2015 S5 Cabriolet Carfax

[E-Storil24]

I've been looking for a Blue S5 Cabriolet and found a 2015 Sepang Blue Prem. Plus with 78K miles, Technology Pkg for $20,900. A lot of the S5s in the 2013-2015 range have accidents, 5+ owners, and/or bad Carfax reports...however, to my semi-untrained eye this Carfax report maintenance history actually seems decent and at least worth considering. Am I wrong?

How worried about rust should I be if the car was a NY vehicle for it's first 45K miles?

Thanks in advance! Going to be a first time Audi AND S5 owner so still learning but excited!!

[Neil F]

Rust is not an issue on these. my 14 is in NJ 160k driven year round. Search the forum for rust (a 4/5) and you won't find many if any threads.

(You have a number of threads on your hunt. Maybe keep one thread going with all of the info. You asked about carfax report in other posts)

[19birel]

I wouldn't be concerned- these cars DO rust, but it's the rear subframe that is the usual suspect not the body itself. I would only look into that on a car that has over 100k miles and spent most of its life there, and even still it will probably be fine.

[E-Storil24]

I had it inspected and it did come back with rust on the undercarriage. Spent most of it's life in NY, then some in VA. Any that can be done or is this just a hard pass? The mechanic I took it to told me he wouldn't recommend buying this vehicle.

Also has a couple of leaks and the upper control arms will need replacing soon.

I'm a new member and not sure the easiest way to post photos of the rust.

[19birel]

I had it inspected and it did come back with rust on the undercarriage. Spent most of it's life in NY, then some in VA. Any that can be done or is this just a hard pass? The mechanic I took it to told me he wouldn't recommend buying this vehicle.

Also has a couple of leaks and the upper control arms will need replacing soon.

I'm a new member and not sure the easiest way to post photos of the rust.

Sent you a PM about how to post pics

It really all depends on how much rust is present, in extreme cases a subframe replacement is necessitated but if you catch it early enough you can take steps to clean it up. Below is a picture of the rear subframe on my A4 (B8.5 2013 so more or less the same as the S5 in this regard) My car lived in Virginia for 5yrs/57k miles before I purchased it, and has lived in Pennsylvania since then. At the time of the picture it had just over 120k miles.


looks rough, but after a close inspection there are no cracks or holes rusted through. When I worked at a dealership most cars of this age looked similar underneath.

Using an angle grinder with a flapper disc, I knocked off all the loose surface rust. Then I cleaned the surface with brake clean, and brushed on some POR15 rust inhibitor.


I had a peek underneath it after this winter and it still looks decent.

[E-Storil24]

Thanks for sharing these! This is what the undercarriage looks like of the 2015 S5 (driven in NY, then SC)

[hahnmgh63]

Upper control arms easily go by 40~60k, lower last around 50% longer but uppers are cheap (aftermarket but OEM manufacturers) if you can do the job yourself. Newer cars are much less prone to rust but yes, being from the West coast and currently owning 9 cars (I do have a large shop), a couple acquired from the East coast, you can easily tell under the car which is from the Salt belt. They may not have a lot of actual rust but a lot of oxidation on the Aluminum parts and corrosion of the plated (zinc & Cadmium). Does the oxidation hurt the Aluminum, probably not so much but it is easily to tell its been in a Salted road environment.