Junkyard Find: 2005 Audi S4
Published: July 8th, 2019
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Keeping any Audi on the road can be costly, once the car gets a decade or so old, and I see plenty of solid-looking four-ringers in the self-service junkyards I frequent. You’d think that the factory-hot-rod Audis would be worth enough to keep them out of the clutches of The Crusher, but such is not the case; just in the last year, I have seen a 2001 S8 and a 2001 S4 in low-priced self-service yards. Now I’ve spotted this even newer S4 in Denver, with the allegedly valuable Recaro seats still inside.
I checked the VIN, and this car is a genuine, numbers-matching S4 and not a clone.
340 horsepower out of this 4.2-liter V8, and some junkyard shopper should grab it and swap it into an Audi V8 sedan. How hard could it be?
Most American S4 buyers wanted the automatic by 2005, but the original purchaser of this car chose the 6-speed Getrag manual transmission.
The leather on the Recaro seats has some rips and stains, but I’m sure these seats will end up being bought and swapped into an A4. Why not?
900-treadwear tires on Borbert rims. I’m sure these tires grip like a declawed cat on a basketball court, so dumping the clutch in this car must have produced exciting four-wheel-spin action.
The lesson here is this: if you ever wanted one of these cars, you can find a non-ugly one for cheap… and if you want to keep it running, don’t thrift out on maintenance.
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Driving this car was just like recreating the chase scene from Bullitt on skis.If you like these junkyard posts, you can reach all 1,650+ right here at the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I am sooo spoiled by Asian cars. All the one's I have owned seem to run best if you weld the hood shut. My current daily, 2015 Mazda6 has 98k miles. I have only changed brake pads, tires, completed oil changes at 7500 miles, and replaced the air filter twice. That is all. So simple, so cheap...and such a nice car!
Have 2 b5 Passats right now, and they are great highway cruisers. around town the v6 is ok, but seems to be programmed to be slow. Awesome in the snow with awd however. the 1.8 is more fun to drive and feels much lighter, even with the automatic. However both have leaked oil, and have been fixed. and both have door lock switches replaced because the plastic has worn out. oil sludge got the used 1.8t I used to have.