Friday 2nd September 2016

Shed of the Week: Audi A8

At the very least you'll get a year out of it but who's to say you won't want more

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Mrs Shed has been pestering her hubby for a private reg plate. She's left the choice to him. All she asks is that it should somehow reflect her personality and appearance.

With the arrival of this Audi A8, Shed thinks he may have just the thing. He reckons he can fudge the first '2' of the plate into an 'E' and thus end up with something that will reflect both her personality and her weight in pounds.

As a bonus he would get the use of a fabulous motor. The A8 was a long time in the planning because it had to go up against what was (and arguably still is) the world's finest car, the Mercedes S-Class. This is a first-gen car registered in 2000, but the first A8s hit the road in 1994, an astonishing 22 years ago. 1994 was 12 years after Ferdinand Piech signed a deal with a big American aluminium company to pave the way for what would be the transformatively lightweight Audi Space Frame A8.

Audi couldn't afford to go off half-cock with the A8's specification or performance. It was the first production car to offer ESP in its 4WD cars, and (along with the A6) the first to have front and rear side airbags. Our Shed has the 'poverty spec' 2.8-litre V6, but don't be fooled: even with the standard 174hp output you're looking at a 140mph+ machine. And this one's been de-catted, remember.

Thank the aluminium. The lightest A8 you can buy today is the 1,880kg 3.0 TDI quattro. The 2000 model was 340kg lighter. That's four beefy blokes, or 1.8 Mrs Sheds. The other advantage of the 2.8 is that it will cost you less on maintenance relative to the 4.2 V8. The advantage of it not being a quattro is that you can change fewer than four tyres at once without risking the transmission.

Good aerodynamics had something to do with the A8's effortless cruising gait too. Shed remembers a visit to the aero department of a very well-known premium car manufacturer in Japan around five years ago, during which he was proudly shown the secret work they were doing to a sporty version one of their executive cars. They were especially proud of its ensmoothening bellypan sections, complete with airflow-optimising NACA-style ducts.

If the pics don't make it to this feature, you can see from the underside pics very honestly provided by the vendor that Audi was miles ahead of that Japanese outfit in the big saloon aero game. Unfortunately, we can also see from the brown bits on display that the aluminium used to create this still-fresh looking (and apparently dent-free) A8 body did not stretch to all parts of the car.

Other glitches to be wary of? Well, there's plenty of electrick in places where you really don't need it, like the boot latch. Predictably, this is a weak area. The MMI info screens are notoriously iffy too.

Still, you've got a very long MOT. Who's to say you won't get away with at least 11 months' worth of plutocratic pleasure?

Shed was tripped up by an A8 a few years back. He paid a scrapper what he thought was a bargain amount for an immaculate set of leather seats from a 4.2, greedily thinking he was going to have a major score in selling them on.

Unfortunately that didn't happen because it transpires that A8 leather seats were built to never wear out, so there's hardly any demand for secondhand ones. Many hopeful Shed-a-likes are presumably sitting at home in a similar situation, glumly looking at their A8 seats and vainly hoping that their ship will eventually come in. Dream on lads, those seats were built to last.

When the topic is value for money, it really is difficult to argue against a facelifted A8 at a squeak over 600 quid. Just look at the paint, the shut lines, the cabin materials, the fit of the glass. This low-owner, low-mileage A8 may be many things, but VILe it most certainly is not.

Here's the ad.

Long MOT expires 25 July 2017 - I have owned this A8 since 2004 and have been very careful to always change the transmission fluid, so the new owner will enjoy smooth trouble free automatic sports performance.

De-Cat conversion adds greatly to performance and flue economy (original cat’s in very good condition saved for MOT).

[kellyt]

Love the car. Always loved the first A8s. Very elegant. Reminds me of Ronin, which isn't bad either. The undercarriage rust, not so delighted. Isn't that deeply non Audi?

[kellyt]

LayZ said:

This is my Uncle's car and I have even driven it!

As you can tell from the pictures he's done lots of work on it himself and now it's just surplus to requirements. Someone get it bought!

If I didn't already have a fleet of four money pits, I very well might have.