S4 b8.5 owners value discussion

[mercules]

The S4/S5 b8.5 have and are dropping quite hard.

I bought mine for £22,900 from Audi 18 months ago with nearly all the desirable options. I've spent about 5k on mods not including labour and also spent 1k on maintenance not in the book lifetime gearbox oil not the mech one, diff oils and cats.

I cannot find another car that's in the same or similar price bracket including running costs tax etc and spec for spec on comparison. For these reasons the car has a higher value to me and id feel like I'd be ripped off if i sold my car in today's market value.

That's why I think it's a bargain car for the price. Sure it needs better brakes, a stage 2 and cooler to get the most out of it.

Has anyone else ever thought about this? And have you found an alternative car?

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[Mike B]

My son got a 4door S5 3.0 this summer for £23k.About 43k miles 2015 reg nearly every option except diff I think.He was looking for over a year and still checks to confirm it was a good buy.He still feels it was and has never thought prices were dropping whilst we were looking.Often hard to compare one with another due to all the options variations.Often frustrated by those who had lots except heated seats which were a must for him.I hope he sticks with it now it became a bit tedious being dragged around in the heat to see some that were not worth the bother some people just cant be honest about what they are selling.

 

[Jon B]

Do mods really add any value though. I steer clear from any car advertised as modded from original spec.

 

[mercules]

Do mods really add any value though. I steer clear from any car advertised as modded from original spec.

No they don't and that applies across the motoring world. When you mod most people end up taking a huge hit or selling mods separately and returning to stock. I would never buy a modded car unless I knew the owner and how they drove it.

I'm giving an indication of what I've spent and what I've tried to compare which is either a stock car or a stock car plus me doing safe performance mods in the similar way as this platform.

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[mercules]

My son got a 4door S5 3.0 this summer for £23k.About 43k miles 2015 reg nearly every option except diff I think.He was looking for over a year and still checks to confirm it was a good buy.He still feels it was and has never thought prices were dropping whilst we were looking.Often hard to compare one with another due to all the options variations.Often frustrated by those who had lots except heated seats which were a must for him.I hope he sticks with it now it became a bit tedious being dragged around in the heat to see some that were not worth the bother some people just cant be honest about what they are selling.

Yea I see that I've heard people are struggling to find the correct spec ie the desirable sports diff. I think it's only worth getting that if you can drive and confident otherwise no point if you don't take corners fast.

So if it's 15 plate watch the drop over the next year. 13 plates are around 20k and I've seen some super early facelift ones at 17-19k.

I think the car spec and performance wise as a overall package is worth more that it's asking price in current market. Even if you take the mods off.

My case I'm also approaching 100k probably in the next year as I use it for work too. I've meticulously maintained my car above Audi standard I'm confident the car still has majority of its life ahead but resale value aside I'll end up keeping it in the family.

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[Mike B]

It seemed to us that the diff was rare but he wasnt worried as long as it had Drive Select which wasnt quite so hard to find.Only has a total commute of 5 miles a day so the low miles might help .A little indulgent but needed the auto after both hips done and loves the paddles.We never shook off the doubts about the auto boxes on the S8s so had to find more money to get a later one .Thats where I came in!Had the box serviced again by Audi this time but has done oil change and all discs and pads himself so thats it .Got mods out of his system with his S3 ; money which as you say he wont get back so he is keeping it for now.I have to agree that its alot of car for this sort of money and not too flashy.

 

[mercules]

How many facelift auto S4/S5 have been reported with issues on the forum probably a handful it always the pre facelift. I think we are safe it's the last revision of its generation and obviously Audi don't want to be forking out again on gearboxes under warranty at the time.

Manuals in traffic suck fact.

Sounds like you got your boy a good example. Things that you weren't lucky to experience as a child so it's always nice to do things for the kids once in a while and see them happy.

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[GarethS4]

Although my s4 avant is a b8 and is 2012 ,it has full service history and it totally mint condition yet when I went to trade it into Audi who were at the time selling basically an identical spec car to mine only a saloon version with higher miles for £19,950 yet they offered me £12.350 for mine .the same spec car on the likes of autotrader is around the £17-£18k mark any that I have seen .i thought Audi were a bit low so went elsewhere and got offered £12,750 lol.needless to say I never sold my car as it had approx £7000 or more of performance extras fitted to it .what your car is worth to you and what your likely to be offered as a trade In price is totally miles apart .my car actually books at £13.700 or something atm but the cheapest I can see one advertised for is around £17k in standard form .so basically people asking £19 £20k for a b8 is nowhere near the actually trade book price .

 

[Mike B]

Gareth from our experience in over a year of looking at mostly S4 Avants and then S5s it was clear that the numerous expensive options made it harder than usual to compare prices.We did see an S4 avant 3.0 auto 2012 last summer for £12k with every option bringing total new to about £48k.High miles and a bad rattle can respray on 3 panels ruined it.Audi buy prices with no trade in involved must be minimum to cover their overheads and they retail at top level but they still get buyers .I think some who have money but little sense just pay for the name as in lots of other areas. lets face it they wouldnt ask so much unless they were likely to sell.Other dealers can be as bad .We were lucky to find a decent reputable specialist not too far away who had the right car at about the right price just as I told my son we would when he kept getting frustrated with our search results.Even then he came home first and nearly missed it when he decided to buy.Brexit seems likely to lift these high value cars out of reach of more of us.Hope we dont have to spend a lot on parts or they dont get stuck in customs!