DHS

Friends, yesterday I collected my new to me 2016 S5 Premium Plus. It is CPO, silver over black, with B&O, sports differential, adaptive suspension and black optics. I live in Maine and had the car shipped from the Audi dealer in San Jose to Maine. This car replaces my beloved '09 S5 (V8/MT) that was destroyed in a collision with a deer last fall. I had 207,000 great miles in that car. And this one will be as good, if not better. I drove the 5 hours home to Maine from NH where the shipper dropped it off. It felt like an old friend. I sunk into the wonderful sport seats that are, in my opinion, the best I have ever planted my fanny in. Everything was where it was supposed to be. Fit and finish are immaculate, just as I expected. What I did not expect is how much more refined and balanced the ride is. The V8 is a beast of a power plant, but it made the car significantly nose heavy. This car feels much more centered - like the geometry has moved further back. It corners beautifully, even better than my old car which had upgraded sway bars and tranny reinforcement. I was concerned that it would not give that visceral rush, No worries. The V6 power plant seems to have an even wider power band that the V8, which did not have good grunt until around 3000 rpm. Very good exhaust note - but more like a tenor than a bass. It is a bit odd, however, in that at 50-60mph, the engine runs at about 1500rpm, where my old car was around 2300 rpm. This make the engine sound like it is lugging. Steering is decidedly better - much tighter and more responsive than my old S5. Very planted feeling on the road, even with the frost heaves that are a sure sign of spring in my home state, and this was in dynamic mode. The new steering wheel is a revelation - the various ergonomic grips and flat bottom are a noticeable improvement over my old car. But the lack of rain gutters is not. I laughed outloud when I lowered the window, only to have water pour off the roof onto the door and my left arm- just as it did for the 7 years I lived with my other S5. All in all, this is a very much more refined car - although it has just a fraction of the miles that my old one did.
But I have two issues for your consideration. When I collected the car, the first thing the carrier driver pointed out is the fact that the front and rear bumpers are painted a darker color than the rest of the car. And he front appears to be even darker than the rear. I have never seen this as a design element on an Audi. But if this was the result of repaired damage, it would be reasonable to assume that they would have matched the paint. So I just do not know what to make of this and have emailed the images above to the dealer. This is a CPO car. I do not think cosmetic issues are considered, but certainly damage is. And none was revealed on the CarFax for. So this remains a mystery to me. Secondly, the car came with rubber mats but no fabric ones. So I have to get a set. I could do the OEM, but wonder if there are aftermarket alternatives that may be better.
Appreciate any thoughts y'all have on the paint issue. And would be happy to share any other observations re the difference between the V6 and V8 models.
D

OlyS5

Congrats on the S5... I have an '15 and yes... the SC V6 is a great motor! And the seats... yes... so dang comfortable!

Here in WA State where we get a fair amount of iffy weather, I have Lloyd's RubberTite Floor Mats in my S5. They are a nice alternative to the heavy duty all-weather Weathertech mats.

https://www.lloydmatsstore.com/rubbertite-floor-mats

DHS

Thanks mate. These look nice.

jschrauwen

Congrats. I've been following your story from the beginning and remember how much reserved/concerned you were about the transition from 4.2 V8 to the 3.0T V6. And how you might not find that same affection like the older V8 but apparently this is no longer an issue and has even perhaps given you a more renewed appreciation of the S5 transition?
As far as the different bumper colours go, since there's nothing on the carfax, it may be a case of a minor front rear bumper damage that was not entered into the system by the owner. I say this because not too long ago, I sold my old set of headlights to someone who owns a new SQ7 whose son recently acquired an A5. Unfortunately, his wife backed into their sons car requiring bumper repair and headlight replacement. My bet is that short of driveway damage would never be entered into the books and therefore never be accounted for in a carfax even though there is an obligation for sellers to make full disclosure, there's always going to be some that may omit things like this. When I hear of bumper damage, I would look to a good scan tool (OBDeleven, VAGCOM, etc) to see if there is any historic data which would reveal that there were codes associated with the sensors in the front and rear bumpers. Is there any overspray signs anywhere?
As far as fabric mats are concerned, I read some great threads on the (euro-based) www.a5oc.com site for a manufacturer in the UK which uses a great pile content in their custom mats. You can also get custom embroidery and colour choices. Carpet pile thickness is by far better then the cheap pile rating that Audi uses and their perimeter piping, and oem fit are supposed to be far superior to anything oem. I believe they even reach further under the peddles then the oem ones do which is a gripe of mine.

Love to hear any follow up and once again, congrats!

a5.cw

Congratulations on your new-to-you S5. I haven't noticed that much of a color difference on bumpers before, but then again, I haven't been looking all that closely, either. My guess is that they were replaced, as others have suggested.

DHS

Thanks gentlemen for the feedback. I spent a bit of time in the car today and am very impressed with it. Again, comparisons between a car that has 28k miles vs. 208k miles can be unfair. And I really do not have any clear memory of my first S5 when it was new to me with 18k miles. But I can say that i never remember it feeling as refined, balanced and planted as this one. Getting used to the auto is going to be an issue. But I used the paddles a bit more today. Really is quite fun figuring where the shift points should be. I did discover that if the the car is in D, you can activate the paddle function simply by engaging them - without moving the gear shift to the right. It seems to me that the tranny reverted back to auto at some point without my intervention.
The bumper thing remains a mystery. Much as I would like to think that it is some sort of design detail - like matching the bumpers to the two-tone wheels, I think that unlikely - unless the previous owner had some penchant for a two (or three) tone car. Strange that if the bumpers were replaced that they would not have bothered to match the paint. And even if they came off another car unpainted, the color does not match any current S5 model. Since both are painted darker than the body, could have been nose/rear crunch. If that were the case, you would expect some trunk and hood damage, and there is none. And no evidence that the hood was repainted, by virtue of rock chips on the hood nose. A rather disappointing experience, especially for a CPO car. I checks the CPO checklist and both bumpers "passed." I have a very good relationship with the local Audi dealer (sold my A4 and S4 to the head service writer), and will reach out to them for suggestions. I read up on the dealer in California - Stevens Creek - lots of unhappy customers - or would-be customers. I may get Audi involved, though they probably will have little interest in a dealer/customer issue. But given the fact that this is a CPO car, it does reflect on the company. There are other potential legal remedies for misrepresenting the condition of the car. Kind of an obvious one when the car is essentially three colors. I sent actually have pictures of the car that the sales guy took at my request to show all the exterior cosmetic imperfections. Apparently, it did not occur to him to mention that the bumpers are a different color. I have sent the images to the dealer and will see if they bother to respond. In the meantime, I will get a quote for repaint.
Js, thanks for the link. I will definitely check out that site for the summer mats.
Really nice to be back in an Audi. Again, appreciate your interest, and any additional suggestions re the bumpers.
Best
D

jschrauwen

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3541...5880379484482/

https://www.autostyle.co.uk/designer_car_mats.asp

lmariorod

I hate to be a kill joy. But that bumper does look a shade different. I would not have taken delivery of that car with those different shade bumpers. I would bet many others that wanted to buy the car and saw it in person, passed on the car. Just my opinion. I certainly would have passed.

Opening a case with AoA is certainly in order, given the fact that its CPO. But first try to resolve with the selling dealer and document, document and document some more.

I've taken some pics of my car in close proximity to the ones taken by you. For comparison sakes. It's not apples to apples because my 2013 is Ice Silver, and yours might be Florette Silver. But judge for yourself, if body and bumpers match.

The bumpers material is different from the body panel material and therefore If the car was in the sun a lot,it could have discolored (yellowish) the bumpers....just guessing here but something the dealer might say if it came from a sunny climate.



On a good note. I'll tell you that the bumpers are not difficult to remove. I removed mine in twenty minutes to place a replica RS5 Honeycomb grill. So taking them off and having a good paint body shop spray them Florette Silver, should not cost a fortune. IMO.

jschrauwen

Will you be using a VDS/OBDeleven/Carista to search the historical data of past codes? I believe by doing so and possibly finding old codes that indicated faulty/damaged sensors that are located within both bumpers (parking sensors, ambient temp sensor, etc etc), this would be valuable information to present to the dealership when you make your queries. It can only support your hypothesis that there had been damage of some degree to precipitate the need to replace those sensors (and the bumpers accordingly). Damage that wasn't disclosed as part of the CPO process.

DHS

Thanks very much for your efforts. Your images shed a bit of light, so to speak, on the subject. I see a tonal difference on your car, though not as great as mine. Perhaps your explanation regarding the difference in materials provides an explanation. My car came from sunny, southern Ca. Like mine, your front bumper is darker than the rear bumper, and both are darker than the body. Again, I cannot fashion an explanation that makes any sense to me. If this was the result of a collision, it would have involved both front and rear bumpers. That would be a "sandwich" collision. And the Carfax was clean. Furthermore, if this was a repaint, surely they would have matched the paint, because the quality of the paint is good. Finish is the same. Even spread. Same surface reflection. And then there is the fact that, like yours, the rear bumper is at least one shade lighter than the front. If a repaint, both would be the same tonality. In fact, if not for the front bumper being so different, I may not have even noticed the rear. So none of the typical explanations for paint after collision is present. But if this is, as you suggest, a materials issue, one would assume that there would be many reports of it. In the seven years I owned my previous red S5, I never noticed any variation like this. Nor have I read about it.
It occurs to me that an auto body shop could measure the the thickness of the paint, or do some other magic, to determine if this is a repaint.
I spoke to a guy who has repaired my cars for 20 years. He was talking like $500 per bumper. Good to know that taking it off is not a big deal because that is one of the things he mentioned as affecting the price.
Agree that getting some resolution with the dealer would be the preferred route. But crickets so far from them. They know I am literally across country and they will never see me again. Before I involve AOA, I will have more data in hand, One thing I do not want to do is jeopardize my CPO status by alerting AOA of a car that should not have qualified as CPO in the first place.
Don't worry about being a "kill joy." From the drivers seat, that throne of delight, I cannot see the bumpers. Already got two random comments today for total strangers on the street who gave me the random "hey, nice car." I got that all the time with my red one. The best of them was from the toll taker on the Maine turnpike. That lady sees thousands of cars a day. When she says that's a nice car-believe it.
That said, I do find the car rather boring to drive in auto. But once in paddle mode, big *** grins. I could get used to that. Though my left foot was twitching....
Again, thanks for your efforts. Will keep all posted.