Appreciate some input on a car decision

"PlaysWellWithNOthers" (henning2710) 12/11/2019 at 15:05 • Filed to: None

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Hello Oppo, I’ve been a long-time reader and recent commenter and was now granted posting rights.

As very few of you know, earlier this year my wife and I bought a vehicle that was one I’ve always wanted, an Audi A6 3.0T quattro Avant. We both love it and it’s been great for us since.

Unfortunately last week an aggressive lady in a Toyota LandCruiser who was weaving through traffic and aggressively tailgting people, ended up rear-ending my wife in the Audi, when traffic slowed down. Fortunately apart from my wife being sore for a day or two, there were no injuries and the other driver was found at fault and ticketed.

The Audi was totaled, because the cost of the repair plus the salvage value of it exceed the actual cash value. The (very reputable) shop tells me it is a good candidate for repair, but the adjuster’s estimate does include 5 labor hours for “subsequent pulls”, “unibody/full frame pull & square”, and “setup and measure”.

Since we live in Michigan, which is a no-fault state, which means your own insurance pays for your damage, no matter who is at fault, I am dealing with my insurance to get paid. They’ve been pretty great, apart from not offering me as much as I want for the Audi, but we’re negotiating.

I just bought a brand new set of rims and Pirelli Sottozero 3s for the Audi as well as a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+s for next summer. I also bought about $500 of repair and upgrade parts for it that are at my parent’s house in Germany and I was planning to bring them back when we go there over the holidays.

Now we have two options: Keep the Audi with a clean title, because of Michigan title laws and have it repaired with $500-1000 extra in our pocket, or buy a 2011 E350 4matic wagon which will require about $1,500 - 2,000 out of pocket, but get a one generation newer vehicle with better safety and infotainment features. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

The AutoCheck says it had two accidents, but I pulled a Carfax and it does not show any, but it does show a complete maintenance history with a Mercedes-Benz dealership.

The rims and tires I bought will fit on the Mercedes, but their load rating is 97 and the Merc requires 99. I checked it out and the tires are rated one half pound less than the maximum load per wheel on the rear axle. The front is within limits.

There is one other thing: the lady that rear-ended my wife was extremely aggressive towards my wife and accused her of it being her fault and the 911 dispatcher who overheard her talking to my wife asked my wife to stay in the car and lock her doors until the Sheriff gets there. My wife is now at least somewhat worried that if we get the Audi repaired and that lady sees her in it she may try something stupid. We do live in a smaller town and you do see a lot of the same people regularly.

So here is the question: what should we do?

Sorry for making this such a long post, but I figured the better I explain our situation, the better you guys can judge it. And thank you for being such a great community.

UPDATE: We decided to keep the Audi and have it repaired. My wife really likes it and so do I and after a PPI the Mercedes just turned out to have too many issues. Also, we will have a Mototec Touring exhaust installed for less money than it would cost to repair the original exhaust with Audi parts.

All in all we think the Audi will be in better shape than before. We are also considering engine tuning. Turns out the shop I had the Mercedes checked out at does tuning for the 3.0T Audi engine. So that is the plan for next year sometime.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 15:53

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I personally am an Audi bigot, so don’t think you’ll be as happy with the Benz, although it’s a nice car too.

Can you take the money, and replace the A6 with another Avant in a different color and call it a day?

JMHO

E90M3 > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 15:56

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Buy the Benz, 99% because of the hood ornament . 

PlaysWellWithNOthers > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 12/11/2019 at 16:01

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I could not find one that is in the same price ball park and also has a good service history. We basically started looking for a new one right away, but also considered the E-Class, because the tires and rims fit. I do not want to finance a vehicle, so that leaves us with these two options right now. Thank you for your input!

PlaysWellWithNOthers > E90M3 12/11/2019 at 16:03

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That is undeniably a great argument. I have owned an E-Class before, so I can absolutely appreciate the hood ornament.

CompactLuxuryFan > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:04

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Wait, what? Is this the Carvana A6 somebody posted? What is it with Oppos getting into accidents in their brand new awesome cars lately? This sucks!!! And freaking Michigan laws. Anyway, I would probably stay away from both this Audi and the accident history Merc. And fuck that Land Cruiser lady!

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:05

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Maybe the gen-newer A4? Those have gotten larger every time they’ve re-designed.

On the hub pattern, please double check compatibility . The bolt patterns are the same but the center hub diameters (critical in both designs) are incompatible— so you may need the inserts or spacers to re-use the wheels. Offsets are different as well.

I tried to do this once between a W126 and a D2 Audi and it was do-able, but more complicated than I thought it would be.

Ash78, voting early and often > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:10

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I love both cars in question, but keeping the Audi with a clean title is a great option. That’s such a rare combo, even compared to the somewhat rare E-class wagon. I would stick with the familiarity and upgrade the electronics if you want Carplay or whatever.

I don’t recall EVER seeing an A6 Avant with the 3.0 supercharged. Ever.

I’m slightly biased towards VAG, but not enough to cloud my judgment.

Also maybe: Sell me the Audi?

PlaysWellWithNOthers > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 12/11/2019 at 16:17

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You are awesome. The hub pattern actually fits, because the wheels were ordered by someone for an E-Class, but never picked up. I got a good deal on them and have 66.6 to 57.1 hub rings to make them fit on the Audi.

We considered the A4 and looked at it , but I am a 6'1" 300lbs guy and we’d have to amputate my 3-year-old’s feet to make that happen.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > CompactLuxuryFan 12/11/2019 at 16:35

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It’s not, though it looks very similar. We bought it from a private seller here in Michigan. I am not generally scared away by an accident history if there is documentation, the repair was done buy a reputable shop, and there was no frame damage. And I appreciate your sympathy. It really does suck .

fintail > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:36

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Whatever you get, time to start running a dashcam.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > Ash78, voting early and often 12/11/2019 at 16:41

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The engine in the Audi is awesome. There are very few of them out there and we’ve not come across another one since before we owned it.

All I would want is the 3g MMI. This one is a 2009 and for the US market they c ar ried over the 2g MMI from the pre-facelift until they had used up all the units . The 2010 always comes with the 3g and AFAIK some late 2009s. In Europe all 2009s and newer came with the 3g MMI.

Ash78, voting early and often > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:52

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Well if they used the 3g MMI in the European version in the same model, it sounds like a direct fit to me. Time to get busy looking on the forums :)

Honestly, if it weren’t for the wreck, I don’t think you’d be getting rid of the car over the MMI. It’s probably just an annoyance now that the seed has been sown.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > fintail 12/11/2019 at 16:53

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That’s the best part. We were running a professionally installed front and rear Rexing V1 Pro and it failed us. No recording since November 5th, even though the light that indicates it recording was always flashing as it should be and no error or warning messages. Just nothing on the SD card after November 5th , when I went in there to check it out. Date and time were set correctly. So in either case we’re buying a new and different model dash cam. But good point. I didn’t even mention it, because there was nothing th ere. I would have shared otherwise.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:55

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Ha. I’ve been called a lot of things on Kinja... but that’s not one of them!

Sorry about the wrecked car. I have a soft spot for those A6s. Even the 5-series wagon seemed so ordinary once you’d been in the Audi.

fintail > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 16:59

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Yikes. Problem with the camera I assume, rather than the card too (my Blackvue freaks out when there’s a card issue). I’d get one sooner than later simply because of LandCruiser lady, then if she acts up, you can put it on Youtube and let everyone have a look at her.

xc90v8/I4 :( > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 17:01

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E350 diesel or petrol?

Having driven both the audi 3.0t and the E-Class (diesel) I think you should try out the merc and just go with whatever you and your feel more comfortable with. I have a favourite but that hardly matters as objectively speaking they’re both great. 

We don’t know your wife but you do. If it stresses her out driving in a car she connect with bad emotions maybe a change is the safest bet. 

PlaysWellWithNOthers > Ash78, voting early and often 12/11/2019 at 17:05

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You are right. I wouldn’t get rid of it over the MMI, but it did bother me whenever we went on longer trips. The 3g has TMC traffic and a hard drive. There are no more updates available for the 2g and the latest map version is from 2016. The 3g has newer maps available, if not current updates.

There is a whole thread in the German motor-talk.de Audi A6 C6 forum on how to upgrade from 2g to 3g and it is very involved an costly, because a number of central controls have to be replaced. Seems like too much of a hassle and we just use Google maps on the phone now. Still though, it irks me on a regular basis and I’m a little pissed at Audi for giving America the “leftovers”.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > xc90v8/I4 :( 12/11/2019 at 17:11

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Good point. I do want my wife to not have to have that in the back of h er mind.

The Benz is a petrol 350. The S212 was only ever sold as a petrol E350 4matic in the US. The W212 was available as a diesel with the 350 and later the 2 50 bluetec. I wish they had sold the wagon with the diesel, if this was one, I wouldn’t even ask. That would be a no-brainer.

xc90v8/I4 :( > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 17:24

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That would my opp i ni on as well. Did about 500 miles in the E350d 4Matic in a day once. Most of it in G ermany. With all the torque it’s easily quick enough. Didn’t have to fill up once a nd arrived about as relaxed as after a nice nap.

shop-teacher > PlaysWellWithNOthers 12/11/2019 at 21:18

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If you’re happy with the current car, I’d say keep it and fix it ... But if your wife is afraid to be seen in it, that’s a big problem. Probably worth the extra cheddar to replace it then, just for her piece of mind. I wouldn’t worry about the load rating of the tires personally . T hey’re so close, as long as you're not loading it to the gills.