Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Perusing the classifieds for interesting wagons this week, I came across quite a few and thought it would be a good chance to look at some sporty 5-doors. To level the playing field slightly, all are automatics. While that may cause some of you to groan, they make up for a lack of manual with distinctive styling, plenty of power and rarity that will set you apart from the crowd. Which is the one you’d choose?
I’ve recently done some comparisons on the sport editions of the B6 and B7 chassis Avants, asking whether packages like the B6 Ultrasport or B7 S-Line Titanium Package justified the premium they commanded over similar non-sport models. There’s another Avant that commands a serious premium in either B5 or B6 form, but in this case it’s not anything to do with being more or less sporty. Mechanically and physically, these specimen are identical to the other models in the run, but it is the color that stops people in their tracks, generates clicks and opens wallets – Nogaro Blue Pearl Effect. The lineage started with the RS2 and its signature shade “RS Blue” which was then continued with the S6 Plus and the B5 S4. It was the color of speed for an entire generation of wagon lovers, so what does that equate to today?
In yesterday’s Litmus Test article, I broke down a reportedly “excellent” Audi Coupe GT to see if the pricing had actually risen on the model lines. While a few years ago such a car would have likely been a $1,500 example, yesterday bidding ceased at $3,050. Now, that’s actually above the condition Hagerty lists a condition 4 car. So, $3,000 is our baseline for a model that’s reasonably clean but has quite a few needs and some question marks. What price would a much better example command?
A few weeks ago in my “Avant-off” article, I asked if the premium for the Titanium Package S-Line cars was justified. But comparing a B6 to a B7 can be tough, since there are a fair amount of differences in styling and performance. To equal the playing field more, today I have two nearly identical cars. In this case, it’s a normal A4 3.0 quattro Avant 6-speed against a very similar Ultrasport model. Just like the Titanium package, the Ultrasport package was mostly for looks; you got the Sport Package 1BE suspension, 18″ “Celebration” RS4-style wheels with summer high performance tires, perforated leather 3-spoke steering wheel and shift knob, aluminum interior trim and a quattro GmbH body kit. It was a $3,000 option on top of your already pricey A4 in 2004 and 2005, and came in 1.8T or 3.0 V6 configurations in either sedan or Avant. They’re relatively hard to find, so let’s look at the theoretical premium the package commands today:
I’m sure that occasionally (or more likely, often) when discussing current color pallets offered by manufacturers I sound like a broken record. The new model is, generally speaking, that 95% of those that purchase the top-tier models for any given manufacturer will select one of three colors: black, gray or white. It reminds me of a book my wife bought for our son for Christmas; This Bridge Will Not Be Gray by Dave Eggers. It chronicles in a tongue-in-cheek manner the development of the Golden Gate bridge – reportedly, according to the text, the first orange bridge in the human history. “No bridge had ever been orange. Orange was silly. So most of those involved figured the bridge would be gray. Gray was serious. Gray was safe” the book states about the bridge, and I feel like a fair amount of people buying these near-exotic cars feel the same way. But in the book, Eggers talks about how one of the bridge’s designers – Edward Morrow – decided gray would be the wrong color; that if he was going to have to look at this bridge every day, it should look like something special. The original buyer of this Audi RS7 got it:
