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First, this is going to be a long post with lots of details... if you don't like reading details, just read the few lines below and then skip to the pictures. The basic summary is this:
2013 A6 wagon, Recaros, slick-top, basic bolt-ons, with 97K miles
It was a V-Academy car and thus has a branded title. (Never wrecked, flooded, stolen, or any paint work... more details can be found below)
Asking $44,500 with all stock parts, including stock wheels with decent tread tires. Located in the Raleigh, NC area.
The details:
Almost 4 years ago I bought this car from the individual who purchased it from the third party dealer who sold the car for V- Academy. That owner had driven the car for two years from 5K to just shy of 18K, when I picked it up. The car has been my daily driver ever since then and outside of "regular" V maintenance items has never given me any problems in those 80K miles. As you can tell, I drive a fair amount... most of those miles are for work. I have detailed mileage logs as a function of that. The vast majority of the miles on the car are work-related trips and at least 75% of that driving is usually highway miles. I've religiously changed the trans and diff fluid every 30K miles and the oil at 7500 miles with Mobil 1. Over the years I've had four oil analysis conducted by Blackstone Labs, the last of which was done at 83K miles. All parameters have continually been in "normal" ranges and have remained consistent from 20K on up. Blackstone's comment on the last report was, "This is a great set of results from your supercharged V-8. Iron is impressively low for a 7,300-mile oil run, showing excellent wear at steel parts. Wear looks even better on a per-mile basis than it did in the October 2018 sample." ***The misfire mentioned in this text of this report turned out not to be a misfire but one of my fuel pumps failing. Hence the new pumps and fuel hat at 84K.
If you are not familiar with the V-Performance Academy, do a quick Google search. But the summary is, it's Cadillac's performance vehicle driving school. I believe at the time this car was new, when you bought a V car you got to attend the school for "free" as part of your vehicle purchase. Regardless, this car, along with many others, was used at that school for the first 5K miles of its life. While I was never able to get a copy of the car's maintenance records from the V Academy, I have spoken to other individuals who bought their cars directly from the school who did, and of no surprise, they were religious about maintenance, fluid changes, and overall care. Because the last thing Cadillac wants is to be showing off their performance product to new owners, or potential new owners, and have something break. And I think given the mileage on the car now and it's proven reliability over all those, any "abuse" it endured over the first 5K miles has long been balanced out by my many easy highway miles. But my point to providing this information is to say, when the V Academy is done with the vehicles they use at the school, GM assigns them salvaged/branded titles in order to void future warranty claims. So while the car does have a branded title, it has never been wrecked, stolen, flooded, etc. All paint on the car is original and other than a couple of dings I had taken out via PDR when I first bought the car, it's had no body work.
I am an OCD mechanical engineer and take care of my cars both cosmetically and mechanically in a manner that your average person thinks is nuts. I paint corrected this car within the first year of my ownership, including the door jams, and then did a touch up correction probably a year ago. I then keep it coated and sealed with various high quality products. To keep it at the level I prefer, it really could use another touch up now, mostly for some small water spots, but life has just been busy over the last 6 months and I haven't found the time. But the paint is in excellent condition overall. Since my ownership it has never been through a carwash that uses brushes and only ever been through a touchless carwash probably 4 times when we've had winter-weather and salt/brine has been put down on the roads. After such weather I like to run the car through a carwash that has an underbody sprayer and rinse it off. Outside of those 4 brushless carwashes I have always washed the car, and all my cars, by hand. I use the two-bucket method and nearly always dry the car with my leaf blower, as to touch the paint as little as possible. Typically I'd say the car gets washed 2 - 3 times a month... but just depends on the weather and my time. Under my ownership the car has always been garaged. And I always park away from other vehicles or next to curbs or handicap spots because I hate door dings/nicks.
While the paint is in excellent condition for its age/mileage it does have a few imperfections... as to be expected from a car that's actually been driven. There are rock chips here and there on the front bumper and a couple on the leading edge of the hood. There is a indention/mark on driver's side of the front bumper where a bucket handle (I think) flew up and smacked it a while back. This has been touched up and buffed and isn't noticeable from 5+ feet away but sadly it's there none the less. There are couple of small slits in the edge of the front bumper cover, just in front of the left front tire. These have been there since I bought the car and have not changed in severity in 4 years and 80K miles. These could be fixed easily and the bumper cover resprayed and the car would be nearly perfect. I just never wanted to put paint on it. What I should have done was put PPF on the front bumper when I first got it but... lesson learned. And then there are some spider web cracking along the rocker panels below each front door, where I am nearly certain a shop at some point failed to use risers on their lift pads for a lift and when they raised the car they slightly crushed the rocker panels with the lift arms. These have also been there since I got the car and have not changed in severity. These are not noticeable unless you get down on the ground and look for them. I believe all of the wheels have at least a chip or two in some of the powder coating but I do have some touchup paint that matches fairly well. I did unfortunately curb the right rear wheel a year or so ago (this hurt my soul, lol) and have touched it up too. The curbed section is probably 6" - 9" long. But again, from 5 feet away you'd never notice it. I will post pics of each of these imperfections below (if you don't see them currently, I will add them shortly).
The car has been lightly modified but I've kept it pretty basic on the power-front because it's been my DD and I need it to remain reliable. Below is a list of all mods (there may be a few smaller ones I am forgetting), when they went on (mileage) and some maintenance items outside of fluid changes:
0.0K - OEM $1800 diff cooler option (installed for use at V Academy)
10K - Might Mouse oil separator (added by previous owner)
21K - Airaid CAI, 2.45" upper, Bosch 1050 injectors, plugs, solid isolator, Billy Boat test pipes, reinforced brick, tune
30K - Lowered on slightly cut stock springs (didn't want it slammed on Eibachs b/c DD)
38K - Rear shocks replaced
40K - Mamo throttle body
42K - CWA100 HX pump
45K - VS Forged wheels
49K - New driveshaft & new battery
55K - Home "ported" lid, DMS underhood HX tank, upgraded lines & manifold kit
63K - New rear wheel bearing/hubs
67K - Creative Steel "street" upper & lower control arm bushings, R1 rotors & Hawk pads, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires
70K - New plugs, wires
82K - New AC Delco coils
83K - Taillight tips fixed (properly... permanently)
84K - AEM fuel pumps, ALM Performance fuel hat, 2.35" pulley & 100mm idler
92K - Supercharger oil replaced
96K - Michelin PS4S tires (rears only... front will likely need replacing in the next 5K miles), new plugs
- The car also has LED lights throughout the interior, Weather Tech mats up front and in the cargo area and a USB Bluetooth adapter in the center console
- The headlight lenses have been wet sanded and re-cleared. They aren't perfect but they still look very good.
- All chrome has been wrapped in satin black vinyl and the grill, fog light surrounds and lower lip sprayed with PD and PD "clear coated" (this could be refreshed)
- I upgraded the tips on the stock mufflers
- The OEM tire air pump quit years ago, I have an upgraded aftermarket version that fits in the factory position by the sub in the car currently.
- The car has been to the dragstrip twice, once when stock and once with the 2.45" pulley and before the upgraded cooling mods. At that time it ran a best of 11.49 @ 121 mph on the stock wheels with shitty tires.
- I've never had it on a dyno, it's always been street tuned, but I suspect it's in the 575 rwhp range.
- All electronics, buttons, switches, etc work as intended
- In the last month I took her by my tuner to make sure everything was good... she got a clean bill of health and a few small adjustments. She drives smoothly in all conditions, pulls hard when need be and consistently knocks down 21 - 22 mpg on the highway.
Most of the exterior pics below are a couple of years old but the paint and car looks the same other than it now has cross-drilled slotted rotors on it and some newer/nicer V emblems. I'm using these for the time being as they are the nicest quality pics I have and currently the car is dirty and sadly covered in pollen. I hope to find the time this weekend or the next to clean her up and take some additional pics.
While you can certainly find cleaner Vagons out there, I'm willing to bet this is one of the cleanest "high mileage" cars around. And there are other options on the market currently but most, if not all, are through dealerships of which have very little, if any, knowledge about the history of the cars they are selling. I think my photos will speak for themselves as to the overall condition of my car and how I have cared for it. I also have a binder full of receipts and information, along with folders and folders worth of photos and documentation of everything (and more) that I've mentioned above on my computer. I even have receipts/documents from the first owner and a copy of the letter that went along with the car when it was sold from V-Academy. In short, I know the entire history of this car and I'm willing to share any and all of it with a potential buyer and answer any and all questions. As for the branded title, it is unfortunate but it is also a well explained and documented special circumstance which has very little bearing on the vehicle at this point in time/mileage. Clearly this is not a creme-puff, garage queen, collector car. But what it is, is an excellent candidate for someone who wants one hell of a sweet DD or even a nice weather car of which they know has been meticulously cared for over the years and should provide many years to come of reliable fun transportation. And FWIW, the branded title will not effect or keep you from getting insurance. It can effect financing, depending on your lender, but not always. I originally had the car financed through Lightstream if anyone is interested in doing the same. The car is now paid off and I have the title in hand.
I am a straight shooter, to a fault sometimes when selling a car, and don't like to play games. I expect the same from buyers. So if you're genuinely interested in the car by all means, reach out to me with any questions/concerns and I'll answer them and/or provide documentation or photos of anything of concern. If you have issue with my asking price, please do us both a favor and don't waste your or my time telling me about it. The market will ultimately determine what it's worth, one way or the other. I'm selling the car because I've purchased a new DD. I had a buyer lined up for the car already and unfortunately it fell through just days before we were supposed to make the deal. The last five cars I've sold, the first person to come look at them has taken them home. I expect the same from this car. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for reading my book (or just skipping to the photos
![😉]()
),
Ryan
Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you'd prefer.
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Window]()
![Car Tire Wheel Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Car Wheel Automotive side marker light Vehicle Tire]()
![Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Automotive tire Holden commodore]()
2013 A6 wagon, Recaros, slick-top, basic bolt-ons, with 97K miles
It was a V-Academy car and thus has a branded title. (Never wrecked, flooded, stolen, or any paint work... more details can be found below)
Asking $44,500 with all stock parts, including stock wheels with decent tread tires. Located in the Raleigh, NC area.
The details:
Almost 4 years ago I bought this car from the individual who purchased it from the third party dealer who sold the car for V- Academy. That owner had driven the car for two years from 5K to just shy of 18K, when I picked it up. The car has been my daily driver ever since then and outside of "regular" V maintenance items has never given me any problems in those 80K miles. As you can tell, I drive a fair amount... most of those miles are for work. I have detailed mileage logs as a function of that. The vast majority of the miles on the car are work-related trips and at least 75% of that driving is usually highway miles. I've religiously changed the trans and diff fluid every 30K miles and the oil at 7500 miles with Mobil 1. Over the years I've had four oil analysis conducted by Blackstone Labs, the last of which was done at 83K miles. All parameters have continually been in "normal" ranges and have remained consistent from 20K on up. Blackstone's comment on the last report was, "This is a great set of results from your supercharged V-8. Iron is impressively low for a 7,300-mile oil run, showing excellent wear at steel parts. Wear looks even better on a per-mile basis than it did in the October 2018 sample." ***The misfire mentioned in this text of this report turned out not to be a misfire but one of my fuel pumps failing. Hence the new pumps and fuel hat at 84K.
If you are not familiar with the V-Performance Academy, do a quick Google search. But the summary is, it's Cadillac's performance vehicle driving school. I believe at the time this car was new, when you bought a V car you got to attend the school for "free" as part of your vehicle purchase. Regardless, this car, along with many others, was used at that school for the first 5K miles of its life. While I was never able to get a copy of the car's maintenance records from the V Academy, I have spoken to other individuals who bought their cars directly from the school who did, and of no surprise, they were religious about maintenance, fluid changes, and overall care. Because the last thing Cadillac wants is to be showing off their performance product to new owners, or potential new owners, and have something break. And I think given the mileage on the car now and it's proven reliability over all those, any "abuse" it endured over the first 5K miles has long been balanced out by my many easy highway miles. But my point to providing this information is to say, when the V Academy is done with the vehicles they use at the school, GM assigns them salvaged/branded titles in order to void future warranty claims. So while the car does have a branded title, it has never been wrecked, stolen, flooded, etc. All paint on the car is original and other than a couple of dings I had taken out via PDR when I first bought the car, it's had no body work.
I am an OCD mechanical engineer and take care of my cars both cosmetically and mechanically in a manner that your average person thinks is nuts. I paint corrected this car within the first year of my ownership, including the door jams, and then did a touch up correction probably a year ago. I then keep it coated and sealed with various high quality products. To keep it at the level I prefer, it really could use another touch up now, mostly for some small water spots, but life has just been busy over the last 6 months and I haven't found the time. But the paint is in excellent condition overall. Since my ownership it has never been through a carwash that uses brushes and only ever been through a touchless carwash probably 4 times when we've had winter-weather and salt/brine has been put down on the roads. After such weather I like to run the car through a carwash that has an underbody sprayer and rinse it off. Outside of those 4 brushless carwashes I have always washed the car, and all my cars, by hand. I use the two-bucket method and nearly always dry the car with my leaf blower, as to touch the paint as little as possible. Typically I'd say the car gets washed 2 - 3 times a month... but just depends on the weather and my time. Under my ownership the car has always been garaged. And I always park away from other vehicles or next to curbs or handicap spots because I hate door dings/nicks.
While the paint is in excellent condition for its age/mileage it does have a few imperfections... as to be expected from a car that's actually been driven. There are rock chips here and there on the front bumper and a couple on the leading edge of the hood. There is a indention/mark on driver's side of the front bumper where a bucket handle (I think) flew up and smacked it a while back. This has been touched up and buffed and isn't noticeable from 5+ feet away but sadly it's there none the less. There are couple of small slits in the edge of the front bumper cover, just in front of the left front tire. These have been there since I bought the car and have not changed in severity in 4 years and 80K miles. These could be fixed easily and the bumper cover resprayed and the car would be nearly perfect. I just never wanted to put paint on it. What I should have done was put PPF on the front bumper when I first got it but... lesson learned. And then there are some spider web cracking along the rocker panels below each front door, where I am nearly certain a shop at some point failed to use risers on their lift pads for a lift and when they raised the car they slightly crushed the rocker panels with the lift arms. These have also been there since I got the car and have not changed in severity. These are not noticeable unless you get down on the ground and look for them. I believe all of the wheels have at least a chip or two in some of the powder coating but I do have some touchup paint that matches fairly well. I did unfortunately curb the right rear wheel a year or so ago (this hurt my soul, lol) and have touched it up too. The curbed section is probably 6" - 9" long. But again, from 5 feet away you'd never notice it. I will post pics of each of these imperfections below (if you don't see them currently, I will add them shortly).
The car has been lightly modified but I've kept it pretty basic on the power-front because it's been my DD and I need it to remain reliable. Below is a list of all mods (there may be a few smaller ones I am forgetting), when they went on (mileage) and some maintenance items outside of fluid changes:
0.0K - OEM $1800 diff cooler option (installed for use at V Academy)
10K - Might Mouse oil separator (added by previous owner)
21K - Airaid CAI, 2.45" upper, Bosch 1050 injectors, plugs, solid isolator, Billy Boat test pipes, reinforced brick, tune
30K - Lowered on slightly cut stock springs (didn't want it slammed on Eibachs b/c DD)
38K - Rear shocks replaced
40K - Mamo throttle body
42K - CWA100 HX pump
45K - VS Forged wheels
49K - New driveshaft & new battery
55K - Home "ported" lid, DMS underhood HX tank, upgraded lines & manifold kit
63K - New rear wheel bearing/hubs
67K - Creative Steel "street" upper & lower control arm bushings, R1 rotors & Hawk pads, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires
70K - New plugs, wires
82K - New AC Delco coils
83K - Taillight tips fixed (properly... permanently)
84K - AEM fuel pumps, ALM Performance fuel hat, 2.35" pulley & 100mm idler
92K - Supercharger oil replaced
96K - Michelin PS4S tires (rears only... front will likely need replacing in the next 5K miles), new plugs
- The car also has LED lights throughout the interior, Weather Tech mats up front and in the cargo area and a USB Bluetooth adapter in the center console
- The headlight lenses have been wet sanded and re-cleared. They aren't perfect but they still look very good.
- All chrome has been wrapped in satin black vinyl and the grill, fog light surrounds and lower lip sprayed with PD and PD "clear coated" (this could be refreshed)
- I upgraded the tips on the stock mufflers
- The OEM tire air pump quit years ago, I have an upgraded aftermarket version that fits in the factory position by the sub in the car currently.
- The car has been to the dragstrip twice, once when stock and once with the 2.45" pulley and before the upgraded cooling mods. At that time it ran a best of 11.49 @ 121 mph on the stock wheels with shitty tires.
- I've never had it on a dyno, it's always been street tuned, but I suspect it's in the 575 rwhp range.
- All electronics, buttons, switches, etc work as intended
- In the last month I took her by my tuner to make sure everything was good... she got a clean bill of health and a few small adjustments. She drives smoothly in all conditions, pulls hard when need be and consistently knocks down 21 - 22 mpg on the highway.
Most of the exterior pics below are a couple of years old but the paint and car looks the same other than it now has cross-drilled slotted rotors on it and some newer/nicer V emblems. I'm using these for the time being as they are the nicest quality pics I have and currently the car is dirty and sadly covered in pollen. I hope to find the time this weekend or the next to clean her up and take some additional pics.
While you can certainly find cleaner Vagons out there, I'm willing to bet this is one of the cleanest "high mileage" cars around. And there are other options on the market currently but most, if not all, are through dealerships of which have very little, if any, knowledge about the history of the cars they are selling. I think my photos will speak for themselves as to the overall condition of my car and how I have cared for it. I also have a binder full of receipts and information, along with folders and folders worth of photos and documentation of everything (and more) that I've mentioned above on my computer. I even have receipts/documents from the first owner and a copy of the letter that went along with the car when it was sold from V-Academy. In short, I know the entire history of this car and I'm willing to share any and all of it with a potential buyer and answer any and all questions. As for the branded title, it is unfortunate but it is also a well explained and documented special circumstance which has very little bearing on the vehicle at this point in time/mileage. Clearly this is not a creme-puff, garage queen, collector car. But what it is, is an excellent candidate for someone who wants one hell of a sweet DD or even a nice weather car of which they know has been meticulously cared for over the years and should provide many years to come of reliable fun transportation. And FWIW, the branded title will not effect or keep you from getting insurance. It can effect financing, depending on your lender, but not always. I originally had the car financed through Lightstream if anyone is interested in doing the same. The car is now paid off and I have the title in hand.
I am a straight shooter, to a fault sometimes when selling a car, and don't like to play games. I expect the same from buyers. So if you're genuinely interested in the car by all means, reach out to me with any questions/concerns and I'll answer them and/or provide documentation or photos of anything of concern. If you have issue with my asking price, please do us both a favor and don't waste your or my time telling me about it. The market will ultimately determine what it's worth, one way or the other. I'm selling the car because I've purchased a new DD. I had a buyer lined up for the car already and unfortunately it fell through just days before we were supposed to make the deal. The last five cars I've sold, the first person to come look at them has taken them home. I expect the same from this car. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for reading my book (or just skipping to the photos
Ryan
Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you'd prefer.
After having the garage built for 5+ years I finally added a lift last year and it's been a dream come true.
