Buying an A6 with no keys..

[Dake]

Hi all, I'm new to NorCal from Missouri. I'm buying a 2006 A6 that has no keys (clean title, smogged, tiptronic, 160k). That means I can't drive it to verify its integrity, so I wrote into the deal that the sale will be finalized upon the car being towed to a dealership with the owner's AAA, a key being cut and programmed, and the car then passing a thorough inspection. If it fails, I get my money back and the owner pays for the key. If it passes or there's nothing major found, I pay for the key and leave in an A6. I have two questions.

1. Will Audi inspect anything that a local shop or mechanically-inclined buyer can't? I don't want this thing to have a secret flaw, but I also don't want to pay for something I could do myself.

2. Is there any other (cheaper) way to get a key made for this model? Audi is $400 and local locksmiths are more.

Side note: According to its last inspection at an Audi dealership my A4 needed "$7,000 in immediate repairs" which ran the gamut as you may imagine. That was 3 years, many miles, and two Autocross seasons ago. I've owned the A4 for 7 years, so when I saw the test results I immediately knew that Audi's description of the urgency of most issues was skewed in their favor. Thing is, if I were new to the car and I got that result I'd have to guess as to which issues were actually serious.

[infinkc]

how did they smog it without keys would be my question?

you can get the key cut then pair it with vag com to save you some $.

most shops have a PPI checklist they follow, if you are mechanically-inclined this is definitely something that is easy to do.

[Dake]

He smogged it before losing the keys evidently. The stack of receipts the seller has is an inch thick and looks comprehensive, I'm just trying to save money where I can while being prudently cautious. Thanks for the info about VAG-COM, didn't know you could program keys with it!

[Audi9]

Tell them you want to take a look at the car while it's on the rack. Most dealerships (ones I've worked for at least) will let you take a look and go over what they've found