2006 A6 won't start - conclusion

[Vic]

Okay - after finally getting the car out of park I had it towed to my local indie garage, confidently hoping that the problem was a bad ignition switch. 
Got a call from the garage - needed a J518 access/start module which required a link to Ingolstadt to reprogram it - they couldn't do that. 
So, towed the car to my Audi dealer and three days and $2735 later the car is back on the road. According to the dealer the problem was "faulty steering column ECU caused by a faulty power supply relay". This required the steering column to be replaced. The relay cost $27.20 and the steering column cost $1856.99.
Bah! I could buy a used steering column for a couple of hundred dollars but there's no way that the garage would have reprogrammed it for me...
A Lexus RX350 is starting to look very appealing right now.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Vic Norman.