S2 Avant prices

[nominous]

Hi all,

Just joined the forum as I was having a search for buyers guide, niggles and generally having a good learn about the cars. I noticed the sales sections closed to lurkers so thought best to come on and say hi.

I'm looking at a S2 Avant to buy for myself as an occassional car. I come from Hondas but have always had a spot spot for the RS2. The way I figure it, the S2 is 3/4 the power for 1/4 the price

Price... Just looking through the for sale section and the earlier S2 avants seem to be about the £4500 mark but they aint selling. Are the Coupes more desirable ? Are the Avant's being priced too high ?
Autotrader seems to have them pegged around the same values.
Ebay for example:

car1 car2


Also mileage wise what's considered to be high mileage by people and therefore avoided?
With the Hondas I generally don't worry about the mileage more the general condition as the body rots before the engine dies.


Thanks for reading, I hope I'll be sticking around.

Dave

[mark_s2]

Purchased my Avant about 3 months ago now.

The main problem that you are going to experience is finding a decent one. There were half the number of Avants sold in the UK to the Coupes.

I travelled up and down the country looking at 'mint' examples that were average at best.

IMHO would avoid e-bay like the plague. Most of the cars on there are over priced high mileage junk.

[phil2.016v]

Mine's probably up for grabs soon if you're interested, , it's done 112k genuine miles with paperwork to prove it.

[Fat Audi 80]

Its hard, actually impossible to judge prices without seeing individual cars. Avants will sell from £2000 to £6000 and you get what you pay for.

My advise would be to look carefully (here or Pistonheads is the best place) and try and spend as much as you can. These cars can be very expensive to repair and maintain if they have not been looked after in their previous lives.

Good luck and

Cheers,

Steve

P.S. Coupe's cost more because they are better looking....

[jubjub]

That Scottish one on Ebay actually looked OK.

The S2 prices do seem to be all over the place, and there is not actually that many about for sale at the minute....Its a rare car and has a cult following, you also have to know what one is to want one.........Its like a well kept secret

The better ones seem to come up for sale from Forum members (obviously) although Pistonheads throws up a occasional one. Then theres pot luck of the Trader/Ebay ones, Saying that I know someone who picked up a very nice Avant not too long ago from a Volvo garage.......

If you can get past the numbers showing on the clock, mileage is not an issue provided the history and condition back it up......

[pastures16]

Purchased my Avant about 3 months ago now.

The main problem that you are going to experience is finding a decent one. There were half the number of Avants sold in the UK to the Coupes.

I travelled up and down the country looking at 'mint' examples that were average at best.

IMHO would avoid e-bay like the plague. Most of the cars on there are over priced high mileage junk.

whats wrong with high milage then
as long as its been well serviced then you wont have problems i bought mine off a 64yrs old woman with 180k on the clock it wasnt even run in

[s2dude]

Its hard, actually impossible to judge prices without seeing individual cars. Avants will sell from £2000 to £6000 and you get what you pay for.

My advise would be to look carefully (here or Pistonheads is the best place) and try and spend as much as you can. These cars can be very expensive to repair and maintain if they have not been looked after in their previous lives.

Good luck and

Amen to that

[bazookachicken]

Hi there i'm just over a month into avant ownership and what a great car!! i paid £4900 for my 1995 M reg with 140,000 miles on the clock the interior on mine has a few minor niggles like the drivers door card could do with replacing but i bought the car for the long haul and deffinatly with my eyes open thanks to this forum, these cars as has been said can be expensive if they haven't been looked after mine had a massive history file with it and servicing has been all main dealer or audi specialist i had a service due and also had the cam belt changed as a matter of course as soon as i had the car and my local specialist VW rescue in dudley were very good and have experience with s2's the service and cam belt came in at around £450 and i've replaced the boost hoses dump valve and wgfv and done the mark h intercooler mod to cure a boost leak that developed at a cost of around £150 thanks to some 2nd hand hoses from midnightblueS2 the boost leak seems to be a common problem from the number of posts about them on here and was not present when i bought the vehicle but what a difference now. It's worth travelling to find the right one and i'd recommend taking someone with a good mechanical knowledge if your not sure yourself as i said mine has a few minor trim bits that need doing but mechanically it is very well cared for and the specialists even commented that they had not seen one as mechanically sound as mine for a while which was good to know. My advice would be spend as much as you can and have a fund ready for any repairs that may crop up i had a budget of £6000 to play with so after buying the car i knew i'd have around a grand to play with getting any problems sorted and as yuo can see to date i have spent the majority of that already on general maintainance and also look at various members running cost guides £2000+ a year running costs might seem high but it's easy to reach with these cars especially as you will deffinatly be bitten buy the bug for modifying very quickly son't let any of this put you off though they are great motors i needed an estate for carrying equipment round with my band i've had all sorts of cars in the past impreza turbo's, cosworths, golf gti's and even a couple of rover turbo's (hides in shame) and the S2 is deffinatly the best car i've owned i'll have it for a long time to come happy hunting and look forward to seeing you around

[B300ABT]

Prices are indeed all over the place.
I sold my 1995 S2 Avant with 78000 miles on the clock and FASH a few months back. It was in pretty good condition externally ( Lazer Red ), and unmarked black leather interior....but no air con.
The guy who bought it knew S2s inside out, and I learnt more about my car during his 2 hour inspection than I had ever done before!
What did I get for it? £5000 - and as the 80000 mile service was due, I thought that was a fair price.
I disagree about eBay cars not being worth looking at. Sure, there are some bad ones there ( at last count I was up to 5 undeclared Cat D, or even Cat C cars ), but that's where I bought the car in the first place, and it's replacement RS2.
Ebay is a great way of making it known that the car is available for sale ( just ensure that you don't then make it available for theft! ). Having said that, I had put the car on eBay at £5000, and despite dozens of watchers, no bids and only one serious question!

[S2 PTH]

I started looking around last chrismas, and there were cars for sale of the same age and millage 2k more or less than one another! I finally found one which I'm not ashamed to admit spending 7250 on, but it was a N-reg Green Coupe with 82k and a new clutch and cambelt just fitted. To make a point (and more-so to how well built it is), the car is in better condition than my '53 reg 33k 1.4 clio (which has just been sold). Even though I was always cleaning it and hoovering it out etc, the sheer quality of the audi's plastics, buttons, gear change, clutch movement etc. makes it feel a far newer car than the Clio!

So what I will say to you is, if you find a 94-96 plate Avant with about 100k on the clock in shabby condition, don't buy it, as there doesnt seem to be a reason to me why it needs to be in that condition if its been looked after properly!

[nominous]

Thanks to all that took the time to post. It's certainly appreciated.

Spanner work I aint afraid off. I'm currently building my CRX from the bare shell and bare engine with differnt internals.
Just want to make sure I'm aware of the S2 quirks and don't trip over them. With the Honda I have a nasty tendancy to do just like the guy in B300ABT's post and point things out that the owners didn't know about. Big head ? :mischeif:

I'm looking at one which needs the A/C gassing. Has a little rust on the leading edge of the driver's wing. Paint flaking off the front bumper. The boot carpet is a disaster zone for dirt and the front seats haven't aged well in the sun and the dirt is creeping into the cracks. It's a cream interior There is also a knock which seems to be the front lower wishbone.
170K miles on it. Now if it were a Honda I really wouldn't care but know nothing about the Audi in that respect, so if you guys are telling me that is ok...

If I'm honest I see myself having this S2 for about 6-9months before either keeping it, moving on to a different one knowing now what to look for and getting something a bit more special / fettled, or deciding it's not the car for me and buying something else totally random like a T5-R.

Don't suppose there is anyone around the Leeds area that could take me out for a spin please ? I'm having to travel by plane to fetch the one I'm looking at so a quick outting would probably be an advantage. Will happily bung a few quid for petrol, I've been reading about MPG

[iain1067]

Not wishing to crash the thread too much but there was an 85k mile S6 avant for sale on autotrader for £3250, yikes that's a load of car not much dough. As a guide on expenses i have put £1600 into my S6 since january, some of that has been normal maintenance plus an ahem power upgrade.

Iain