I saw a nice early 2000's Audi a8 for sale today and damn it looked good. So I need your help.
I saw a nice early 2000's Audi a8 for sale today and damn it looked good. So I need your help.
I'm trying to come up with a reason...
Spectacularly complicated car with a bazillion early 2000s German luxury car electrical systems. the quantity and expense of Audi electrical problems relate exponentially the the model number. So an A8 has has 16 times more, and more expensive baffling electrical problems than an early 2000s A4. And I can state from painful prior personal experience that one of those cars was enough for me.
Honestly, I'd be hard pressed to accept one for free. They are pretty great looking, though.
Don't they pop head gaskets at 100k with some regularly ?
I saw one last week... Black, slightly lowered, with nice wheels and it looked incredible.
Deferred maintenance costs? Only thing that keeps me out of euro cars altogether. Something about a straight piped 76 450 SLC gets me though
My uncle has one with well over 200k on it. I think it's a 2002 or so. He treats it like an AWD Taurus and it just keeps on going.
plance1 wrote: I saw a nice early 2000's Audi a8 for sale today and damn it looked good. So I need your help.
No can do.
IIRC they are hard to find because there is some d-bag in Indiana who is buying up all the cheap ones and scrapping them because big giant aluminum bodyshell.
Very awesome cars. Remarkably good fuel economy, interior you can play tennis in, very nice driving feel, remarkably quick/nimble for its size which makes sense given that they are in the 4000lb range not 5000+ like the competition.
The V8s are hit and miss. If they have had regular oil changes they go a good long while. If they haven't, the cylinder liners degrade (they are just coated aluminum, no steel/iron sleeve) and I've heard of engines smoking like a train in as little as 100k kms. You don't rebuild them, you throw them out - can't rebore. Audi doesn't even sell service parts. All D2s in the US had the timing belt 4.2 (the good 4.2) and a very few 3.7 V8 in the front drive model that nobody bought. I think only the S8 could be had here with manual trans.
In Europe, you could get a VR6-engined D2 which had to have sucked bigtime.
motomoron wrote: Spectacularly complicated car with a bazillion early 2000s German luxury car electrical system. the quantity and expense of Audi electrical problems relate exponentially the the model number. So an A8 has has 16 times more, and more expensive baffling electrical problems than an early 2000s A4. And I can state from painful prior personal experience that one of those cars was enough for me. Honestly, I'd be hard pressed to accept one for free. They are pretty great looking, though.
^^^^^This exactly.
Because this from the early 2000s exists.
Thanks for the responses. Didn't I read somewhere that the the 4.2 had the timing belt? Chain? In the rear of the engine, so that replacing it requires taking the entire car apart?
Storz wrote: Because this from the early 2000s exists.
But that, next to the A8, is an ugly turd. But hey, that's just like, my opinion, man. 
I can't think of any reason not to buy one cheap, but I'd be prepared for some astronomical maintenance/repair costs. I lump this car together with the 7-series BMWs. Cheap to buy used, but damn, they can get expensive quickly.
Its a timing belt but at the front of the engine. Don't those have some fiber optics in addition to normal wiring too? Its a $100k car that was made to last 100k miles and is very complicated. I almost never see them anymore either.
an early 90s A8 with an LS swap needs to happen.
plance1 wrote: Thanks for the responses. Didn't I read somewhere that the the 4.2 had the timing belt? Chain? In the rear of the engine, so that replacing it requires taking the entire car apart?
The NEW 4.2 has a chain in the back. This is the old 4.2, which is more or less the 2.8 V6 with another cylinder. (There are more and subtler differences, but it's the same belt drive style/same 5v/cyl configuration)
In reply to Datsun1500:
because I'd put the car on a serious diet. all the leather, gone. All the power and heated bits, gone.
I want an LS with a moderate cam running EFI Live powering the rear wheels in the large but light weight aluminum shell.
drummerfromdefleopard wrote: large but light weight aluminum shell.
Now I'm curious. What does that accomplish over a smaller chassis that weighs roughly the same?
unevolved wrote:drummerfromdefleopard wrote: large but light weight aluminum shell.Now I'm curious. What does that accomplish over a smaller chassis that weighs roughly the same?
You probably could drop a SBC behind the driver's seat and it will happily sit on the floor, in an A8L.
The cars are huge but they have huge amounts of room in 'em.
Flat_Black13z wrote: Deferred maintenance costs? Only thing that keeps me out of euro cars altogether. Something about a straight piped 76 450 SLC gets me though
76 450SLC is simple to work on. That Audi on the other hand....
In reply to unevolved:
a smaller car (both in wheelbase and width) will be more nimble, where the vehicle with the larger footprint will be more stable. More space in the engine compartment should help with cooling and allow for ducting as needed, not the mention make things easier to work on. Interior wise It'd be nice to be in something caged and not be cramped, that being said caging a car with an aluminum chassis is a PITA.
Knurled wrote: IIRC they are hard to find because there is some d-bag in Indiana who is buying up all the cheap ones and scrapping them because big giant aluminum bodyshell.
He's doing you all a great service.....
plance1 wrote: Thanks for the responses. Didn't I read somewhere that the the 4.2 had the timing belt? Chain? In the rear of the engine, so that replacing it requires taking the entire car apart?
Timing belt in front of the engine, you get to take apart the front end of the car for fun when doing this job.
Which is especially fun if the eejit who had the timing belt job just before you bought the car saved himself some money and didn't replace the water pump, which promptly started leaking shortly afterwards.
IIRC they can also have transmission issues.
I liked the one I had, they're quiet mile munchers and get pretty decent fuel mileage for something this big.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/depreciation-is-a-wonderful-thingalso-caveat-emptor/99873/page1/
Here's a 99 AWD for 4200. http://nashville.craigslist.org/cto/4918123031.html
I was ready to buy a 330k mile '01 A8L for pennies but the owner moved away BEFORE he traded the car in. Coulda had the car for $1500. We had serviced the car since 80k or so.
BTW - Trans needed rebuilt at 80k. Was still fine at 330k. The trick is to not use the VW garbage fluid.
You'll need to log in to post.
