neat stuff at the local dealer (A8 pricing)

[TM]

The other reason flagship German cars depreciate so much is that there
is little demand for them- the people who buy/lease these cars new
will not buy a used one and they are still quite expensive cars for the
majority of people.

The other thing to remember is that although the car may be relatively
inexpensive to buy, it's no cheaper to maintain than a $70k new one in
that the parts and labor costs are no different whether it's a 2002 A8
or a 1997. I'd strongly recommend getting a good extended warranty on a
car like the A8- they are so complex electrically that it will most
likely
pay off to buy the warranty.

Biggest concerns I would have are the automatic transmission and the
electronics.

That said, off-lease A8s are great deals for the money- you can't really
get anything comparable to a '00 or '01 A8 4.2 for $40-50k. The 7 series
is just a nightmare in terms of reliability according to roadfly and
some
other BMW boards as well as my mechanic. If the market recovers, we
might
have a '01 S8 in the family.... one can only hope. :-)

Taka