the RS4. I own 2 stage 3 B5 S4s and the A4 just isn’t working for me anymore. I can basically sell my A4 for the price I can find a clean Rs4 with less than 50k miles so its really a no brainer for me now. An ibis white RS4 wouldnt look to bad next to my Ibis B5 in the garage either :slight_smile:

Anyways, here are my questions. I plan on sharing daily driving duties with the RS4 and a truck, and think I would put less than 800 miles a month on the RS4, so please keep that in mind.

How do these engines compare with the S4 4.2l? i remember reading the S4 engines having problems with timing and oil consumption. Similar issues with the Rs4?

I really like Ibis white (obviously). I know there were less than 30 Ibis white RS4s that came to the states. How often do Ibis white Rs4 come up and does the color really demand that much more of a premium? My problem here is that I wasn’t exactly ready to start looking now. I wanted to sell my A4 first and then start looking. BUT there are a couple Ibis white Rs4s for sale right now. One of them I really like… I wish the interior was a different color but I can live. The one I like has 40k+ miles which I dont really have a problem with.

There are some other pretty low mileage clean RS4s out there. I just keep going back and forth with myself if I should go after the Ibis with 40k miles on it or wait and find one with half the miles and not be so stressed out about the color. For example, I can look at a black one locally with half the miles of the Ibis and for only a couple grand more. I also really like sprint blue and know those were more available so I could wait for a lower mileage one of those as well.

Im sorry as I am sure all these questions have been gone over many times before. But depending on what you guys say I might be trying to buy one like tomorrow!

Thanks

#2

Ibis does tend to require a fairly substantial premium over all others. The car you’re
Talking about happens to be the lowest priced that’s ever been listed. Many people
have paid higher premiums. That cream interior isn’t the greatest which is probably
the only reason it’s still available. If it were black it’d go for $46k+ within a day or 2.
Oil consumption has been an issue on some cars, you can probably do some google
searches for greater preference. I happen to know someone who was going through
a quart every 750 miles. It would be nice to get a car under some type of warranty to
protect yourself. Otherwise it’ll be a pretty smart investment to pay to have someone
boroscope the cylinders to make sure there isn’t any damage. Also expect to do a carbon
clean to protect the motor from having any chunks of carbon cause damage, whether you
choose to believe in the power loss or not.

#3

Thanks for the response. Thats pretty interesting no one has jumped on that Ibis car yet.

I would definitely get an aftermarket warranty. Im also aware of carbon issues and dont mind paying to get that done a regular basis. Sounds like these cars are pretty solid and just need to be maintained well like anything else.

#4

Link to said ibis…? Is it the one with the 20" wheels and the euro interior who posted on Az?

The motor is night and day different to the s4 4.2. It shares displacement rounded to 4.2 and 8 cylinders buy that’d be about it. Completely new when it was launched. Relating to problems with timing components in have never heard of an rs4 with chainwork needed. There are some with 150,000-170,000 miles on them. Especially in Europe. Maybe ask that question on rs246 where all the oldest highest mileage rs4s live.

They can burn some oil… As can all modern audis it seems. My friends r8 5.2 burns a quart every 4000 miles. My own b8 a4 avant 2.0t was burning oil and received new internals under warranty for it.

The rs4 carbon causing catastrophic motor failure theme is pretty rare but has happened to 2-3 guys I’ve seen on forums. Out of 10,000 rs4s that’s not a plague I guess. We don’t know the whole story.

Overall they are fantastic cars out of the box. I agree with Daytona… Get one with cpo if you can so you know that there are no embedded problems when you buy it. Sounds like we are warning the hell out of you but that’s not the case. Forums just thrive on worst case scenario. So should buyers so they know what they’re in for

P. S. Rs4 motor replacement via dealer equals $25,000. Finding one to diy replace? Just about impossible because you’d need a written off rs4. Hard enough to find a regular one to buy!

#5

Great info, thanks Saki!

Actually from what you guys are telling me about this car/engine I am getting more comfortable with the purchase. Really I was expecting to get the typical laundry list of problems and things to look out for. I dont think I would get close to putting 100k on a car like this but hearing that there are many with 100k plus miles out there is nice. It makes me feel better going after one right now with 40k plus miles and not having to search for the lowest miles one possible.

Here is the link to the Ibis.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Audi-RS4-Base-Sedan-4-Door-2008-Audi-RS4-Sedan-RARE-IBIS-White-43k-miles-Excellent-Condition-/190804228885?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2c6cd17b15#ht_500wt_1182

Its on Ebay, which Im not sure how I feel about. It sounds like the car is well maintained but it is not CPO and doesnt come with any warranty. Owner claims all service was done through Audi. It looks clean and I love Ibis but not a huge fan of the interior. Mileage and price look pretty hard to beat though.

I would definitely want some sort of warranty on the car so what companies do you guys recommend as far as aftermarket warranty?

They really do seem like awesome cars. Now I just need to see how long I can control myself and keep the thing stock before I start buying everything from JHM to throw on it!

#6

Contact mickf29 and jareds941 on quattrofail and ask if they know that car. They should know every rs4 within 250 miles if portland. If they don’t know it, that means it’s probably a guy who doesn’t go on forums, doesn’t track it, and doesn’t mod cars. Potentially great this when you think about it.

he gets it serviced at Sunset. Mick said those guys will do a carbon clean for like $700. Get that thrown in to the deal. If you can’t, have him do it before you pick it up. Call the dealer and ask them about the car too, actually.

#7

also if you decide that you really hate the interior, what would be required to convert it to black?

If it is just door cards and seats, that’s a breeze. The seats are often put up for sale. Some guys buy the Euro RS4 seats and then sell their US seats. Probably around $2000 or so for black. Maybe cheaper. So you can buy their US seats and door cards potentially. You can likely sell your cream RS4 interior to A4 guys for like $1250-1750. That means the cost is only about $1000 max to switch.

Some guys who go Euro however will keep their stock interior for when they sell the car so they can part out the Euro…which brings me to the next option.

You can also go euro interior if you want if someone here has one. Costs about $5,000 I believe…and you can likely sell your RS4 interior to an A4 owner for $1250-1750. Worst case = Euro RS4 interior for $3750.

Bottom line the interior is maybe a $1000 problem and an easy swap. If it involves the headliner, it’s more of a pain now. If you own a stage III B5 S4, I assume you work on cars, and won’t find changing a headliner and seats a big deal.

#8

Thanks for the heads up. I will contact those guys and see if they have any info on the car.

If I was going to move forward with this one I would ask the owner to take it in to do a carbon clean for sure. while it was in for carbon cleaning I would consider having them do a full look over and possibly a boroscope of cylinders as well just to be safe.

Thats exactly what I was thinking about the interior. I was actually searching ebay germany and the forum classifieds last night and it looks like its not too hard to find black interior. There are actually some US spec front seats in black for sale on AudiZine right now. I would love to get some Euro spec ones. And like you said, if I sell my white interior, the cost really isnt too bad. I dont do all the work on my B5 but something like seats is no problem. I have a friend who owns a high end body shop so the headliner wouldnt be an issue at all if it needed some custom work.

#9

not sure you can boroscope cylinders easily on this car. May want to check on that.

#10

I’d say there’s 0 probability of the owner paying for the cc considering its
already listed below fair market value. But if the owner is really desperate to
unload it I guess anything can happen. I’m actually having a cc and boroscope
of my valves done now before my CPO runs out so I don’t think it’s too hard,
but that could change since I have no idea what the labor charge is for that yet.
It’s pretty hard to find a euro interior these days. The main supplier to the US market
turned out to be a crew that was stealing cars in Europe and stripping them. They’re
all in jail now. Also some additional cost involved in adjustin some of the harnesses or
something to properly function in US cars. There are a few black RS4 interiors around for
sale though. Overall I’d say it seems like I good deal. If I totaled my car today somehow
Id be buying it after an inspection. Aftermarket warranties once the manufacturer warranty
has expired are pricey. Expect 3500-4k as opposed to the $1k Audi charges
to smack a CPO on it if they were brokering the deal, as I did with my EBay RS4 purchase.

#11

should be able to do it through the spark plugs holes, sooo not so easy (for it being someone else’s car)

#12

I have a borescope and my damn lense/led light combo won’t fit down the spark plug hole. >:(

I haven’t looked but I’m hoping I can find a smaller interchangeable unit that will fit.

#13

I saw an Ibis on Autotrader, I’ll check in a few if its the same one mentioned above. I’m thinking it is but not sure.

Love your WB Avant btw! Did you purchase the car as a WB or did you have the conversion done?

#14

You had better buy that car before I do! lol, I’m probably not going to actually do it, but I’ve been staring at that car for the past two weeks and dreaming about clicking the buy it now. Great price for how rare it is, but the interior swap is a must. The first auction didn’t hit the reserve, so I doubt this one will either.

Fidelity seems to be the consensus on aftermarket warranties. I’ve never owned one myself, but have seen a lot of good reviews on the forums through the years.

#15

what did the first auction get up to?

#16

Probably true the owner wouldn’t be willing to pay for the cc but thats not really an issue. Im going to look more in to the boroscope thing but if Im going to pay for an aftermarket warranty anyways it might not be necessary and worth it.

Interesting info on the euro interiors. Bummer to hear its harder to find than I thought. US Spec would be fine.

Are you saying you paid for the Audi CPO for your Ebay purchase or an aftermarket warranty?

Haha ya I was looking at it on the previous auction as well. I was pretty surprised it didnt hit the reserve. Im seriously considering it and only thing holding me back really is the interior. I love sprint blue also so Im going back and forth if I should just wait and try and find a clean one of those with black interior and not screw with interior swap…and while Im waiting another Ibis could possibly pop up. Spring is coming around and thats when people usually start thinking/listing their cars so there might be a rise in inventory here soon… Maybe even the release of the new S6/S7 might push some more in to the market. I dont know… decisions decisions.

I will take a look in to Fidelity.

#17

About $35-36k if I recall correctly

#18

There was a sprint blue for real cheap on ebay a few weeks back as well that didn’t sell. I believe the buy it now was around $29-30k and it had about 70k miles. It was at some no name dealer in Wisconsin though and looked dirty as hell. Also had the white/cream interior. Probably why it didn’t sell!

#19

I saw an Ibis on Autotrader, I’ll check in a few if its the same one mentioned above. I’m thinking it is but not sure.

Love your WB Avant btw! Did you purchase the car as a WB or did you have the conversion done?

#20

I believe the autotrader one is the Ti package that a guy on AZ has listed. Very clean, but he’s also very firm on his price of $46.5k and I believe it’s pending sale.