[s-cars] V8 vs A8

[ron kirkham]

OK, I gotta throw in here.  I was the second owner of a '97 A8 that the
previous owner had thrown a bunch of euro S8 parts on.  Remember the S8 was
not available in the US in '97.  I absolutely loved the car.  It was solid
as a rock, quiet, big, looked great and was very comfy.  I kept my '93 S4 to
use for my winter beater as it was getting up there in mileage and was not
looking that great anymore.  I had the A8 for 4 years, and had the typical
trans output seal issues, but very little else.  The 4.2 returned a fairly
consistent 22mpg on my then, 35 mile commute in the Colorado high country
over 10,500 ft. Vail Pass.  It would get 25+ mpg running on the flat land,
and would move you along at any speed you had the sack for.  I once recorded
a blast from Denver to KC at night in the 95+mph range with a whopping
27mpg.

I ultimately sold it at 120k because I was scared to death of the
afformentioned transmission failure and it's serious price tag.  Also, I
found myself grabbing the urS4 for anything less than a 200mi trip.  It just
did more for me, particularly in the nasty snowy conditions that I see
frequently.  I felt infinitely safer with the 5spd. than I did with the
non-tip automatic. (no tip in '97 although it was just a matter of adding a
later tip shifter and a very slight wiring mod to make it tip, I just didn't
do it).

So with the same delima of an aging urS4 looming and needing reliable
transportation at all times, what did I do?  I went out and found the lowest
mileage urS6A I could find.  That was three years ago, and it sits in the
garage most of the time since my 93 S4 just keeps on ticking with few
issues. (now I've jinxed it)  It now has 247k.  Neither the A8/S8 nor the
urS are particularly difficult to work on in my opinion, just fiddly at
times.  VAG-COM is a must have for anybody who hopes to work on these cars
themselves.

As said by others, if you can live with a tiptronic, go for a well
maintained  D2 A8/S8, hopefully with the tranny already addressed.  You
probably won't be sorry, I wasn't.  BTW, the now owner of my '97A8 has NOT
had to rebuild the tranny and it now has 145mi. on it.  Definitely an
anomoly that.

HTH,
Ron Kirkham
'97 A8 gone but not forgotten
'93 urS4
'95.5 urS6A

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:51 PM, JC <jc at j2c3.com> wrote:

> Agree completely and I would say with VAG-COM in hand there's nothing at
> all
> to be fraid of in a newer car. C5/B5 and later cars aren't crazy
> engineering
> anyway... yeah so you lose the dizzy and get a modern injection system
> (really a good thing for daily-driving maintenance purposes).  Sure you
> gotta learn some new 'common faults and issues' but that'll be true of any
> car. Actually some things are tidyier and getting the diagnostics out of
> VAG-COM is actually a bonus vs. the old cars with limited blink codes.
>  IMO,
> the myth of 'new cars are too complicated to work on' is exactly that, a
> myth. Just need to learn a few new things and keep the computer handy.
>
> Re: your choices, personally I'm not a huge fan of the C5 interior or
> driving characteristics so much though (had a '98 A6 2.8 30v with a PES
> blower on it for years).  Mine had mystery 'nobody can fix it' road/wind
> noise issues, the stock seats are soft and saggy (not just vs. UrS but also
> other older base seats), plastic seems shoddy and wears poorly, no driver
> feedback/feel... Lots of things that actually had me preferring the old
> 200TQA I also had at the time for anything but long roadtrips. And in large
> part why I'm still driving a 14 year old car now...
>
> However I do like the overall A4 family as well as C6 cars... and A4 Avants
> you can get with manuals...
>
> >
> > BTW, with any of the newer cars, I highly recommend getting
> > VAG-COM so you can diagnose the car properly.
> >
> > Taka
> >
>
>
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