tonetoni

Hey All,

New to the forum and would appreciate any thoughts or insight into a potential purchase I may make. Car is a 2015 RS5, 1 owner lease, 29K on the miles, 51K price.

I have never owned an audi and am between this car (which I prefer) or a 2015 Cayman S. Leaning towards the RS since its way more practical.
Would love some thoughts on known issues, things to watch out for during the test drive, any deal breakers to keep in mind if I notice them etc.

Also one last thing, the car is out of warranty, and the dealer is trying to sell me the extended Audi warranty (which it looks like is underwritten by another company?0 vs. CPO'ing the car. Ive bought cars before and CPO to me was always the way to go so seems off that they would point me one way vs. the other.
Warranty or some protection is a deal breaker for me so I have to have it, so i need to know what the difference is and what is best from a coverage standpoint as i dont want to get stuck with a 15K repair bill (and yes I can afford the car and maintenance but would prefer to avoid wasting money on big big repairs .

Thank everyone, and look forward to your thoughts.

Ape Factory

The RS5 really has no gotchas. It's an extremely solid car but its is German and thus complex. Maintenance is very important. Some of the front suspension bushings can wear prematurely and some RS5's, with the standard iron rotors have wear issues. It's a direct injected engine so carbon buildup is an issue long term and should be considered a maintenance item. Make sure the car has a full documented maintenance history.

As far as the warranty goes, are you the type to modify the vehicle? If not, get the warranty if the terms and details make sense. If not, skip it, especially if you have any mechanical ability.

There's decent aftermarket support for the RS5 and any brake issues can easily be solved by aftermarket pads and rotors.

superswiss

Ape pretty much covered the basics. The B8.5 RS5 is a great car and I still love mine, even though the time has come to move on, but I'll continue to enjoy it until the new car is here and the RS5 is sold. As for CPO vs extended warranty, the Audi CPO program used to be very good, but now you only get 12 months of warranty from the time of purchase or the end of the original warranty. Extended warranty can be had for up to 7 years or something like that, but there are different levels and each level has a long list of exclusions, so take a close look at what's actually covered. I've never found extended warranty to be worth it. I've been out of warranty for a while now and am coming up on 70k miles. I did have an expensive out of warranty transmission repair, but Audi shared the cost with me 50/50, so it ended up being around $2000 instead $6500. Extended warranty would still be more expensive than that. As long as it's well maintained it'll run great. The transmission issue I had was a known issue with a sensor inside going bad.

tonetoni

thanks this is helpful @superswiss your transmission issue, is that something you think extended warranty would have covered? I got quoted 5K for the extended warranty, so trying to weigh that vs. potentially more than one pricey repair coming up (i know being paranoid).

Ape Factory

It'll depend on what the extended warranty excludes. That's why the verbiage needs to be read carefully. SS basically had an electronic sensor go bad, one that required splitting open the physical gearbox. It's fairly rare and he's the only one I've seen on the forum that's had that sensor go bad (on an RS5 anyway). The warranty could say something like gearbox mechanicals covered but it could exclude the electronics in the gearbox at the same time. The other item that'll go bad, again, very rare on anything 2013+, is the electronics board on the mechatronics unit. It's something that can be changed out without removing the transmission. The old design would overheat and cook the electronics (they're bathed and cooled in ATF fluid). The new design has an improved heat sink and construction. But I can't emphasize this enough, it's very rare these days. Depending on year, S-tronic transmission comes in the RS5, S5, S6, S4 and maybe the A5? Prior to 2012, there were quite a few reports of mechatronic units going bad (it was actually just the electronics on the mechatronics unit). The mechatronic is basically a set of hydraulic actuators with a computer attached. It's sort of like a valve body in an auto transmission.

Are you able to get a full service history on the car? See if they can pull everything up including things that might have been fixed. If it's a car they sold and serviced, there should be records. You'll then be able to tell if the car has had problems or not. If you're unfamiliar with any of the services, just post the description here and we can interpret.

There's a big service at 35K (it's mileage and/or TIME dependent) so ask when the car will need it's 35K service. You may be able to get some negotiating room. Conversely, see if the car has Audicare. If so, and it still has a service or two left, the 35K service may be covered. Make sure the 15K and 25K services were done too.

If you purchase the car, change the oil every 5K instead of every 10K. That'll help with carbon deposit buildup. It's not super bad on the RS5 like previous generation Audis but you will need to have the carbon clean done at some point. I'm at 50K now and I've not done the carbon cleaning. I will be doing so next month for no particular reason other than to just do it and have the car in top shape. Audi will say there's no reason to do it unless it's causing an issue.

Are the front brakes the standard iron discs or are the the carbon ceramic disks (silver calipers up front)?

Edit: There's a reasonably big group of active RS5 owners on the audizine forum so if you purchase, check that out. It's a bit quiet here but SuperSwiss usually checks in regularly on this board and I swing in periodically. I bought my car without a warranty but I am also mechanically capable of fixing most things if they go bad. I've gone on long road trips (3,000+ miles with no issues).

superswiss

It should, but I would double check with them in terms of what level they quoted you. Generally the lower levels cover mechanical parts and the higher levels add electronics, but this one is sort of mixed.

leifmb

I bought mine CPO and I guess I juuuust got in with the 6yr/100K "old" warranty and would not have bought it without it! I did notice the newer 12mo warranty (unlimitted miles) and was told subsequent to my purchase, that the "better cars" come with different CPO warranty options. I like the CPO program, or did if it really did change to only 12mo. You should have SOME warranty if you are going to drop 51K on a used car. I haven't had any problems in 1.5 years except the service active handling light (or something like that) came on and then went off. The dealer checked the car and said they could not find any problems....of course. I rest assured though as I have another 2 years to go on the CPO. Great car otherwise, such a good choice!