I've never owned a performance car and I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on an RS5.
#12
RS5 is a great car!!! you will never regret it..
- Price: yes it is a lil bit more that c63 and M4/3 but you will get more for your money mainly the legndary quattro. also if you spec an RS5 with MMI it will be around 74, Spec and M3 with DCT, Hifi, carbon inlays to match what you will get in the RS5 and you will see the gap in price will vanish.
Add to that with RS5 you will get exclusivity and better resale value (private sale not trade in) in 5 years if you kept it well maintained.
- Maintenance: Bad news here all German cars are pricey to fix and maintain. so Audi Care and extended warranty if it was reasonably priced will be worth it if you want have that car for 5+ years, also when you decide to sell the car with couple of months left in the warranty, you will get more buyers.
- The steel brakes are more than enough for daily driving, but for track they will start to fade out quickly and Ceramics brakes will help you, at 6K they are a good deal if you compare them to the $8400 brakes from an M4. so for daily drivers not brakes needed, but for track days you have to invest in better brakes.
- For snow you will need another set of tires for sure.. I live in Miami and for rainy season i was ok with all seasons tires, i felt the less grip for sure but the car was ok because you do not push it hard on public wet roads, but for snow you will need another set of tires 1000%
- Price: yes it is a lil bit more that c63 and M4/3 but you will get more for your money mainly the legndary quattro. also if you spec an RS5 with MMI it will be around 74, Spec and M3 with DCT, Hifi, carbon inlays to match what you will get in the RS5 and you will see the gap in price will vanish.
Add to that with RS5 you will get exclusivity and better resale value (private sale not trade in) in 5 years if you kept it well maintained.
- Maintenance: Bad news here all German cars are pricey to fix and maintain. so Audi Care and extended warranty if it was reasonably priced will be worth it if you want have that car for 5+ years, also when you decide to sell the car with couple of months left in the warranty, you will get more buyers.
- The steel brakes are more than enough for daily driving, but for track they will start to fade out quickly and Ceramics brakes will help you, at 6K they are a good deal if you compare them to the $8400 brakes from an M4. so for daily drivers not brakes needed, but for track days you have to invest in better brakes.
- For snow you will need another set of tires for sure.. I live in Miami and for rainy season i was ok with all seasons tires, i felt the less grip for sure but the car was ok because you do not push it hard on public wet roads, but for snow you will need another set of tires 1000%
#13
If cost is an issue, search the pre-owned RS5 market. There may be only about 30 of them floating around in the US but you can save huge money and still have a basically brand new car.
For example, I bought a pre-owned '13 Daytona Gray RS5 for $60k w/ 20k miles on it.
Have been driving it a few days and am absolutely in love with this car!
Otherwise, go new and get every little detail how you like it. Mine had only MMI/Nav option and nothing else. No biggie for me since I am doing my own exhaust and such but make sure you get the car you want.
For example, I bought a pre-owned '13 Daytona Gray RS5 for $60k w/ 20k miles on it.
Have been driving it a few days and am absolutely in love with this car!
Otherwise, go new and get every little detail how you like it. Mine had only MMI/Nav option and nothing else. No biggie for me since I am doing my own exhaust and such but make sure you get the car you want.
#14
AudiWorld Super User
It's an automated manual. There's quite a bit of a difference there. The similarities to an automatic transmission are purely superficial.
#17
AudiWorld Super User
Under the covers, it's a manual transmission. In fact it's two manual transmissions combined. One handles the even gears and the other one handles the odd gears. Hence the term dual clutch transmission. The computer controls the clutch engagement and performs the shift faster than a human being can with a regular manual transmission.
The manual mode in the RS5 is a true manual mode, meaning if you don't manually upshift at redline, it's gonna bounce of the rev limiter. However, it does automatically downshift if the engine is about to stall.
In comfort mode the transmission does a good job at pretending to be a traditional automatic transmission. It's super smooth around town and during casual driving. Put it in sport mode and the beast within wakes up.
#18
AudiWorld Super User
BTW, it pays off to understand how this transmission works and that it is not an automatic transmission, otherwise you'll get a nasty surprise the first time you drive uphill.
An automatic transmission has a fluid coupling between engine and transmission, so it never disengages. That means you can creep up a hill very easily and when you come to a stop it doesn't roll backwards on you.
Not so with this transmission. Just like a traditional manual, this transmission maintains a mechanical link to the engine and if you come to a stop the clutch disengages and the wheels spin freely. That means if you come to a stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake you gonna start rolling downhill. The car has a feature called Hill Start, which helps. If you take your foot off the brake on a hill, the car will hold the brake for an additional couple of seconds to give you time to switch over to the throttle.
Where you can get a nasty surprise, though is if you are creeping uphill in first gear and you are going so slow that the engine is about to stall. If that happens, the computer will suddenly disengage the clutch to prevent to engine from stalling and you will go oh **** as the car suddenly starts going backwards downhill.
An automatic transmission has a fluid coupling between engine and transmission, so it never disengages. That means you can creep up a hill very easily and when you come to a stop it doesn't roll backwards on you.
Not so with this transmission. Just like a traditional manual, this transmission maintains a mechanical link to the engine and if you come to a stop the clutch disengages and the wheels spin freely. That means if you come to a stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake you gonna start rolling downhill. The car has a feature called Hill Start, which helps. If you take your foot off the brake on a hill, the car will hold the brake for an additional couple of seconds to give you time to switch over to the throttle.
Where you can get a nasty surprise, though is if you are creeping uphill in first gear and you are going so slow that the engine is about to stall. If that happens, the computer will suddenly disengage the clutch to prevent to engine from stalling and you will go oh **** as the car suddenly starts going backwards downhill.
#19
Audiworld Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Coral Springs, FL
Posts: 50
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BTW, it pays off to understand how this transmission works and that it is not an automatic transmission, otherwise you'll get a nasty surprise the first time you drive uphill.
An automatic transmission has a fluid coupling between engine and transmission, so it never disengages. That means you can creep up a hill very easily and when you come to a stop it doesn't roll backwards on you.
Not so with this transmission. Just like a traditional manual, this transmission maintains a mechanical link to the engine and if you come to a stop the clutch disengages and the wheels spin freely. That means if you come to a stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake you gonna start rolling downhill. The car has a feature called Hill Start, which helps. If you take your foot off the brake on a hill, the car will hold the brake for an additional couple of seconds to give you time to switch over to the throttle.
Where you can get a nasty surprise, though is if you are creeping uphill in first gear and you are going so slow that the engine is about to stall. If that happens, the computer will suddenly disengage the clutch to prevent to engine from stalling and you will go oh **** as the car suddenly starts going backwards downhill.
An automatic transmission has a fluid coupling between engine and transmission, so it never disengages. That means you can creep up a hill very easily and when you come to a stop it doesn't roll backwards on you.
Not so with this transmission. Just like a traditional manual, this transmission maintains a mechanical link to the engine and if you come to a stop the clutch disengages and the wheels spin freely. That means if you come to a stop on a hill and take your foot off the brake you gonna start rolling downhill. The car has a feature called Hill Start, which helps. If you take your foot off the brake on a hill, the car will hold the brake for an additional couple of seconds to give you time to switch over to the throttle.
Where you can get a nasty surprise, though is if you are creeping uphill in first gear and you are going so slow that the engine is about to stall. If that happens, the computer will suddenly disengage the clutch to prevent to engine from stalling and you will go oh **** as the car suddenly starts going backwards downhill.
#20
The transmission has a fully automatic mode and a manual mode. In the fully automatic mode, the computer decides when to shift, in the manual mode the driver decides. That's where the similarities to a tiptronic automatic transmission end.
Under the covers, it's a manual transmission. In fact it's two manual transmissions combined. One handles the even gears and the other one handles the odd gears. Hence the term dual clutch transmission. The computer controls the clutch engagement and performs the shift faster than a human being can with a regular manual transmission.
The manual mode in the RS5 is a true manual mode, meaning if you don't manually upshift at redline, it's gonna bounce of the rev limiter. However, it does automatically downshift if the engine is about to stall.
In comfort mode the transmission does a good job at pretending to be a traditional automatic transmission. It's super smooth around town and during casual driving. Put it in sport mode and the beast within wakes up.
Under the covers, it's a manual transmission. In fact it's two manual transmissions combined. One handles the even gears and the other one handles the odd gears. Hence the term dual clutch transmission. The computer controls the clutch engagement and performs the shift faster than a human being can with a regular manual transmission.
The manual mode in the RS5 is a true manual mode, meaning if you don't manually upshift at redline, it's gonna bounce of the rev limiter. However, it does automatically downshift if the engine is about to stall.
In comfort mode the transmission does a good job at pretending to be a traditional automatic transmission. It's super smooth around town and during casual driving. Put it in sport mode and the beast within wakes up.