2011 Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDi Quattro Special Edition

[jones_g]

Glad it's only 3 days. Must be murder sometimes! I do my own interim oil changes and only takes 20-30 minutes as I use a vacuum. Also lucky that I can use the warehouse at work and we have waste oil containers!

Yeah coming home tonight wasn't fun, but it's usually not too bad. The job is great though - the commute is the only negative.

How do you find the C7? Bi-tdi must be a great motor.

[Scott K]

It's great. My 3rd A6 and the best by far. Really comfortable, very quick and good road holding. Bit big for booting it up in corners but surprisingly good considering. The cabin was a step up from my last one but I did spec this well-probably too much in all honesty but I want to keep this a good while. My mileage has dropped to about 20k from 30 so between that and the improved economy, I am saving about £2500 a year which was a surprise. Servicing so far has been good - first was £323 and this one was £513. Not bad for 38000 miles. I am also changing oil in between. Long term average is just under 40mpg, probably because we do quite a few long journeys at motorway speeds. You need to get a test drive of one. Trouble is you probably won't want to give it back.

[MarkTM]

The cost of running the car, including fuel, tax, servicing, remap, tyres etc (but not including insurance or depreciation) is 25p, which I am really happy with.

Do you mean 25p per mile?

As has been stated oil changes are quick, and usually gets out 7.5l (7 if I vacuum it) typically it costs me less than £24 for 5l (which I buy in batches of 7 to enable 5 changes) oil filters are circa £5 and a new sump plug and washer £2 (as bought a few). So each change costs me £40, albeit I do a 3rd of your mileage so change the filter every 5k and oil every 10k.

If you plan to keep the car for another 2yrs I would buy VCDS as (if you can't use a friend for scanning) it will pay for itself in the first 12 months.

I gave up the company car over 10yrs ago, at that time I was doing in excess of 30k business miles, I used my profile pic car which I had LPG converted, and despite being a 4.0 V8 I could manage 350 miles for £18, in today's money that would equate to around 70mpg. The 'fun' thing was that my company had no facility to claim for LPG so on 300 miles I would reclaim £54 (on top of my £9k cash-in-lieu) which paid for road tax, insurance, servicing, MOT and tyres...RESULT!

Welcome and thanks for your great post

[jones_g]

It's great. My 3rd A6 and the best by far. Really comfortable, very quick and good road holding. Bit big for booting it up in corners but surprisingly good considering. The cabin was a step up from my last one but I did spec this well-probably too much in all honesty but I want to keep this a good while. My mileage has dropped to about 20k from 30 so between that and the improved economy, I am saving about £2500 a year which was a surprise. Servicing so far has been good - first was £323 and this one was £513. Not bad for 38000 miles. I am also changing oil in between. Long term average is just under 40mpg, probably because we do quite a few long journeys at motorway speeds. You need to get a test drive of one. Trouble is you probably won't want to give it back.

Sounds great. It was my original plan to get a new C7 but I thought I might be better getting a used car with my mileage. I do really like them and hope to get one in a few years time. Impressed with the economy too - is that trip computer or measured?

[jones_g]

Do you mean 25p per mile?

As has been stated oil changes are quick, and usually gets out 7.5l (7 if I vacuum it) typically it costs me less than £24 for 5l (which I buy in batches of 7 to enable 5 changes) oil filters are circa £5 and a new sump plug and washer £2 (as bought a few). So each change costs me £40, albeit I do a 3rd of your mileage so change the filter every 5k and oil every 10k.

If you plan to keep the car for another 2yrs I would buy VCDS as (if you can't use a friend for scanning) it will pay for itself in the first 12 months.

I gave up the company car over 10yrs ago, at that time I was doing in excess of 30k business miles, I used my profile pic car which I had LPG converted, and despite being a 4.0 V8 I could manage 350 miles for £18, in today's money that would equate to around 70mpg. The 'fun' thing was that my company had no facility to claim for LPG so on 300 miles I would reclaim £54 (on top of my £9k cash-in-lieu) which paid for road tax, insurance, servicing, MOT and tyres...RESULT!

Welcome and thanks for your great post

Yes I did mean 25p per mile - thanks for noticing, I've edited it now.

I love XK8's, great looking cars. I did think about an LPG converted car for the work trips.

A good mate of mine builds VW campers and has VCDS, and he lets me use it when it's needed.

Thanks to those who mentioned the vacuum oil change idea - has me intrigued now so I'll look into that.

[MarkTM]

Yes I did mean 25p per mile - thanks for noticing, I've edited it now.

I love XK8's, great looking cars. I did think about an LPG converted car for the work trips.

A good mate of mine builds VW campers and has VCDS, and he lets me use it when it's needed.

Thanks to those who mentioned the vacuum oil change idea - has me intrigued now so I'll look into that.

They were voted in the worlds top 5 most beautiful cars from launch in 96 until 2002, mine was the 23rd off the production line and in launch colour of Antigua Blue...so am holding onto it, as a Summer car and insured for 6k miles it only costs me £109 per annum

As to the vacuum method I have tried both and own a Pela pump, but found that it consistently removed half a liter less than draining via the sump, so decided to not have half a liter of that old crud affecting the new oil.

[royclark]

As to the vacuum method I have tried both and own a Pela pump, but found that it consistently removed half a liter less than draining via the sump, so decided to not have half a liter of that old crud affecting the new oil.

Like you Mark, I too have the Pela pump but have opted not to use it for changing my oil for the same reason as you.

[MarkTM]

Like you Mark, I too have the Pela pump but have opted not to use it for changing my oil for the same reason as you.

It seemed like 'a good idea at the time' for both of us then Roy? &

[jones_g]

I realised I hadn't update this in a while, so will bring it up to date, may be a bit long so apologies for that.

The car had an oil and filter change on 26th of October 2015, at 86,006 miles. This cost me £112.99, and included a 1L bottle of Castrol Edge 5W30 in case I needed a top up.

On the 11th of Jan this year i took the car for its MOT. I thought the car came with a 12 month MOT when I bought it in Feb last year, but after talking to a friend, I checked online, and it had expired on November 6th!! I took the car in to Derby Audi and it passed with no advisories. They replaced a number plate bulb which I told them was faulty, and the total cost was £50.31 - £49.99 for the MOT with MOT protection insurance for next year, and 32p for the bulb.

In March a couple of our friends got married, and asked if they could use the car for their wedding. So I detailed the car and this is how it looked for their wedding day...

lwo4fsS5.jpg

On the 21st of March I took the car in for an oil and filter change at Audi - there was no charge as this was part of the earlier service package I bought from Audi. Car was still fault free after just over a year and 27k miles. The mileage at this point was coming up to 95k.

In July a van driver drove in to the back of me on the M1, albeit at low speed so there was only minor cosmetic damage. The bumper was replaced by Inchcape Toyota in Burton and I have to say they have done a fantastic job, and I am VERY fussy. However, they charged the insurance company £1182 so it wasn't a cheap job. I have never ever been 100% happy with the work of a bodyshop before now but this was great. The hire car I was given, a Volvo V70 D4, cost the insurance company £387.10 per day. Ridiculous.

To bring it up to date, earlier this month I took the car in for another oil and filter change, diff oil change, air con service, and 4 new tyres. I went for Goodyear Eagle F1's this time. The old tyres, Michelin PS3's, lasted 25k. The total cost was £881. I did ask for the transfer box oil to be done at the same time but apparently there is only a fill hole, no drain point. This was all done at 104,508 miles.

I have now gone over 107k, and the car has still been completely faultless during my ownership, in which I have covered just under 40k.

Over 39k it has cost the following:


£6,079.39 in diesel
£3,717.09 in other expenses - servicing, preventative maintenance, insurance, remap, MOT's etc.


So that works out as 25p per mile, not including depreciation. Most of my mileage is covered by expenses (45ppm for first 10k, 25ppm thereafter) so even with depreciation the car isn't costing me a great deal at all to run, especially if I factor in the company car tax I used to pay in my old job.

I am now again considering DAB/AMI retrofits. I think I have found the DAB bits but am trying to find out where I can get the component protection sorted. For AMI I have read so many threads and I still am not sure exactly what I need. Some say you need to fit a module, others say just a cable.

Thanks for reading if you've got this far.

[jones_g]

Also forgot to mention, I have the car booked in to have the wheels refurbished on September 5th. Full strip and powder coat at the wheel specialist. The wheels had previously been sprayed, and were starting to flake slightly, there is also a little corrosion behind a couple of the spokes. And when I had the tyres replaced, all 4 wheels were scratched by the machine.