After 4 years driving a BMW fuelled by politically incorrect, polar bear killing diesel when the time came to buy my own car there was only one ethical choice… to go back to petrol.  

With this new, environmentally conscious, mindset I went through my old evo magazines, invested some time YouTube-ing, watched old episodes of Top Gear and stalked a number of car forums.  My requirements were simple; ISOFIX (for emergencies only of course), minimum of 4 doors, oh and environmentally friendly. I narrowed my shortlist to BMW M5 (E60 variety), BMW M3 (E90 Saloon), AMG Mercedes (C63 or E63), Audi RS 4 (B7).  

I quickly took the Mercedes off my shortlist. For a start I don’t play golf and even though it’s an AMG, so my rules about Mercedes are slightly different, I decided they weren’t for me.  Maybe when I’m 50… I drove an E60 M5 and was very impressed with the engine but was haunted by my horribly unreliable 535d of the same vintage and the awful SMG gearbox. I have no doubt that given time I would’ve grown to love the gearbox but whenever I test drove one I had a nagging feeling that whilst fun, quick and exciting some scary, mortgage affecting big bills were never far away. I decided I wanted a more relaxing life than wincing every time I started the engine or heard a strange noise, so it was taken off the shortlist. M3 Saloon next. I drove a couple of manual ones and absolutely loved them. Great looking car, nice inside, quick, sounds amazing – there was only one thing that stopped me getting one…

It had been 7 years since I left Audi, and nearly 13 years since I last drove an RS 4 but there was just something about them.   When I joined Audi UK, Paul one of the managers, knowing I was into cars, let me borrow their Audi RS 4 for a weekend. I was about 25, it was a Sprint Blue saloon and it snowed the whole weekend. I was gutted. I don’t think I went above 30mph. Oh and there wasn’t much fuel left in it so after I’d put my first £30, which would usually last me the best part of 2 weeks, I couldn’t afford to put more in. Regardless I was hooked and regularly could be found pouring over the pricing and spec guides, the marketing material, the dealer handbooks and the online configurator. 

After trying every combination many times I settled on my perfect spec, a Mugello Blue Avant. Carbon inlays and RS 4 bucket seats (or Wingbacks as they’ve affectionately been called since – makes me think of a ladies monthly product or an old man’s chair). I even went into the details of spending my fictional bank balance on a technology pack for Sat Nav and CD Changer (due to my impressive collection of 90s britpop and Ministry of Sound CDs at the time), TV tuner (who knew they’d turn off analogue TV??), auto-dimming mirrors, sunroof, fridge in the glovebox (no, really!). I couldn’t have been happier with my choice and over the coming years probably spent the same amount of time working as re-specing my perfect RS 4.  

A few years later I was fortunate enough to participate in a number of Audi Driving Experiences, which involved driving fast Audis around racing tracks. This often included R8, S4, S6 and the RS 4. Being a genuine sportscar everyone raved about the R8 but I loved the fact that you could get a car with the same engine in a ‘sensible’ Avant body style. The ultimate Q car?

So back to my hunt.  I was set, I needed an Audi RS 4, ideally an Avant.  Did I mention that it has an environmentally friendly petrol engine (4.2 V8 in case you wondered) paired to a manual gearbox?  I still had another 18 months with my company car when I started looking but was mindful that whilst there’s a few RS 4s about it could take a while to find the right one.  After driving a number of cars, and travelling throughout the country I found just what I was after, less than 6 weeks before my company car went back. It was a Mugello Blue Avant, with Carbon, RS 4 bucket seats, technology pack and sunroof.  It even had sun shades for the rear windows, which would be handy for the once or twice a year I put car seats and children in it. In almost every way it was perfect.   

After an Autotrader saved search alerted me to it on Saturday I phoned up and placed a deposit within minutes.  I arrived at the garage first thing on Sunday morning for a test drive and bought it straight away.

I was delighted.  Not only did I find exactly the car I wanted for over a decade but I had made an eco-friendly choice.  I could sleep easy at night, knowing that by fulfilling a car dream I had done my bit to save the polar bears.