There's an S4 on the Audi website, 4.2 V8 Tiptronic, black saloon with full black leather, 06 reg but miles a bit high at 41k, although four nice new Eagle F1 Assyms. Full Audi warranty.

Around Xmas it was advertised at £19,990. In early Jan it was offered to me at £18.5k (not a bad price I thought) and now it's going for £16,990.

That's a drop of £3k in six weeks, pre-haggle

 

you can buy a brand spanking new 2.5 WRX now for 12 grand although they are 07's but had no owners,no more heading for this country now either so ive heard

 

Lots of cracking deals out there as long as you dont want finance!!!

 

The finance deals are there if you hold out. I've just bought a new Alfa and their original finance offer was 10% APR so I was going to walk. Lo and behold, they suddenly had a finance company that could do 5%.

 

I've been keeping my eye on that one. Not a fan of the alloy wheels or the tiptronic. Did they ever come with a manual box?

 

To OP
Richard did you not just buy an S4?
If so how is it ? as it is high on my list possibles.
Apologisies if I have missed the relevent thread,
Alex

 

I'm eyeing up a couple of 335d Tourings in the low £20(k)s...

 

Zeon, yes they do a 6-speed manual S4 but most are Tips. If you get one post Sept 05 build, it has the 40F/60R torque split like the RS4, although the autos stick with 50/50.

Yes Alex, I did. I bought a 55 plate B7 shape Tip saloon three weeks ago as my dear old Scoob has done 140k and I wanted a change. I chose this car over an M3 E46 (sluggish mid-range, clunky SMG, 2WD), a 911 C4 Tip (disappointing, risky at that age/miles) and a Golf R32 (lovely DSG box, but 250bhp just isn't enough).

I'm loving it - just got back from a freezing late night drive as it happens It likes the snow! Still wondering when I'm going to better 22mpg, but otherwise it's fab.

It's a ballistic mile-muncher and really motors effortlessly at huge speed. So quiet and smooth. Engine is just sublime. It's heavier than the Scoob (modded) and not as quick or quite as puntable, but it's no slouch at all and better than I'd been lead to believe before driving it.

It's a very different mix to the Scoob which I tracked a bit. I don't want to do that anymore and I find the S4 is a much better compromise for an everyday road car, and it's plenty fast enough. Or it will be when I get the NOS on it Great interior, and not a single rattle, which makes a change.

Only problem I'm having is a bit of a hypothetical one, but the auto box changes up at 6,750rpm, and won't go near 7k which is where peak power resides, and also the red line. Audi is 'looking into it' but the info I've dug up around this is all a bit foggy, but I have my suspicions and we'll see what transpires. I'll have my full 344PS one way or another, and I don't want to take it back and swap for a manual box just to get it

Richard.

PS If you like the style of an S4, I think the B6 pre-facelift model up to 2005 is the best bang4buck value for V8 fans. Some very nice cars around for low teens.

 

Or maybe even a £7-8K (B5) S4 2.6tt with remap, rs4 turbo's etc is the more sensible option as it won't lose anywhere near as much anymore, but I hear they are no where near as exciting to drive with dull steering, still can be very quick though.

Until we are out of the recession (2+ years) prices will just get lower and lower. There are thousands of bargains out there (just check this site out..Keighley Trade Centre ) but they are still losing money by the day. Only sensible cars to buy are much older cars now, and/or something (rare) that has held its value/sort after.

 

Buyer beware. All that glitters isn't gold.

 

Richard
Sounds awesome, I feel a test drive coming on. Did yours come with DVD sat nav, xenons and other toys as standard?
Glad to hear that you like the auto, my wife would be far more likely to drive it then.
22mpg sounds pretty good for a 4.2 V8, what is the worst you have achieved?
It's odd how interest in a particular car creeps up on you, I was in town and heard this terrific roar, though what was that and saw the back of a convertible S4 being driven enthusiastically away. They appear to be quite rare as I haven't seen one since.
Alex

 

Found a high spec 56 reg 335d Touring M Sport for £20k with only 24k miles from a main dealer.

They have offered me just over £4k for the Ashtray (2005 1.9CDTi 150 Estate, 55k miles, bought for £16k - but I'm realistic that it's worth naff all) so £16k to change.

I SO much want to put a deposit on it then buy it this weekend - got the cash in the bank - but wife is vetoing me.

Buggery buggery bugger. I might go and vandalise (in a reversible way) the Ashtray and say "look - it's broken/dangerous/unreliable."

Any other ideas for persuasion anyone? Seems too good an offer to miss.

 

Matteboy,

What about doing it on finance? That way you are not plundering your war chest. £16k would work out like this:

Loan period Monthly repayments Typical APR Total repayment
24 months £719.93 7.75% £17,278.36
36 months £499.84 8.08% £17,994.26
48 months £391.34 8.41% £18,784.44
60 months £326.85 8.64% £19,611.03

This is an indicative quote, intended as a guide only.

 

What is the mileage as a matter of interest?

 

Not paying interest - no way! This will get me a pile of flack but £16k is not exactly a big dent in our savings. I'd also rather just buy it and not have to worry about it.

Nat - could be a good plan...

 

41k

 

Yeah, it does sound awesome. Must be great with a Milltech pipe

No sat nav or anything, which I really don't want. I've got a £120 TomTom for when I get lost and the OEM stereo is going just as soon as I get the ICE out out of the Scoob. Got phone and iPod prep! Self-levelling Xenons are standard. Otherwise it's got everything I could ever want - far too much actually, like lights in all the footwells and under the doors, 50-odd red buttons all over the console, sensors in the seats which go bong bong bong when the dog forgets to put his seat belt on

Only mpg check I've done is to see how high I can get it, and I'm convinced I'll never see more than 25mpg no matter what. You can push it into the high teens easily, but it would be hard to do a full tank at that rate without killing yourself. Effortless pace is astonishing, luckily the brakes (a bit over-servoed) are very strong even from silly speeds four-up.

BTW, I've found a company that claims to be the only UK tuner that can re-map Audi Tip boxes. For £200-300 I'm led to believe they will reprogramme the box to shift any which way I like. I'm tempted to remove the up-shift completely when Manual mode is selected, which is how a manual should be. But I want to find out why Audi has done what it to has (allegedly) done. So far, I'm inclined to believe that it's the Tip which doesn't like revving to 7k, but that's only a hunch based on a process of elimination. I don't think the engine likes high revs much more either, so it's dangerous. We'll see.

On price, it really doesn't seem to matter what extras it's loaded with, other than an auto box adding maybe £500. It looks like I might have been able to save another grand if I was buying now rather than a month ago, but the spring uplift has got to stabilise things any time soon, even if they then start to fall again. Hasn't it? But you can't always wait forever. I got a helluva car at a price that was good for me, and I'm keeping it for more than a few years

 

It maybe not be a big dent in your savings. But a 3 year unsecured loan would only cost you about £2k in interest. That's about £55 a month. Plus if anything should happen jobwise etc. you've got you savings to fall back on. It makes sense to me.

 

If it's not a big dent in your savings, and you really want it, why not put the trousers on and tell the Mrs you're buying it? And if you don't want flack, don't tell people how much money you have!

 

Marky - it does make a difference though. If £16k was all we had, blowing it on a car would be pretty daft.
TBH, I think I might wait a couple of months - baby not sleeping well and adding the car buying pressure to lack of sleep is making Mrs Matt a little fractious...!

 

Got to agree that if it is such a small amount of your personal wealth why the heck do you just not buy it? My wife wouldn't care if I spent £50 on something and it sounds like this is the equivalent of £50 to you

 

F1 fan - it's still a lot of money. We have some savings but nothing compared to some SNers it would seem...!

 

All SN users tell the truth.

 

Davy - some either make up pics of their houses and cars or actually do have them. A couple in particular seem very well off. Not that it matters of course. We are all equal on the internerd.

 

But and I quote 'it is not a big dent in your savings' so put the trousers on and get it bought!

 

Fair enough but I noticed a post you made about the GTR saying you could also afford that but it might not be the responsible thing to do because of a wife and child (which I understand and agree with). But surely, affordability is not just about having the money to do something, surely its about the ability to purchase without it affecting you other spending / living habits?
Maybe this is a similar situation, yes you have the £16k but it seems to me it's not as affordable as you make out because of your reluctance to purchase.
Anyway at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, you do what you want to do with your cash! I'm not knocking you by the way because you seem to be like myself in that you try to save rather than borrow but I just think your interpretation of affordability might be a bit off.

 

Maybe thats coz they are utter crap! I've been there myself and every car is bottom grade auction stock, and most other car sites I go on they are known for this too!!

 

I'll stick my neck out and say that prices are no longer free-falling - they're just back to their usual drop every month. I base this on watching BCA prices over the last 9 months.

The reason why cars such as the one at the top of this post appear to be falling is that the seller over priced it in the first place and is having to drop it to the current market price to get some interest.

P.S. Also watch out for price differentials closing between 55 plate and 06 plate for petrolhead stuff as 06-on road tax is more and the gap will likely widen over time.