RE: SOTW: Audi A8
Discussion
SuperHangOn said:
confused_buyer said:
At £2500-£5000 this may be an issue. However, at £995 all you can do is judge what it working at time of purchase. No one is going to fix the gearbox or replace the cambelt on a car like this. When it no longer goes forwards, stops or steers dump it. You might get 100 miles, you might get 5000.
Depends if you can be arsed/have the time to break a car and look for another when it breaks. As a long term proposition the Lexus above looks a much better bet, or the X300 SOTW.
CDP said:
But it will still be worth at least £400 as a non runner to people who are prepared to break it and quadruple their money so the risk is £550. At that rate if it lasts six months you've won.
Nail. Head. Therein, I reckon, lies the financial logic at the heart of barge shedding...Yep, agree if it last six months and gets scrapped its a good buy at £995, might even get a cheeky £100 off the asking price as well, he has just put brakes on it which suggests a certain degree of confidence the rest isnt knackered as otherwise why bother ?
Think any prospective buyer would need to go easy on the old thing, no agressive starts given the fragility of the gearbox, remeber these were not that quick in the scheme of things, 7.3 to sixty, add in age related slowdown and mechanical sympathy to preserve the "chocolate" gearbox and it might not be 300 bhp's worth of thrust, but not sure if that is the point of these, once rolling I suspect it is fairly imperious in its performance.
Think any prospective buyer would need to go easy on the old thing, no agressive starts given the fragility of the gearbox, remeber these were not that quick in the scheme of things, 7.3 to sixty, add in age related slowdown and mechanical sympathy to preserve the "chocolate" gearbox and it might not be 300 bhp's worth of thrust, but not sure if that is the point of these, once rolling I suspect it is fairly imperious in its performance.
CDP said:
SuperHangOn said:
confused_buyer said:
At £2500-£5000 this may be an issue. However, at £995 all you can do is judge what it working at time of purchase. No one is going to fix the gearbox or replace the cambelt on a car like this. When it no longer goes forwards, stops or steers dump it. You might get 100 miles, you might get 5000.
Depends if you can be arsed/have the time to break a car and look for another when it breaks. As a long term proposition the Lexus above looks a much better bet, or the X300 SOTW.
You would have to really want the Audi for the Lexus or Jag XJ not to be a better buy. Unless you are unlucky, either is very likely to have a good few years left in it (rust aside 6 cylinder jaguar XJs go on forever, the Lexus sounds to be similar) which is not the picture being painted of the Audi. It won't cost you big money perhaps, but you still have to go through the major inconvenience of a dead or dieing car.
dbdb said:
CDP said:
SuperHangOn said:
confused_buyer said:
At £2500-£5000 this may be an issue. However, at £995 all you can do is judge what it working at time of purchase. No one is going to fix the gearbox or replace the cambelt on a car like this. When it no longer goes forwards, stops or steers dump it. You might get 100 miles, you might get 5000.
Depends if you can be arsed/have the time to break a car and look for another when it breaks. As a long term proposition the Lexus above looks a much better bet, or the X300 SOTW.
You would have to really want the Audi for the Lexus or Jag XJ not to be a better buy. Unless you are unlucky, either is very likely to have a good few years left in it (rust aside 6 cylinder jaguar XJs go on forever, the Lexus sounds to be similar) which is not the picture being painted of the Audi. It won't cost you big money perhaps, but you still have to go through the major inconvenience of a dead or dieing car.
CDP said:
Most cars need significantly in excess of a grand per year to run in depreciation and maintenance but not tax and insurance. If I do better than that I consider myself to well ahead of the game as should anybody else who beats this figure.
That's a very good target, <£1k a year all in + fuel. 
) Bought mine back in July. Really enjoying it. Before I bought it, it had a service & the belts done, new disks & pads all round, all new front suspension arms & all new tyres!! It's taking us out to the Alps skiing in January & then it will be for sale for the next person to enjoy. Oh and it's got an A8 plate. Fantastic machine all round.
The 5-speed boxes can last starship mileages if the transmission oil and filter are regularly changed. Unfortunately, this is not on the service schedule and Audi regard the oil as lifetime fill. This is true to the extent that the gearbox lasts only as long as the oil does, in the same way as you could say a scuba diver's air tank is a lifetime fill.
I had an S8, which I took to an Audi franchised dealer to have the oil and filter replaced. Unfortunately, they just shoved the old filter gaskets back on, which prevented oil circulating properly through the pump, destroying the box. £4k to replace.
I had an S8, which I took to an Audi franchised dealer to have the oil and filter replaced. Unfortunately, they just shoved the old filter gaskets back on, which prevented oil circulating properly through the pump, destroying the box. £4k to replace.
CDP said:
dbdb said:
CDP said:
SuperHangOn said:
confused_buyer said:
At £2500-£5000 this may be an issue. However, at £995 all you can do is judge what it working at time of purchase. No one is going to fix the gearbox or replace the cambelt on a car like this. When it no longer goes forwards, stops or steers dump it. You might get 100 miles, you might get 5000.
Depends if you can be arsed/have the time to break a car and look for another when it breaks. As a long term proposition the Lexus above looks a much better bet, or the X300 SOTW.
You would have to really want the Audi for the Lexus or Jag XJ not to be a better buy. Unless you are unlucky, either is very likely to have a good few years left in it (rust aside 6 cylinder jaguar XJs go on forever, the Lexus sounds to be similar) which is not the picture being painted of the Audi. It won't cost you big money perhaps, but you still have to go through the major inconvenience of a dead or dieing car.
SuperHangOn said:
In my experience the biggest budget killer is swapping cars itself. Every car I've bought needed at least a few hundred to get useable. Just bought a W124, despite being a nice example I've had to splash out on a new battery, set of tyres, front suspension bits and servicing. You could skimp but I don't want to risk being stranded so the battery was Bosch, tyres Dunlop etc. £450's worth DIY.
If you got that lot for £450 you're doing well. People don't always appreciate that cars wear as they get old and will need parts.richardxjr said:
CDP said:
Most cars need significantly in excess of a grand per year to run in depreciation and maintenance but not tax and insurance. If I do better than that I consider myself to well ahead of the game as should anybody else who beats this figure.
That's a very good target, <£1k a year all in + fuel. If I was spending £1k per year on bangernomics in anything less than a Bentley I'd be distraught. Not to mention doing it wrong!
amoeba said:
If a steel car is ~£145 a ton, what must aluminium be? Assume £300, and its about 2 tons - £600 to weigh it in?
You cant really go wrong if £600 is the worst case scenario. I've been looking at S8s, but finding them cheap is hard because the gearboxes are weak and when they go, owners just scrap them (rather than spend 3-4k on a new or reconditioned gearbox).
IM getting £245 for steel and £797 for pure ali and around £400 for irony ali which is what this will be.You cant really go wrong if £600 is the worst case scenario. I've been looking at S8s, but finding them cheap is hard because the gearboxes are weak and when they go, owners just scrap them (rather than spend 3-4k on a new or reconditioned gearbox).
I'd love to do what this fella did, Audi V8 in a Lotus Esprit..... <video approx 15 seconds>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=581rF3HhKAM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=581rF3HhKAM
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