Audi's VIO wagon an expensive passion project

It is costly to maintain the large family wagon, but the owner enjoys its sports-car-level performance

- Edric Pan

I am not familiar with the sartorial preferences of Mr Brian Tan, 43, but I am certain that whatever trousers he wears must come with deep pockets.

Mr Tan is a former wealth manager who co-founded a successful kids' tech startup, myFirst, seven years ago. It develops and sells devices, such as cameras, phones, tablets and 3D pens, to safely introduce young children to the universe of electronics and connectivity.

And the basis of my deduction about the depth of his pockets? His choice of wheels a cherry-red, 17-year-old Audi RS6 estate with a 5-litre twin-turbocharged V10 engine borrowed from the Lamborghini Gallardo of that era.

The running costs of this 580hp monster are enough to make a grown man cry.

The annual road tax for the car is about $8,000 after the surcharge imposed on cars that are more than 10 years old. That supercar-derived power plant has an unquenchable thirst too, gulping a litre of premium-unleaded petrol every 5km.

And this is without factoring in the repair costs - inevitable with a 17-year-old car, but even more so with one as tech-laden and complex as the RS6. In Mr Tan's words, the car "is not temperamental, but when stuff breaks, it does so spectacularly".

By way of example, he vividly describes an incident which occurred on Sept 25 after he returned from a two-week work trip.