Draw up a list of the things that Audi does best and estate cars, ludicrous performance and design are likely to be close to the top of it. Which is why the C7 generation RS6 Avant may well be looked back on in years to come as peak Audi, the greatest combination of all these virtues.
Because while the current C8 generation RS6 still delivers on both space and pace - producing up to 630hp in Performance guise - it lacks the muscular grace that made its predecessor so compelling. Personal call, obviously - but the C8’s all-aperture front end and television shop interior leave me a little cold, while pictures of this C7 still trigger warm memories. And also some fond, fuzzy flashbacks.
Most of these are down to the fact I was lucky enough to run a C7 RS6 for six months, having been the custodian of evo magazine's long-termer back in 2013 and 2014. That was a far jazzier prospect than this week’s sensible grey Pill, being finished in a shade of ‘look at me’ red. It was also, by some margin, the grandest and most expensive car I had been the custodian of, with its £75,500 base price having been lifted by a comprehensive options workout to a vertigo inducting £101,020.
Many of my memories are indeed related to the hugeness of the performance. The RS6 was fast everywhere, the twin-turbo V8 feeling like it was straining at the leash when being trickled at low speeds, and never more than a flexed toe away from delivering big ones. Strapping timing gear on proved the RS6 could blast from rest to 100mph in just over eight seconds, a figure that made it the fastest accelerating estate car in the world at the time. But it was also a supremely talented cruiser, being much more pliant and comfortable than its V10 predecessor had been. I never took it as far as an Autobahn, but it would have been awesome.
Not that life with an RS6 was devoid of concerns. Fuel consumption was predictably high and the range wasn’t great. Even under gentle use, it struggled to get more than 350 miles from its 75-litre tank, and using the performance dropped that substantially. Brim-to-brim calculations after a stint on track showed it had been averaging 3.5mpg flat-out. It was a big car, too - and in the real world, the dimensional spread of its widened arches made it awkward in tight spaces. I never went through a width restrictor without wincing and the XL optional 21-inch wheels were also huge, shiny kerb magnets, without any bead protection to spare the metal in the event of a small misjudgement.
But my biggest fear was one common to the many RS owners: that it would get nicked. No sooner had sales of the C7 RS6 began than stories started circulating about them being stolen, often violently, with scrotes smashing their way into houses and threatening owners for keys. Having a bright red RS6 parked on the drive does make you feel like a target, and even if nothing ever happened to mine I was happy to swap it for a much less conspicuous Golf GTI.
While the two previous generations of RS6 had suffered from savage depreciation early on, the C7 held value impressively well. Our Pill is a 2014 car and the cheapest currently on sale in the Classifieds at £29,950, with the lowness of that figure compared to similar-aged cars seemingly down to the fact it has covered 109,000 miles.
By RS6 standards, this one is pretty undercover. Besides the grey exterior - with a similarly dress-down hue inside - it is riding on the standard 20-inch alloys. It also has the regular front bumper rather than the showier ‘quattro’ logo version which was an extra-cost option, with the pictures showing it also has conventional cruise control rather than the radar system Audi was still charging £2,200 more for back then. It also has the regular BOSE branded speaker system rather than the hugely expensive six-grand Bang & Olufsen upgrade.
Our Pill’s MOT history is as green as the history of cabbage, with only a single advisory for a chip in the windscreen back in 2018 sparing it from a completely clean record. The rate of mileage acquisition has jumped around a fair bit, with 23,000 miles wound on between March 2019 and September 2020 on what would have been a COVID extension. There were just 9,000 added the following year, but then it bounced back to 19,000 between 2021 and 2022. The dealer claims it has just been serviced, too, which can safely be put into the bonus column.
Risks? Plenty enough to make things interesting, our Pill being at both the age and mileage where maintenance costs tend to increase: it’s not as if this generation of RS6 is ever going to be short of things to go wrong. Running costs will always be chunky, especially given the RS6’s enthusiasm for devouring brakes and tyres under hard use; the original spec RS-only wavy edge brake discs seem to be over £1,000 for a pair, although generics are undoubtedly cheaper. So definitely not a car to run on a restricted budget.
Despite that, this could be a time for a canny buyer to move in. C7 RS6 prices are getting very close to those of the C6, and despite the appeal of the earlier car’s charismatic V10, this is definitely a much better all-rounder. We might even look back on it in years to come as the pinnacle RS wagon, and not just for bank robbers looking for the ultimate getaway vehicle.
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