The search is on in earnest…
Found a car online (audi forum), 150k miles, company car so mostly highway driven, good maintenance in the last couple of years:
new manifold, injectors, plugs, carbon clean
new tires, brake rotors, air/fuel filters, radiator flush
guy is asking 11k. seems like a steal of a price
thoughts?
I wouldnt shy away from a V10 with that many miles but what I would suggest you do is to make sure you get a compression test just to make sure the motor is still in good shape.
The added maintentance work they did was good and would be something you would want to do so that is out of the way. but to really know how the motor is doing the compression test is just a good idea
It’s a decent price, especially if the cosmetics are straight. Provided the list can be confirmed (you’d honestly have to pull the intake to look at the valves and put a borescope in the intake itself to verify it’s clean/unbroken), it’s a good deal.
Realize that the list of items isn’t the last word, either. You’ll still want to do a suspension bushing refresh at around $600 in parts. There’s a laundry list of to-do’s - plan to drop $5k in maintenance once you take possession and you’ll be good as long as there’s no gremlins or major gotchas.
If you have direct access to the car before purchase, I highly recommend buying something like a Carista to look at all the fault codes, ready/not ready codes and current/pending OBD codes if any. It’ll cost about $60, but it’ll give you a WAY better idea of where the car’s at than relying on a set of invoices… My car supposedly had the same items completed which turned out to be probably not true.
Welcome! You’ll love the V10!! mine is now at 176,570 miles btw and still going strong with years to go!! 
stop being a downer Justin 
compression test is also a great idea…
Mine’s getting close to the 130k mile mark, and it’s in WAY better shape than when it was at 90k miles. It’s all about maintenance with these cars. As pointed out above, expect to spend about $5-7k right off the bat, just getting the car to where it should be. But after that, just stay on top of maintenance and you’ll be in great shape.
I paid double that price for my S6 (triple if you count the repair costs), and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, I love my car.
FYI, I paid $22K for mine 3+ years ago at 85K miles. After that I fought with occasional misfires for a long while—and then finally did the full top-end work last year plus JHM intake spacers and new engine gaskets. (Plus a few other components) I still have to keep a watchful eye on a few things, but everything is manageable and the car runs great now.
Now I’m at 105k mi and I’m wrestling with the decision to keep or sell. I think if I could net $13,500 I would sell. But it will be a challenge because the car in now in Bulgaria.
I would definitely keep it if i could find a cost effective way to get it back to CA.
My advice, if you buy the car, just do the compete top-end work. Then you know for sure where you stand.
Update:
spoke with owner, going to get a PPI and look into compression/leakdown test. progress!
Good luck, if maint turns out and car runs with solid compression it’s a decent buy. If not firm I’d offer to $9k if that wouldn’t scare them away and end up at $10k, if it might scare just offer $10k straight up even if PPI is with flying colors 
Who knows if this will happen, but my guess is when people find out about the niche performance the value will st least hold, and possibly go up. I’ve always thought these are $15-29k cars largely depending on year, then miles and condition from the avg. buyer that is. Maint records(and mods of sound via JHM or similar) trumps all though with these vehicles.
Cosign the speculation of rising values… I think these cars will be going up once the fear of maintenance resides. The intake manifold issue being resolved and the JHM suite should help a lot. There was one S6 for sale listed at $42k like 3 months ago. It had all of the maintenance done, and slightly less miles than what I had when I got mine. Doubt it sold at that price, but just saying. Also, you can see the prices of the C4 S6 raising steadily… Either way, the sound/performance with exhaust, tune, etc will make it worth while… Add carbon fiber or other OEM replacement parts from the RS6/RS6-R to swap for some of the stock plastic and it adds a lot to the feel of the experience (IMO).
Couldntvhave said it better. With that said, make sure you buy the right one (color, miles, options, mods etc), and buy it right and don’t overpay. At least not yet 
update: PPI completed, still working to get the compression test done on seller’s end. results are below:
-right front inner CV boot torn
-both front CV shafts have play, possible cause for vibration at 65-70 and under acceleration
-rear driveshaft carrier bearing not torn but has movement, possible cause for vibration under acceleration
-large oil leak - degrease & monitor to determine location
-A/C inoperative
-weak battery
engine codes:
P1497 - SAI insufficient flow bank 3
P1498 - bank 4
P0491 - bank 1
P0492 - bank 2
01219 - rear side airbag ignitor on drivers side - n201 - upper limit exceeded
01316 - brake control module no signal/communication
also this vehicle has a takata airbag (from reading the various VW/NHSTA releases, seems most/all S6s do)
thoughts? my concerns are the oil leak, brake module, and takata airbag.
replacing CV boots/joints isn’t bad, airbag sensor probably just needs to be cleaned, and I wonder if the SAI was blocked off. admittedly haven’t looked into how hard replacing an AC compressor is…can’t be that bad, right? ;D
I had my AC compressor replaced recently. They’re not that cheap, got mine from JHM. But I was told the challenge is to clean out the lines so little metal bits from the broken compressor don’t cause another failure.
Wow i see jhm sells that compressor for $750! I just checked on my wholesale cost for the denso $324 or a nissens for $316…markup much? I should just start selling them to you guys for like $400.
I believe JHM sold me a denso. And somewhere along the line I was told that the nissen compressors were more likely to fail.
if you can be the middle man for these whole sale costs im sure people would certainly not mind having you make some profit while giving people a whopping deal…say…can you get a new intake mani??
I wish, only thing available to me are the gaskets. I don’t mind helping out any fellow members/enthusiast with getting parts. Depending on shipping if the price still saves members enough money then I don’t mind trying. The only issue one may have is trying to warranty a part or getting a core charge back as it would involve more shipping costs…
not sure what units JHM sells but they offer a one year warranty and since the S6 shares the same compressor as the S4 Ill tell you two things. 1 pay extra if the company or who ever offers a warranty and never never get the nissen compressor… ask me how I know… I also had 2 compressors fail right out of the box on seperate occasions with seperate cars that came directly from the dealership. They were not installs I did or on my car but I helped replace them after they failed.
if you want to replace your AC compressor every year or so the Nissen is the one to get… Our AC compressors are weak and if you run into AC issues and are not on top of them you will have a broken AC compressor very soon. On the S4s the oem compressors last for about 110k so if you are around that mark with your S6 keep a good eye on the system. As long as there are no leaks or pressure issues they can run strong for past 110 but if you have to open the AC system for any reason you might as well just replace the compressor
I need to remember to come to you and BlackS6 first when/if I ever need anything in the future.
So I offered the guy 10k shipped pending a good compression test given the work that needs to be done (a new abs module is like 2k if it needs to be replaced) and he said he could only do 11+ shipping (original offer). Will get the compression numbers later tonight. Am I being unreasonable?
No, I’d say you’re being fairly reasonable considering the mileage. Realistically, depending on how well the car was maintained, you’re looking at a lifetime of 200-225K miles(?). $10K (including shipping) isn’t bad, especially if from a private party.
The ABS mod isn’t that much to get sorted out you can send it out to moduel masters or a company like that where they can repair them. Or you can junk yard one. It is a pain to put in tho.
The cars with that many miles are in the 11 to 12k range. with that your going to be spending money on valve cover gasekts about 120$ you would want to get the JHM intake spacers I don’t remember off hand what they are but its a good spend. Your going to need a carbon clean. That can be free if you do it but you still have to pay for materials. then spark plugs and coil packs. That is the starting point but your going to have some maintentance into it.
I would check the compression numbers but I think the best way you can get him down on the price is to ask him to scope the intake manifold and check to see if its in working condition. If the intake is in good working condition then the car is worth the 11+ shipping if it isn’t 100% then he and you should consider that a new intake is like 2k. That Is a good thing to work with him on the price for.
Here at the 2min mark you can see JHM testing the intake manifold to show all the flaps are working on this car. Its a easy test that you can do with a mirror and about 20 min. It would take longer to do a compression test than to look at the intake. I would STRONGLY suggest you give this a shot either way.
Get the comp numbers. don’t let them just say they were all within 5% of eachother ask for the actual numbers and then get proof the intake manifold isn’t busted. That’s a good way to get your moneys woth from the car. Post the comp numbers we can tell you if they are good or not.