Tag: S4

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Audi Car rental Car service Transport travel Vintage cars

Well, the old S4 requires some good old TLC..

As previously reported I recently took delivery of a 2005 B6 Audi S4 with the wonderful V8 engine and the Audi Quattro 4WD system. She has been very well looked after for a 15 year old car and has loads of service stamps and receipts so I could not ask for more, and I think that the dreaded timing chain problem has also been sorted, that is a killer cos to change the chain requires the engine to come out of the car!!

The car arrived just before the dreaded virus lockdown so I have not yet been able to drive the car almost at all, just one very quick motorway trip up to Roma and back to flex her muscles a little. Since then she has been shut in a garage and even walking or cycling the 400m between house and garage has been difficult recently as the Police patrolled the town centre. So I have been visiting the car as and when I can, and I have also taken a few photos just to show what I have been up to.

The car is 15 years old, she looks really good and everything seems to work from the lovely electric sunroof to the satnav to the memory seats (Audi in this case showing very good quality) BUT as she has spent most of her life between Switzerland and the UK then I assumed that the underside of the car would show some signs of the dreaded rust, which cars here in sunny Italy tend not to have until they are much older. Plus I noted that the car battery was not the correct one (much smaller) so that needed changing, and I also saw that the alloy wheels had some road and pavement scars so I planned to have them refurbished and I found a local place that would do that.

When I removed the wheels my theory was proved half right and the wheel arches, suspension, brakes and all did have some signs of corrosion but not as much as I had feared, so far so good. I don’t have a ramp available so I removed the wheels one at a time and put axle stands under the car, while I took the wheels away to be reworked. Some pics follow to show you the work in progress, loads more work to do but this lockdown slows deliveries down to a crawl…….UPDATE pics of my wheels being repainted just added…and a new set of Continental Sport tyres just arrived too!!

Well she looks a bit sad up on the axle stands but I hope that I will soon have the wheels looking like new….
  • Inside the paint oven
  • They reworked and then painted…
  • Looking better eh??
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travel

I just bought a new car…..well not toooo old anyway…..

Here she is, let me introduce you, yes she is an Audi S4 Avant (B6, 2005). I frequently scout Flea Bay and other UK sites searching for LHD UK registered cars. Many come from Spain as the UK has some half a million expats in the south of Spain as the weather and the living is sooooo good I guess, on a UK pension in Spain everyone becomes richer. I have always loved Audi and BMW as well as VW, and this S4 recently caught my eye at a London dealer.

LHD. Tick. Wonderful engine. Tick x 3. FSH tick. Good nick for her age as well as great value for money tick. Interesting. So what else? A V8 4.2 engine in an A4 is a wonderful start as personally I am a big fan of cubes and normal aspiration. For 4 years I owned an A5 with a 3.2 V6 engine and that was fun too, but this sounds almost too good to be true. Full Audi service history with loads of stamps in the service book. Great condition for her age. Goodness.

I phoned and chatted with the seller, London based Transeuropean Carriage Company, see https://www.transeuropean.co.uk/contacts. I chatted with the owner a truly charming fellow, and I bought the car based on his word and the photos of the car on his web site. “A fool and his money” I hear you say??? Well maybe, but lets say so far so good. I firstly studied how to collect her cos I have a trailer plus my trusty van BUT the cost of motorway tolls with a trailer are prohibitive. So Ryanair over and drive back?? Sure but I need to take 3 days off work so….Transeuropean??

I asked them how much to deliver the car and guess what??? The boss drove it down the following week!! I collected her from Roma airport and yes, I am in love again!! WOT a car, amazing, 15 years old but feels and drives like a much younger car. A few more pics follow and a fuller report when I start to get to know her…..

  • Pretty car
  • Love her already..
  • Understated
  • No badges….
  • Great cockpit
  • Memory seats
  • Wonderful auto box
  • Recaro and heated
  • Plenty of space
Recaro leather seats with memory, heated front seats plus loads more…..