eBay Find of the Day: Audi RS6 - HALF OFF!
When talk of the ultimate go-anywhere, do-anything vehicle pops up in the AB offices, the Audi RS6 Avant often gets a mention. This is one superfast grocery getter that has sophistication and style to spare. And apparently safety hasn't been overlooked either, as one extremely lucky owner recently discovered. While moving along at a fairly good clip on a familiar stretch of roadway, the driver lost control and made impact with a tree. The vehicle did its job and absorbed the energy so that the driver would be protected. He actually got out and can be seen in the photos talking on his cell phone, perhaps explaining to the missus that he might be late for dinner. While the driver was intact, the car was not.
A nifty story of German engineering at its finest, but that is only the setup. The news here is that the vehicle is now available on eBay Motors, and as you may have guessed, it's half off. Hardy-har. Even split in two, this might be the closest many of us can get to actually owning this superwagon. Actually, the bidding ended when the seller pulled it, but not before scoring a remarkable top bid of EUR 6,716. The seller stated that the engine and brakes were nearly intact, so maybe that wasn't such a stretch after all. Check out the read link for more pics and a more detailed description.
Thanks for the tip, Dan!
[Source: eBay Motors]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DPC car videos 4:32PM (3/14/2007)
I can't belive this guy survived, any other passenger in the car sitting where he was not sitting would have surely not made it.
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Bryan 4:49PM (3/14/2007)
Luckily no one was in the back. He had to be going pretty fast to accomplish that, or it just isnt a very well built vehicle. One of my first jobs was working as a detailer in a body shop, and there was a Mazda 626 there that was being repaired. It looked horrible. I asked a co worker what happened to it and he said it had split in two. He said that it would actually be stronger from the repairs than before. I didnt beleive him, but still was amazing to see a car that was once whole, then two halves, become whole again!
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Mr. Oak 4:55PM (3/14/2007)
Folks, that was more luck than engineering. Had the point of impact been 6 inches forward of where it actually did hit, this cat wouldn't be making anymore phone calls.
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John P. 5:30PM (3/14/2007)
I agree, it was just about pure luck the guy lived. couple inches this way or that and no seatbelt or airbags woulda saved him. But hey, I'm happy for the guy. Nice wreck ya got there bro. I seem to recall a certain Ferrari Enzo that broke in two sorta like this.
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Mike 5:55PM (3/14/2007)
I had a friend slide off the highway in a 1995 Wrangler and t-boned a tree on the drivers side at ~45-50 mph. Broke the tree. She walked away with a broken ankle. The sheetmetal was smashed up to the frame, but the frame only tweaked slightly. Insurance totaled the vehicle, but she will not drive anything but a wrangler to this day.
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Mike 6:08PM (3/14/2007)
"I asked a co worker what happened to it and he said it had split in two. He said that it would actually be stronger from the repairs than before."
Bryan:
1) a car that is split in half and welded back together will not be stronger than it was before
2) Vehicles like that are considered totalled... and are sold by scam artists... They are not safe at all!
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Mike 6:10PM (3/14/2007)
"And apparently safety hasn't been overlooked either, ...The vehicle did its job and absorbed the energy so that the driver would be protected."
Rubbish... any passengers in the car would have perished. God and/or Luck kept that man alive.
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Bryan 6:30PM (3/14/2007)
Hey Mike thats what I said already..I didn't believe him, as far as being a scam, this was a customers car being fixed so I cannot comment on that. I can see how it would be though. In any event, there is no way I would buy a vehicle like that!
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Peter 6:44PM (3/14/2007)
> I seem to recall a certain Ferrari Enzo that broke
> in two sorta like this.
No, no like this at all. The Enzo lost the rear end, but the monocoque passenger sell remained completely in one piece.
Surviving the Audi crash was incredible luck, to say the least. Trees are amazingly strong, hitting one sideways at speed is one of the nastiest ways to have an accident. Lots of narrow avenues with trees right next to the road where I grew up, many cars (and sadly drivers) look even much worse after such shunts, while the tree would be missing a piece of bark at best...
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benoa 7:46PM (3/14/2007)
"And apparently safety hasn't been overlooked either, ...The vehicle did its job and absorbed the energy so that the driver would be protected." Appaling and Lame ! Mere luck kept the driver alive. Just LOOK at the photos and imagine if his wife were sitting next to him and his kids in the back.
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macgnome 7:15PM (3/14/2007)
I recall this article somewhere else and if I'm not mistaken they estimated the a6 speed around 110. I believe it is part good karma part- good german engineering.
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far jr 7:42PM (3/14/2007)
Pure LUCK as already stated by others!
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Guenther 9:40PM (3/14/2007)
There is absolutely no way this car came apart like this under normal circumstances. The tree shown in the impact is barely damaged and it it just impossible for the structure of any modern automobile to come apart like this one did. something is fishy.
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mehool 10:37PM (3/14/2007)
I really like our autoblog comment community sometimes - for telling it like it is.
This is clearly luck, (as has been said: any passengers in this car would have severe injuries, did you see they pic on ebay of the front passenger seat?!)
I drive an audi and yes, sure I would love to say "look at the great German engineering" yeah right. Saying his prayers likely served him better in this crash.
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BOB 10:39PM (3/14/2007)
A little French pun:
THE AVANT WHICH LOST ITS DERRIERE!!!
(avant de = in front of or before, derrriere de = after or in back of, la derriere = butt)
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Bill 1:05AM (3/15/2007)
..ahem.. great engineering??? More like everybody is saying:
Pure Luck, not a great car.
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Peter 3:23AM (3/15/2007)
#13
No, trees are very strong and a car's flank is its weakest spot. You go sideways at speed into a tree and this is what it looks like. If you're lucky. And yes, I'm sure it's a great car, but that alone wasn't nearly enough to save that guy.
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Justin 8:13AM (3/15/2007)
I love that it sold for more than my completely intact and running daily driver would.
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Guenther 8:56AM (3/15/2007)
Peter- look at the pictures on the auction page. There is no way this happened without some foul play, like the car having been re-assembled or something of that nature. The bark on the tree is barely even scraped. The seller claims he wasn't even belted. The way the floor came apart, and how the roof panel remained intact adjacent to the sunroof if wrong.
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Morrinn 10:38AM (3/16/2007)
I'm pretty sure that in the unlikely case that any type of god exists, he has better things to do than save some fat-cat Audi owner who can't even bother to wear his damn seat-belt...
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