Faults:

Leaking crankshaft oil seal.

Lost the left blinker unit.

General Comments:

From one to the other day my car started to leak engine oil (no ATF). In my opinion this can only be the rear crankshaft oil seal. This is quit an exercise to replace this seal.

I will not do it myself since it is rather much work. Some garages were not even interested to do this for me, they did not want to touch an A6 with automatic gearbox.

The automatic gearbox box overhaul specialist (the only one that showed interest as well as being the cheapest) will repair this seal for 600Euro total (385Euro labor, 100Euro gearbox oil/gasket/filter, 15Euro Seal, 100Euro VAT).

Although this is the first, and hopefully the last repair I cannot do myself, I am a little disappointed in the bad seal and the costs to repair will driving this car for just 6000km.

Did anybody experience this seal problem as well? Please let me know.

Lost the left blinker unit. Probably because previous owner or his dealer did not push back the unit until it 'clicked' into the locking position.

This car is seriously the best money can buy with typical German quality. Absolutely better than BMW and Mercedes, but than cheaper, if not only for it's appearance.

One big disadvantage of the Avant is it's size, very small compared to my previous Volvo station.