davey_b

I'm looking at possibly getting a 3 or 4 year old D4 A8 at some point and really it's an alternative to getting a new car and I'd probably keep hold of it for about 10 years. I know the D4 is different from the D3 but I was just looking for people's experience of having an A8 for a long time. My slight concern is that I could get something like a new or demo Skoda Superb (I know it's a different class of vehicle but I'm wearing my sensible financial hat here) and that would likely give me 10 years of fairly hassle free motoring or I could get a 3 or 4 year old A8 and keep that till it's 13 or 14 years old but would it be a nightmare to maintain in comparison? If I was to get an A8 I would get a 3.0L low mileage, less than 40K miles I would hope, and I would be doing about 12K miles a year.

Also I tend to do a lot of work on my cars myself. What's the A8 like to work on? Quite a lot of the guys on the D4 section seem to have bought them new and tend to put them into a garage to get worked on but I would imagine there's more D3 owners who work on their own ones.

Thanks

ScottCNelson

[QUOTE=davey_b;25050074]I'm looking at possibly getting a 3 or 4 year old D4 A8 at some point and really it's an alternative to getting a new car and I'd probably keep hold of it for about 10 years. I know the D4 is different from the D3 but I was just looking for people's experience of having an A8 for a long time. My slight concern is that I could get something like a new or demo Skoda Superb (I know it's a different class of vehicle but I'm wearing my sensible financial hat here) and that would likely give me 10 years of fairly hassle free motoring or I could get a 3 or 4 year old A8 and keep that till it's 13 or 14 years old but would it be a nightmare to maintain in comparison? If I was to get an A8 I would get a 3.0L low mileage, less than 40K miles I would hope, and I would be doing about 12K miles a year.

Also I tend to do a lot of work on my cars myself. What's the A8 like to work on? Quite a lot of the guys on the D4 section seem to have bought them new and tend to put them into a garage to get worked on but I would imagine there's more D3 owners who work on their own ones.

Thanks[/QUOTE

I’m glad you asked. Here’s my 2008 S8 story. I bought it second hand in 11/2013. I did buy an exclusionary service contract at the time for $4,333. To date there have been $10,548 in repairs and so I’m $6,215 to the good. The contract recently expired. Within a week, the THIRD external door handle lock failed. I fixed this myself with a salvage door handle. You might say this is the more expensive/exotic S8, but the majority of the failures have been on electrics and electronics identical to the A8. I will be doing carbon cleaning this month.

11/09/13 59,077 Initial Purchase
08/01/14 63,689 Alternator
02/17/15 67,859 FrontControl Arm Bushes, Passenger's Side Curve Module
05/13/15 69,812 4F0-941-329-D Left Power Headlight Module
10/29/15 73,082 Master & Spare Key + program 4 keys
01/13/16 73,339 Window Washer Pump 3D0955681 SEAL 4E0955687
02/13/16 73,432 Front Air Dampers
05/16/16 73,989 Power Steering Return Pipe 4E1-422-891-N
06/08/17 92,077 Replaced Wind Deflector
07/14/17 92,350 Passenger Seat Mem Module, HVAC Module, Coolant Reservoir Cap, Left Side Door Handles, Right Footwell Heater
08/11/17 93,897 Driver's Side Curve Module 4F0941329D
08/29/17 94,720 Left Rear Footwell Heater, Side Assist, Oil Loss CND
09/02/17 94,940 G410
09/07/17 95,398 Right Rear Door Handle Out of Warranty

davey_b

Thanks for the info. That's a fair number of repairs for a car of that age that is marketed as a quality well built product but many of them seem to be the electronic systems which I guess are pretty complex and with the number of them in the car some are bound to fail. Other stuff like the alternator going is a concern. I have a 2008 Ford Mondeo at 157k miles and it's had considerably less issues than your S8 which surprises me.

Thanks for info though, hopefully others people will give their experiences too.

dvs_dave

The S8 example above seems to have had a particularly rough ride and such experiences are far from typical. For a luxury vehicle, A8’s are reliable and well made, and on a component level just as reliable as any other quality vehicle. However due to the next level complexity and gadgetry, there is simply more to go wrong. So all else being equal, simple statistics dictate that more maintenance/repairs will be needed compared to a simpler vehicle.

If your budget is a new warranted Skoda Superb (great car, but essentially a stretched VW golf underneath) vs a used unwarranted D4 then you will be in for a shock when it comes to the general servicing and upkeep costs over the Skoda.

A new A8 is at least 3-4 times the cost of a new Skoda, so comes with the ongoing running costs associated with such. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you can afford to buy it, that it will have commensurately affordable running costs!

All that aside though, the A8 will be leages ahead of the Skoda in almost every aspect of what makes a car a car.

richard-tx

A 2015 or 2014 A8? It likely won't need anything for another 6-7 years.

davey_b

I'm not expecting it to be maintenance free, I'm just trying to assess whether I can justify getting a really nice 3 or 4 year old car that will need a bit of upkeep over the next 8 - 10 years, much of it I will do myself including servicing, or if it would be a real money pit over the course of ownership. Things like changing discs, pads, hubs, track rod ends etc. don't worry me (other than if the parts are extortionate) but if there is a history of things failing that are either very expensive to buy (like a gearbox) or are very difficult to get to and require taking large parts of the car apart then that would be an issue for me.

I was thinking that I'd hopefully get 5 or so years out of a 3 or 4 year old low mileage car without much in the way of maintenance so it's encouraging to hear that being said.

jugge2

Don't worry.. no problem whith the car. No problem whith the gearbox.

pocketchange

From 2000 on, the repair cost of the A8 series is more because you are getting a different beast (especially the '"improved" V8.)
The older 99's were easier to maintain (specialized tools, etc..) than the newer models. Also, a large number of Audi line people didn't adjust well when things got (more) complicated (i.e.:retired) and let the younger wrenches deal with the newer "Stuff ;>)" .. pc

mannyo1221

I've had my 2004 A8 D3 for 4 years now, got it on 128K miles and its now on 161K miles. I've had three issues in 4 years, first was a water logged connection on one of the suspension struts which caused the suspension to log a fault code. Second was the air compressor, I installed a repair kit nearly 4 years ago and it's still fine. Lastly it broke down 18 months ago with a misfire, and Audi UK replaced all 8 coilpacks on a 11 year old car free of charge.

You read horror stories all over the internet, I was very worried when I got mine but its been plain sailing.

davey_b

Thanks for the info, that's helpful. Can't believe they changed the coil packs for you. Did you just contact your local dealer? I'm surprised they took a second look at a car that far out of warranty, amazing.