Audi A6 for 35k miles motorway commute?

[champakpopat]

Hi

I am a newbie, looking to buy A6 avant primarily because of the allround combination of its premium looks, silent cabin and comfort/safety tech like adaptive cruise control, lane assist, pre-sense. I will be doing around 35k miles per year so thought to invest in something comfortable, frugal (mpg atleast if not maintenance) and practical (estate cos of the holiday trips to the continent with the kids etc). 90% of the mileage is going to be on motorways.

What do you think about A6 for the criteria mentioned above. I have discounted 5 series as I prefer Audi looks and something comfortable to drive rather than sporty. Mercedes engines are not as frugal as Audis and looks certainly not, even though it is supposed to be the more comfortable car and cheapest. Volvo S80 is where i started the quest to buy car (executive car with hushed high quality cabin - discounted as boot is on the smaller side) but ended up on A6 seeing them go cheap in the auction (in my opinion, i always thought they were much more expensive) ie 12-14k 3yr old 50k miles on the clock

2nd question is (if answer to the 1st one is favourable): assuming i'd like to keep the car for atleast 3years if not 5(reliability dependent) I am thinking of buying something that's 5 year old with loads of options and low mileage ie around 25k - hopefully around the 13k mark - (i feel, relatively speaking, its the age which adds more to the depreciation then miles although may be wrong) or am i better off with a three year old 50k miles with extra options around 16-17k.

Many thanks for taking time to read and to reply. First time i am thinking of buying German so any thoughts be helpful

Regards

[istate75]

Not sure if prices have moved much in the past year but I sold my 3-1/2 year old decent spec 2.0D S Line avant with 80k miles on it for 16.5k. The A6 avant is perfect for your needs. I'm on my 4th one and generally keep them 3-4 years, when I've put 80k miles on them and then replace them. I buy new, on PCP then use the difference from sale price to balloon as deposit on the next one. Not sure if it is luck, but I have sold each one easily at that age and mileage. I do around 25k miles a year, although I'm a bit less this year and mostly motorway miles too. The A6 avant is very good on fuel. The facelift ones from 2015 seem to be much better that the pre-facelift. Not sure about the facelift 2.0 Ultra but my current 3.0 is doing the same as my previous 2.0 on fuel. Went to Liverpool and back this morning and achieved 46.8 mpg, which I find amazing. That was doing 75-80 mph on the M6 plus some 50-mph roadworks and some traffic when I got to the city.

Not sure if you will have much luck getting a 5 year old A6 with low mileage. Most owners buy them for the long distance capability.

[champakpopat]

Not sure i

[istate75]

Yes, I sold it privately, but it was nearly a year ago so prices may have moved. That one looks about right though, according to Whatcar valuationA6 Valuation.jpg

[champakpopat]

thanks... must carry on finding one at the bca auctions... should be some lease models out there with acc and lane assist

[champakpopat]

Not sure if prices have moved much in the past year but I sold my 3-1/2 year old decent spec 2.0D S Line avant with 80k miles on it for 16.5k. The A6 avant is perfect for your needs. I'm on my 4th one and generally keep them 3-4 years, when I've put 80k miles on them and then replace them. I buy new, on PCP then use the difference from sale price to balloon as deposit on the next one. Not sure if it is luck, but I have sold each one easily at that age and mileage. I do around 25k miles a year, although I'm a bit less this year and mostly motorway miles too. The A6 avant is very good on fuel. The facelift ones from 2015 seem to be much better that the pre-facelift. Not sure about the facelift 2.0 Ultra but my current 3.0 is doing the same as my previous 2.0 on fuel. Went to Liverpool and back this morning and achieved 46.8 mpg, which I find amazing. That was doing 75-80 mph on the M6 plus some 50-mph roadworks and some traffic when I got to the city.

Not sure if you will have much luck getting a 5 year old A6 with low mileage. Most owners buy them for the long distance capability.

Not sure if you will have much luck getting a 5 year old A6 with low mileage. Most owners buy them for the long distance capability.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply... tell me about the speed limits on m6... the other day it was down to 40mph at 5 in the morning without any roadowrks/fog or traffic....

that sounds like a good price for your previous a6.. did you sell it privately

Having sold your car recently what do you think this car's worth?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...t-spec/7972103

[A6S]

More or less the reason I went into an A6.
5 series was too harsh with runflat tyres, e class at the time looked dated(although new one looks nice).
You are in the ball park for an early facelift A6.
One way to think about it is do you really need all the toys/tech. Potentially more to go wrong.
Less tech and you could get a newer lesser mileage car. Other thing to look for in my experience is the 20in wheels can feels a bit harsh on certain road surfaces. I went from 18s to 19s both on sline suspension and I could feel the difference. Even going back to 18s on my winter wheels I could feel it’s more comfortable.
35k a year I would avoid the stronic gearbox as that’s a gearbox service almost every year at £2-300 on its own. Unfortunately on the facelifts the only other auto box is on the bitdi.
Engines, most seems to be fine, I had issues with the 190 ultra but I know some people with 100k and it’s didnt miss a beat.
The v6s are brilliant, silky smooth, effortless and pretty economical.
Then the other thing is do you want Quattro, expensive option and was only available on the 3.0 till recently.
Hope this helps. I’m sure other will chip in.

[champakpopat]

More or less the reason I went into an A6.
5 series was too harsh with runflat tyres, e class at the time looked dated(although new one looks nice).
You are in the ball park for an early facelift A6.
One way to think about it is do you really need all the toys/tech. Potentially more to go wrong.
Less tech and you could get a newer lesser mileage car. Other thing to look for in my experience is the 20in wheels can feels a bit harsh on certain road surfaces. I went from 18s to 19s both on sline suspension and I could feel the difference. Even going back to 18s on my winter wheels I could feel it’s more comfortable.
35k a year I would avoid the stronic gearbox as that’s a gearbox service almost every year at £2-300 on its own. Unfortunately on the facelifts the only other auto box is on the bitdi.
Engines, most seems to be fine, I had issues with the 190 ultra but I know some people with 100k and it’s didnt miss a beat.
The v6s are brilliant, silky smooth, effortless and pretty economical.
Then the other thing is do you want Quattro, expensive option and was only available on the 3.0 till recently.
Hope this helps. I’m sure other will chip in.

Hi, thanks for replying.. the reason for toys is that i have had a few near misses recently due to being tired late at night/;lack of concentration and think i can do with some extra help from things like lane assist.. having used adaptive cruise control on a relative's new volvo i dont think i'd like another car without one ... i'm thinking the m25 stop/start situations where i wont have to touch any pedal really if acc works as it should..

thanks for pointing out that annual gearbox service of 2-3k, that'd be a game changer.. so if i cant find the older 2 litre cvt then i should go for 3.0 bitdi quattro?

regards

[johnsimcox]

thanks for pointing out that annual gearbox service of 2-3k, that'd be a game changer.. so if i cant find the older 2 litre cvt then i should go for 3.0 bitdi quattro?

regards

It is £200-300 not £2000-3000 and it is the same for the CVT box in the pre-Ultra 2.0 so whatever autobox except the BiTDi you have that service cost to consider.

As A6S says I would definitely try to get a Euro6 car as who knows what is around the corner when it comes to usage restrictions and taxation on older diesel cars. Note that if you go for a facelift 3.0 car then they did not become Euro6 certified until about May 2015 so check carefully (easy to see if there is the Adblue filler nozzle next to the fuel filler). I fear you will struggle to get an early 2.0 Ultra with all the toys you want and only 25k miles for the sort of price you are indicating unless you are lucky (and almost certainly buy privately).

If you buy privately make sure you get yourself a really good warranty as repair costs can really ramp up if something goes wrong. Colleague has a 2012 BMW 328i with full BMW service history that decided to eat its engine. BMW quoted £18,000 for supplying and installing a new engine (goodwill dropped that to £6k) but buying privately you would have no good claim for goodwill.

[champakpopat]

talk about seeing what i want to see(or afraid to see) than whats there (reg £2-3k)..

think may have to stick with 2litres though due to better fuel economy.. the difference in fuel savings is 400 pounds per year using official non-urban mpg numbers for both assuming 30k miles.. not expecting them to achieve the advertised numbers but presuming the relative difference to remain similar.. also the annual road tax and insurance costs will be higher for bitdi as well .. i havent got too many no claims so insure difference will be exaggerated for me....

supposedly 3 litre is the more relaxed drive especially in 70-80mph region (i have only driven 2 litre so far) and i could do with the quattro functionality as we do put up the winter tyres and head off to northern europe driving in snow, sleet etc but that'll push it past my budget if it isnt already....

definitely going to have warranty one way or another.. a colleague just bought a 3 series and only had to pay 800 pounds for 4 years of warranty.. so im thinking buy from auction (if i can find the right car) and buy warranty for 3-4 years for less than a grand as opposed to buying from dealer and only getting 6 months to a years warranty...