Thinking about petrol V8 A8 (D3, FSI, 345 bhp)

[anonymous-user]

Anyone have real-world experience of mpg / engine reliability of above?

Current family car is 3 litre A6 TDi, mainly driven by better half, mostly v short school / shopping runs (slow speeds under 5 and 10 miles on country lanes) with occasional longer runs. Not ideal for big diesel, economy with the A6 on e.g. road trip to the continent is astoundingly-good (and shows how far EVs have to go before they can be credible in long-haul driving), but in low miles / short-run daily use merely average. Hence man-maths mpg delusions and I ask myself how much worse could a D3 4.2 FSI petrol V8 be for a mix of short-run and occasional longer-run use? I've consistently found that big petrol cars always give better mpg than expected and economy cars always much worse than expected. And of course none of the typical diesel turbo, limp-home, dpf, egr annoyances, and a "proper", smoother, nicer-sounding engine ...

2 qs:

- Any major known issues with the later 4.2 D3 A8 FSI V8s? Heard something about oil seals?
- Any real-world experience of mpg for either of the D3 petrol V8 variants

Many thanks in advance

[philipbrown123]

I have had 3 petrol A8's. A 2002 2.8, a 2009 2.8 and a 2003 4.2. Can't really remember the mpg but I could certainly live with it for my 10,000 miles pa of mixed driving. Cars very reliable and comfortable. All bought 2nd hand for between £5000 and £14000.

Currently drive a Lexus LS460 averaging 28mpg which has been even better a car than the A8's.

[ZX10R NIN]

Nothing major but these do suffer with coking up but that's something that affects most Audi V8's.