How rare ARE they really?
I think everyone who has ever had any real interest in these cars has heard that they were quite rare. Numerous archived automotive pieces often refer to the 250 car allocation for 1992 quickly selling out but how many were sold each year?
Back when I started S-CARS.ORG in 1998 I reached out to Audi of America in hopes of getting an idea of how many cars were sold here from year to year. At that time I was given the data 
The thing is that the Germans tend to be rather meticulous types that fuss over details. It seems almost illogical that they would NOT keep records of their sales from year to year. Without that data how would they handle future production forecasts or decide which color combinations to build? Magical 8 ball? I highly doubt it. I always suspected they knew but weren’t telling… or perhaps nobody at Audi cared to put in the effort to really look into it for those who had inquired.
It wasn’t until late 2016 that I started to see owners getting surprisingly detailed responses from Audi with production number break downs. I was highly skeptical and actually dismissed some of the data I had seen as it was clearly wrong. Case in point, it was initially reported that there were only 6 UrS6 Avants finished in Emerald over Ecru. I could easily disprove that based solely off of old S-Car Registry entries and some old KAR of MN archives and knowledge of current owners. It did however get me thinking and I decided to contact Audi with several VINs of my owns cars and a few friends cars. This time the numbers started lining up and we were at least getting consistent responses for the first time… ever?
I have no idea what may have changed at Audi that would enable them to generate the type of break-downs by color combination that I was now getting but it was an interesting trail to follow so I decided to keep working at it. I had been working with someone named Katie at Audi of America Customer Experience who was extremely helpful and seemed to be able to search the database to get some interesting results. These new numbers actually seem to have at least of shred of accuracy compared with what we’d been told in the past.
It is hard to say that it is 100% accurate but cross checking multiple VINs through several different contacts at Audi Customer Experience seemed to be generating the same results and Katie seemed to grasp what she was doing.
Sadly, as you will see below we didn’t quite finish our research. Instead of Katie’s helpful response we heard from Jamie at Audi who quickly put up a wall blocking our request for the final set of data. Naturally this makes obtaining the last bit of the data we need way more complicated than it needs to be. Audi Customer Experience could learn a lot from Katie… but unfortunately I think many of us have experienced more of the “Jamie” from them in the past. 😉
The next quest aside from filling in the missing data is to start trying to disprove the numbers. Naturally that is easiest to do with the uber rare colors such as Travertine or certain combinations of Tornado Red or Europa Blue. The more cars we can get into the S-Car Registry, the better idea we’ll have of actual survival rates. Even if you just happen to spot one “in the wild” shoot a picture of it with the license plate visible and email it to me at editor AT s-cars.org and I can likely get the data I need to at least log it in the Registry as a survivor. Thanks!
Tornado Red Exterior Sales:
Tornado Red with Anthracite Leather: 35
Tornado Red with Ecru Leather:
Brilliant Black Exterior Sales: 92
Brilliant Black with Anthracite Leather: 38
Brilliant Black with Ecru Leather:
Pearl White Exterior Sales:
Pearl White with Anthracite Leather:
Pearl White with Ecru Leather:
Emerald Mica Exterior Sales:
Emerald Mica with Anthracite Leather:
Emerald Mica with Ecru Leather:
Emerald Mica with Ecru velour interior:
Crystal Silver Metallic Exterior Sales:
Crystal Silver Metallic with Anthracite Leather:
Cyclamen Red Mica Exterior Sales:
Cyclamen Red Mica with Travertine Leather:
Cyclamen Red Mica with Ecru Leather:
Titanium Grey Metallic Exterior with Anthracite Leather:
Tornado Red Exterior Sales: 50
Tornado Red with Anthracite Leather: 39
Tornado Red with Ecru Leather: 11
Brilliant Black Exterior Sales: 178
Brilliant Black with Anthracite Leather: 112
Brilliant Black with Ecru Leather: 66
Pearl White Exterior Sales: 188
Pearl White with Anthracite Leather: 125
Pearl White with Ecru Leather: 63
Emerald Mica Exterior Sales: 232
Emerald Mica with Anthracite Leather: 82
Emerald Mica with Ecru Leather: 149
Emerald Mica with Ecru velour interior: 1
Crystal Silver Metallic Exterior Sales: 43
Crystal Silver Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 43
Cyclamen Red Mica Exterior Sales: 12
Cyclamen Red Mica with Travertine Leather: 1
Cyclamen Red Mica with Ecru Leather: 11 (estimated)
Titanium Grey Metallic Exterior with Anthracite Leather: 2
Tornado Red Exterior Sales: 20
Tornado Red with Anthracite Leather: 15
Tornado Red with Ecru Leather: 5
Brilliant Black Exterior Sales: 87
Brilliant Black Exterior with Anthracite Leather: 50
Brilliant Black Exterior with Ecru Leather: 37
Crystal Silver Metallic Exterior Sales: 30
Crystal Silver Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 29
Crystal Silver Metallic with Platinum Leather: 1
Pearl White Exterior Sales: 112
Pearl White with Anthracite Leather: 77
Pearl White with Ecru Leather: 35 (one other data point says 5 cars)
Emerald Mica Metallic Exterior Sales: 144
Emerald Mica Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 35
Emerald Mica Metallic with Ecru Leather: 108
Emerald Mica Metallic with Ecru Velour: 1
Europa Blue Mica with Ecru Leather: 6
Brilliant Black Exterior Sales: 298 (one other report says 246)
Brilliant Black with Platinum Leather: 1
Brilliant Black with Anthracite Leather: 146
Brilliant Black with Ecru Leather: 60
Brilliant Black with unknown interior: 33
Casablanca White Exterior Sales: 11
Casablanca White with Anthracite Leather: 9
Casablanca White with Ecru Leather: 1
Casablanca White with unknown interior: 1
Cashmere Grey Mica Exterior Sales: 43
Cashmere Grey Mica with Platinum Leather: 5
Cashmere Grey Mica with Ecru Leather: 1
Cashmere Grey Mica with Anthracite Leather: 28
Cashmere Grey Mica with unknown interior: 9
Crystal Grey Mica Exterior Sales: 71
Crystal Grey Mica with Platinum Leather: 30
Crystal Grey Mica with Anthracite Leather: 41
Tornado Red Exterior Sales: 73
Tornado Red with Anthracite Leather: 47
Tornado Red with Ecru Leather: 24
Tornado Red with unknown interior: 2
Europa Blue Mica Exterior Sales: 34
Europa Blue Mica with Ecru Leather: 12
Europa Blue Mica with Platinum Leather: 12
Europa Blue Mica with Anthracite Leather: 1
Europa Blue Mica with unknown interior: 9
Pearl Effect White Exterior Sales: 39
Pearl Effect White with Anthracite Leather: 15
Pearl Effect White with unknown interior: 24
Pearl White Metallic Exterior Sales: 74
Pearl White Metallic with Ecru Leather: 35
Pearl White Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 39
Emerald Mica Metallic Exterior Sales: 221
Emerald Mica Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 31
Emerald Mica Metallic with Ecru Leather: 128
Emerald Mica Metallic with unknown interior: 62
Unknown Exterior Color: 63
Unknown with Anthracite Cloth: 1
Unknown with Platinum Leather: 29
Unknown with Anthracite Leather: 32
Unknown with Unknown: 1
One other report shows 549 sold but majority have reported 459.
Tornado Red Exterior Sales: 24
Tornado Red with Anthracite Leather: 15
Tornado Red with Ecru Leather: 9
Pearl Effect White Exterior Sales: 32
Pearl Effect White with Anthracite Leather: 15
Pearl Effect White with Ecru Leather: 5
Pearl Effect White with Platinum Leather: 12
*Several conflicting reports for pearl sales figures. Some say 32 total sold, one other reports 15 sold. More data needed before we’d be comfortable declaring these as truly accurate.
Emerald Mica Exterior Sales: 115
Emerald Mica with Anthracite Leather: 19 (previously reported as 83 -likely incorrect)
Emerald Mica with Ecru Leather: 96 (96 estimated based on 19 Emerald/Anthracite. Previously reported as 32)
Cashmere Grey Mica Exterior Sales:
Cashmere Grey Mica with Anthracite Leather: 15
Cashmere Grey Mica with Ecru Leather:
Aluminum Silver Metallic Exterior Sales: 63
Aluminum Silver Metallic with Anthracite Leather: 32
Aluminum Silver Metallic with Platinum Leather: 29
Aluminum Silver Metallic with Ecru Leather: 2
Brilliant Black Exterior Sales: 114
Brilliant Black with Platinum Leather: 27
Brilliant Black with Black Leather:
Brilliant Black with Ecru Leather:
Europa Blue Mica Exterior Sales: 29
Europa Blue Mica with Ecru Leather:
Europa Blue Mica with Platinum Leather:
Europa Blue Mica with Anthracite Leather: 2
We Need Your Help!
As many of you know, for several months I have been digging for VINs for each color combination of UrS4 and UrS6 (and Avant) in the U.S. in order to get import numbers and data on each. So far I’ve had a very good connection at Audi (many thanks Katie!) that has been assisting me all along. I’m in the home stretch now and had sent my final email that would help fill in the blanks. On December 21st, 2017 I received the following response (see image) from someone named Jamie at Audi of America stating that they could no longer help me with this information.
How about that for a nice lump of coal from Audi of America just in time for Christmas? Apparently rather than me efficiently compiling a list of color combinations with VINs in one email they could just research and reply to they’d rather get hundreds of emails from individual owners asking the same thing over and over again. Fine. Let’s blow up their inbox with UrS4 and UrS6 production number requests and maybe they will “listen” to their long time enthusiasts.
If you own a U.S. model 1992 or 1995 (1995.5) Audi S4, S6, S6 Avant please help me out by sending the following info to Audi using the form below. Please remember to forward your response from Audi to us at editor@s-cars.org
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