[s-cars] V8 vs A8

Thu Feb 18 13:46:09 PST 2010

 Ben and Paul:

As much as I love you guys, I hardly think this nice fellow from Columbus, Ohio (my original home town) should take car advice from a couple of guys who traded their manual transmissions in for skirts.

(It's OK, I'm kidding)

Seriously... if you're looking at an unavoidable gazillion dollar repair bill for the slushbox... that kind of opens up new options, from an economics perspective.  Sure, the 2.7tt cars require engine removal for some major failures.  But most of those have been handled by the time they reach their current age.  Yep, you can overspool the little K03 turbos and kill them.  But there are plenty of these cars on the market that have had the slightly larger K04 units already installed.  You can keep a manual transmission, and have a very reliable/fast/fun car.

I bought a '01 S4 a couple of years ago.  I put on the typical RS4 upgrade parts, and replaced some of the usual failure items that are often neglected.  The car has been 100% trouble free... and it now has 172k miles on it.  It runs great and is impressively fast.  It also routinely returns about 24mpg.

IMO, the eventual cost of trans repairs, the higher insurance premiums, and the significantly lower fuel mileage adds up to a lot in the long run.

While I will freely admit that I love the S8... I can't see myself owning a slushbox, unless it was primarily for the little lady.  If the interior size constraints of a B5 are not an issue for you, I think you would find them fun and rewarding.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: pkrasusky at ups.com
To: s-car-list at audifans.com; dconner at gmail.com
Sent: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 1:20 pm
Subject: Re: [s-cars] V8 vs A8

Hey Dave-

I came out of a urS6 for 5yrs /80k, and am 3.5yrs / 50k into a urS8.  I'll echo 
all of Ben's previous sentiments and add a few.

It is CERTAINLY leaps ahead of most other cars out there, even today, 
chassis-wise.  A D2 (even an A8) are tremendous driving cars.  The overall 
ownership experience is quite rewarding.  A8s you want post-facelift ('00-'03) 
as the others have 1000% guaranteed tranny issues.  The later ones sometimes 
lose reverse, tho that seems sort of rare.  I don't think they are a guaranteed 
failure tho.  My //S8 box started slipping @ 130k in 1st / 2nd, it was a $4k 
rebuild.  Tho that's no surprise for a 4k lb car w/ 360hp being ahem enjoyed day 
/ out, I don't feel it owed me much.  I haven't heard of many other //S8 box 
failures, tho not many have the miles I've racked up.

$10k buys a REALLY nice A8, heck less than $10k does.  $10k buys a 120k mi '01 
//S8 these days, or there about.  Like Ben said throw 2-4k more at it and you're 
in 90-100k range.

They are very DIY, and like Ben said the QWD2 forum is phenomenal.  Mine's had 
some appetite for cash due to using it 20k+/yr, nothing scary though.  Extended 
warranties are your FRIEND (<100k cars).  Typical stuff.  Control arm bushings, 
leaks leaks and more leaks (trans output, front diff out put, and oil cooler 
coolant leak are ALL *guaranteed*), cam chain tensioner seized, my cats are 
rattling now @ 146k but many fail much (MUCH) earlier, blower motors chirp, etc.

If you can stomach the slushbox a D2's a hit.  I'm a diehard stick junkie and I 
don't miss stick one bit (tho the //S8s have paddles).  Heck I'm bored w/ cars 
after a couple of years yet each and every day I find myself more smitten w/ my 
D2.  Alumibitch, she's a temptress.

Really loved my urS6, but no denying they are old and sounds like that's 
something you're aiming to get AWAY from. I WILL SAY tho that it dawned on me 
recently that I nearly never ever even open the hood on my car now, compared to 
seemingly weekly with my urS6.  Truth.

Anyway, come on over to QWD2 if you need further help - enormous resource base 
there.  Heck a NUMBER of chaps have 2 even 3 of the things - madmen!  Speaks to 
the cars tho, and, all the owner's are very cool.

HTH, good luck.  If you want a really clean sorted silver / grey alcantara (uber 
rare combo) '01 //S8 with 98k, LMK my bud's got one for ~ $14k - *everything* 
has been done to it (everything!)...

-Paul NC bound for some _EPIC_JNRage_ this weekend of der P car / ECMag variety 
- muwhahahaaa - K.

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:39:50 -0500

From: Dave C <dconner at gmail.com>

Subject: [s-cars] V8 vs A8

My fleet of Audi's consists of two 1987 type 44's. I bought one of them in 1992, 
and have been driving and maintaining these things for a very long time, doing 
all my own maintenance and know them inside and out. But they are getting on in 
years and I find myself considering replacement with something newer. The 
question is "how much newer?"

I'm nervous about not understanding how a car works and maybe being unable to 
repair it when things go wrong, etc. I recently drove a 2007 A8 for the first 
time and was in awe of the complexity of the cockpit with so many electronic 
gizzies. I've never driven a V8, or even sat in one for that matter, but I'm 
aware of the loyal following they have.

It looks like I could buy a first generation A8 (D2) for somewhere in the 
neighborhood of $10K but it would be a ten year old car with 100K miles on it, 
so I would need to anticipate repairs from the start. I don't want to spend a 
whole lot more than $10 K on a car, but could go higher if I felt it was worth 
it.

I'd actually like to have an avant, but choices are limited. A 2002-3 S6 avant 
would be very nice :-) Maybe I should consider an A6 avant.

Considering that I like to keep my cars for a long time and do my own 
maintenance, would I be better off with the more familiar technology of the

V8 or an URS4/6? I think there would be a benefit to getting something ten years 
newer than that (A8) but it would still be a 10 year old car. Another upside re: 
the A8 is that there are a >lot< more of them available to choose from. Most of 
the V8's and URS4's are pretty beat by now... clean low-mileage examples are 
quite scarce.

So ... should look for a clean V8 or URS4?

Or should I look at something much newer and try to adapt to 21st century 
automotive technology?

Decisions, decisions.

- -

David Conner

Columbus, OH
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