ajoe

I had ordered an RS6 since my 04 E55 probably won't be delivered till early next year. The car has been sitting on a dock in Baltimore since June 11 and the dealer has no idea when it will be delivered. With Audi's reliability reputation, the over pricing of this car and the release screwups, I was a shaky buyer at best. Here's the part that nixed it for me. I just found out that the RS6 requires a very special 5w-40 oil that theoretically can only be found at some Audi dealerships. They deliver the car with an extra quart stored in the trunk. If you don't use that specific VW oil your warranty will be voided. It gets better. Someone else who's waiting for the delivery of his dock bound car decided to call the dealership to see if they had this oil in stock. Guess what - it's on back order. I didn't think any company could f*** over customers worse than BMW, but I'm truly impressed with Audi's efforts.

E55 KEV

Man, that RS6 seems to come with headaches as standard equipment.

BMW M cars are using a special oil mainly found at BMW dealers for $9 buck a quart. It is called:

Castrol TWS Motorsport 10W-60

kaneman

*LOL* Oh how I HATE special oils. This brings back memories of the M5s and having to buy a CASE of Castrol 10w60 to carry around in the trunk in case the damn car got thirsty. I can't count how many times I'd have to pull over to the side of the road on a 2-3 hour drive... I think it happened almost EVERY time I went out of town (one direction only though... either going to or coming from) until the car hit about 18k miles. I must've gone through ten quarts and the ONLY place it could be found was at a BMW dealership. As I recall the oil was Castrol RS racing. Not sure what the oil the Audi uses... I think I read something somewhere about Shell Helix Ultra which is what Ferrari uses in the Enzo. $15 a QUART... that's an expensive damn oil change.

JLBMERC

ajoe,

Funny you brought the RS6 up. I have had one on order for quite sometime, and it is now here---however, I have decided I want to keep my E55. I have tried to sell it --but no takers. I am calling up the dealer today to decline delivery---your post only reinforces my decision.

I too had an M5--a 2000 and later a 2002---the 2000 drank oil like crazy---my story sounds very similar to Kaneman's. The 2002 however, was much less thirsty.

TuffGong

Hmm, I thought it was funny to see that the E55 has no dipstick I always like checking the color of the oil as well as the level quite frequently. But no matter, I love this car.

About the BMW's, my 01 M3 does indeed use quite a bit of oil and it is a PITA that only BMW dealers carry them at around $9 a pop....although it's similar price to the Redline oils I always used on the other cars.......except they never needed any extra oil in between the oil changes

Dave OH

I was at an airshow last week at a ocean port airport called Quonset and there was a gigantic lot filled with off the boat VW's and Audis, it was heavily fenced but in driving by it through traffic, I noticed a pretty extensive line of RS6's in a large variety of colors (no doubt they were RS6's either). There were so many cars there it didn't seem like they were on their way to a dealership any time soon, they were all in the farthest corner of the lot from the entrance. It was quite odd. Oh well, my E55's not in a lot like that so I'm as happy as a clam!!

blando

I was at the airbase in Rhode Island last week as well and that is one HUGE lot full of VW's and Audi's.

JasonC32amg

Sounds like a $650,000 Enzo! What are they thinking???

allenjdmb

that Shell Helix oil for the Enzo is over SIXTY ($6-0) dollars per quart . That makes for about an $800 oil change at the Ferrari store. And they have the same disclaimer as Audi, no Helix, no warranty. And why would you care if the Audi dealer had any oil or not? Am I mistaken or isn't the service prepaid on the RS6? And who cares if it isn't? I saw the first one coming off the truck at Champion a couple days ago, and I gotta say I was impressed. It is quite a car. Given Audi's resurgence in the marketplace, and Benz's continuing fall, yes, I'd think twice. Still hope you're listening, MBUSA, but still know you don't care.

bimmerlover

yeah the rs6 is mean, i dont know what you guys are complaining about the service is free!!!!!

and that quattro in the winter comes in handy as well as the bounty of aftermarket tuners. i would honestly take the rs6 over all the other supersedans...well at least till the new m5/m6 is out.

amg55

I'm not sure I see how it is that you came to this conclusion.
We're talking performance sedans here (AMG Forum), right?
If you'll check the explosion in AMG production numbers and popularity I think you'll have a tough time making a case for any decline in this product line.
Virtually every mag and objective discussion will include acknowledgement that MB has increased their market share in the performance arena.

As for Audi's "resurgence", I'm not sure I agree that Audi was ever a real player in the performance sedan arena in the first place.
If you're referring to Audi's recent progress in overall sales, that has nothing to do with their ability to compete in the performance market.

Lastly, the single biggest problem Audi has IMO is continued lack of respect from the general public, which results in horrifically bad resale values....which means higher lease payments or huge depreciation.
Audi can make great product if they want to, but until they gain some respect, Audi owners will continue to pay the price of second class citizenship.

amg55

The local Audi dealer here had an RS6 on the lot which I stopped by to take a look at.

All I can say is that is THE humblest looking $85,000 car EVER built. Looks EXACTLY like an A6 (which I've had as a loaner in the past and which shouldn't be priced above a Honda Accord) except for the very subtle chrome changes and badge, etc.

What really kills me is the interior. Unbelievably dull and un-luxurious looking, except that the seats are nice.
Dash, steering wheel, instruments, etc all scream "I'm cheap!".

I just don't get it.
Why would someone buy one of these things?

Mr.PS

Im with Allenjdmb and Bimmerlover the Audi RS6 is one hell of a car the interior is not cheap looking by any means the sealts and dashboard look top notch. You could say that the M5 is just a rebaged 540I with more HP and the E55 is just a rebaged E500 with a AMG bodykit and more powerfull engine. Thats the only differance in all of the special tuning models IE Audi S,RS,BMW M,Mercedes AMG. The car is definelty a litte overpriced as are most of the high performance seadans. As for the deleys maybe people need to wait a little longer and not give up so quick when cars first start coming in like that it usally does take longer and there is plenty of deleys and other excuses for the car to take longer to get to your door but if they dont want to wait its there choice there paying. The current 2003 RS6 feels like the older body style which will probley change in 2004 to the Audi A8 L look exterior and interior just like BMW is changeing towards the 745-760 look inside and out IE new M5.

Im not flaming any of those 3 automobiles E55,M5,RS6 they are all 3 incredible machines and the Horsepower and performance race will not end anytime soon with those 3 manufactures.


my 2 cents.