cgfen

Finally
Took delivery of the Avant on 13 Feb 2012.
It’s been a long road in finally deciding to go down this path, but I’m glad I did and I won’t bore you with the details… at least not for now.

It’s a 2011 A4 Avant, Prestige Package, S Line in a pretty cool Pearl Red over Black Alcantara interior, (all wagons should be as “sporty”)
As the story goes it was a VW of America “executive car” so it has every possible option including lottsa stuff I have no idea how to use yet; radar controlled cruise control? Really?
Which means it has more goodies to play with and more goodies to eventually fail.

I bought it sight unseen from a VW dealer in Mt. Pleasant, IL. Huge leap of faith for someone as **** as me. I did have a trusted local friend do a visual PPI.
It desperately needs a thorough cleaning / polish / wax since it’s only been washed by lot boys previously.

The only mod’s currently planned are;

• Install a Campy sticker on the rear window
• Refinish the passenger side wheels. They were curbed at one point and the dealer did an embarrassingly bad job covering up the damage. I can literally just peel off the resprayed paint. I may go a bit crazy and have the wheels painted in as close to Porsche 993 Turbo S finish as possible.

Here are a few photo’s. The Subie sold 2 days after I put it on Autotrader,

Craig

SeattleAllroad

It looks like we'll once again miss out on one of Audi's tastier cars...the RS4 Avant. If Audi never imports it's hottest Avants to the states they'll never develop a market which they could arguably own. I don't think Merc is importing an E class hot rod wagon anymore. I for one would consider an Audi purchase after swearing that I'd never buy another Audi...

M. Schneider

For over a decade a silver metallic MY95.5 UrS6 Audi avant was my dailey driver. A few Audi RS2 mod's here, 993tt brakes there making the S6 wagon a true sleeper, an uber ski wagon on the much traveled Denver to Eagle County 100 mile run into the mountains. Starting at roughly 5,280' elevation and upwards to 10,000' elevation makes forced induction a must for a hot rod wagon. While in Germany a while back a neighbors MY12 S6 Avant looked pretty sweet. To bad America.... and can you really fault Audi USA? The MY02/03 RS6 4.2tt sedan wasn't really a game changer for the Audi dealers. Don't get me wrong, I had deposit money down for a RS6 4.2tt wagon after driving one of the Audi.de courtesy cars litered about 24 du Le Mans that year. Audi USA only brought the sedan version.... Americans don't buy wagons or hatchbacks as the history goes.....

cgfen

Some "Americans don't buy wagons or hatchbacks as the history goes".

cgfen

Looks like I'll have to sell the 993 and the A4 Avant to buy the RS4Avant when i finally get to move to Switz


or



Craig

SeattleAllroad

Point taken about America generally not being a great market for wagons. However, I'd say that Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Toyota and Subaru have all been relatively successful at selling a variety of wagons. Perhaps it's the price point that most Americans have a problem with or, is it that we don't equate high performance and wagons as being achievable?

I'm sure Audi has analyzed the market opportunity and made the determination based on historical business trends.

All I know is that if you never try you'll never be successful. Having failed trying is better than not having tried at all.

totallydude

here is my 993 and avant..

SSTAR

Picked up this "estate" car in Jan. Real beast. Gratuitous pic of the 993

SeattleAllroad

Eeeek, I stand corrected. Mercedes to the rescue with an E63 estate.

M. Schneider

The pickings for wagons is slim. For MY12 BMW no longer offers (in the USA) their 5 Series estate and the same goes for Audi no longer offering the Avant of their neu A6 range. The marix of buyer patterns now include the mini van and more recently of the last decade the SUV. Even freak'in Porsche is successful offering a SUV - (survival) who'da thunk! - Go figure. Bloody americans ain't thinking wagon by a dam sight...

Make my MY12 Audi S6 wagon in LY7U (Porsche stone grey metallic) w/ the nicest black leather sport seats, 7sp DSG, etc,...

SeattleAllroad

I totally forgot about the Cadillac CTS V...

solomonschris

Here is my 06 Avant. I bought it with 20,000 miles and it is now 88,000. Not a single thing has gone wrong. They still make the wagon but won't bring it to the states. My Mercedes dealer told me the E63 wagon is not coming over either. I am also showing you the tiny garage I have to work with. I can't enlarge it or build another because of the critical area rules on the Chesapeake.

Rinty

Do you wear that Aerostich when you're riding your Harley?

Too bad about the development rules; looks likes you've got lots of site area.

solomonschris

Rinty,.

Good eye. The stitch is used mostly for trips. I bought it 1998 when I had a vfr800 set up for serious sport touring. I put 58,000 miles on that bike. I used to wear only leathers when riding. I have winter and summer Vanson gear, unfortunately the waist shrunk on both pants. On the Harley I usually wear a ballistic nylon jacket and levi. Don't get me started on all the damn helmets I've accumulated over the years. I have been riding for 50 years this Sept. I swore I would never own a Harley but I just love the Ultra.

Rinty

Hey, I've even worn Dainese on them.

Anyway, back to Audis, and I'll buy Derek (Ginch) a beer at the next Wild Rose run, to compensate for hi jacking his thread. The season is almost on us.