Aside from its Avus wheels and subtle badging, today’s Nice Price or No Dice S6 doesn’t look all that different from its A6 Avant cousins. It’s what’s under those looks that counts, however, and we’ll have to decide if that’s enough for the seller to count on getting the car’s asking.
Yesterday’s 1976 Chevrolet Nova carried the Concours trim package and was indeed in Concours condition. Before you pull out that dog-eared entry application for Pebble Beach, consider that the asking price for the car was a cool $18,500, and that generated a sizable 81 percent No Dice loss in our voting. Nobody wants to show up at Pebble Beach in a car they got snookered on, the riches would just point at you and laugh.
If you’re planning to drop nearly twenty grand on an old car, it might as well be something that has provenance and is pretty interesting to drive. This 1995.5 Audi S6 Avant has both of those attributes and a seller who is happy to play the waiting game.
First off, let’s get that weird model year notation out of the way. This S6 hails from the second half of 1995, and that means that it has a couple of significant changes from the cars that left the factory in the first half of the year. Most notable of those was the switch from a driver-controlled locking rear differential to one that featured automatic actuation signaled by the ABS sensors. Along with the removal of the diff lock switch, Audi also juggled some of the other interior control locations. That’s *checks notes* pretty much it, but if you’re an Audi acolyte then it’s no doubt all meaningful stuff.
According to the ad, the present owner bought the car a bit more than a year ago and, despite the global pandemic reducing driving opportunities for many of us, managed to put on over 16,000 miles on the car in that time. The odometer now reads an eyebrow arching 232,000.
Those miles don’t seem to show in the car aesthetically, nor apparently in the mechanicals which, according to the seller, have been professionally maintained for at least the last six years. During that time, the cambelt has been replaced as has a number of other consumables. The turbocharger is a recently added rebuild with a warranty for the spinny bits. Most of the ignition system has been replaced with the coils going red on top and Bosch plugs doing sparking duty below those.
When new, the 2.2 liter inline five made 227 horsepower. The seller avers that with its ECU update, this mill now makes closer to 300. Those ponies get routed through a refreshed clutch and five-speed manual to the Audi’s Quattro AWD system. Per the ad, the car rolls on its stock ride height and farts through the stock exhaust. Big rotors and Porsche/Brembo calipers in front, plus new stock units in back provide the pull-down.
The bodywork looks to be in decent shape, although the seller does note some chipping in the paint, and deems that a result of the car’s age. The front bumper has been repainted since it apparently bore the brunt of that chipping as such things do. There’s no rust and the 16-inch Speedline Avus wheels look to be free of curb rash.
The hits keep coming in the interior which features black leather upholstery and white-faced gauges. The dashboard is the kind you wish all cars still had today and carries the factory AM/FM/cassette stereo right next to the oddly-placed power mirror controls. As an added bonus, this Avant has the rear-facing third-row in the back for the kiddies.
The seller says that the A/C works as it should, but that the driver’s seat memory function and the sunroof do not. A recalcitrant fuel gauge is another issue, although that comes with a low fuel warning light so you’re unlikely to go dry should you get fooled by the needle reading.
A clean title puts the bow on the top of this tidy and cool car. The seller asks $19,955 to take over its ownership and justifies that number by pointing to a couple of recent sales (eBay, BaT) that have been in that range. Let’s just note that, before the crazy time, this would have been a $10K car if even that. Now? Well, that’s up to you.
What do you think, is this 1995.5 S6 worth that $19,955 asking as it’s described in the ad? Or, rare or not, is that just too much for any old Audi that didn’t actually win a rally?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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