RE: Audi A8 LWB W12 | The Brave Pill
Discussion
I ran a w12 for a year in 2021. Loved every moment of it
Running it was too bad either. Mine had 98k on the clock and I did 12k in it
I sold it to a good friend who's run it since and has done similar milage with little expense other than services etc
Its a gem of a car, totally understated and a proper Q car
Running it was too bad either. Mine had 98k on the clock and I did 12k in it
I sold it to a good friend who's run it since and has done similar milage with little expense other than services etc
Its a gem of a car, totally understated and a proper Q car
andy_ran said:
I ran a w12 for a year in 2021. Loved every moment of it
Running it was too bad either. Mine had 98k on the clock and I did 12k in it
I sold it to a good friend who's run it since and has done similar milage with little expense other than services etc
Its a gem of a car, totally understated and a proper Q car
I'm interested to know how people do this without losing too much money. Buy and run a car for a year or so then sell. On paper it's ideal for those who wish to try different stuff but in reality surely there are risks?Running it was too bad either. Mine had 98k on the clock and I did 12k in it
I sold it to a good friend who's run it since and has done similar milage with little expense other than services etc
Its a gem of a car, totally understated and a proper Q car
Water Fairy said:
I'm interested to know how people do this without losing too much money. Buy and run a car for a year or so then sell. On paper it's ideal for those who wish to try different stuff but in reality surely there are risks?
Oh yes many risks But for what I paid for it,I sold it for what it owed me after doing the servicing etc I was net even
Sold it to my mate and he had headroom too to look after it and shouldn't loose out either
Interesting engine that W12; it only exists in that odd format because Piech era VAG had to have a 12 cylinder engine if BMW and Mercedes did, but couldn't sensibly fit a proper V12 if they were to continue hanging the entire engine in front of the axle line. The W12 is about 2/3rds the length of a V12 (20" odd vs 30" for the BMW N73 or Mercedes M275). As this article points out the refinement was well off the pace for a 12 cylinder as a consequence, and it was always more about willy waving (or at least being able to get yours out with the big boys) than sound engineering practise.
Still, more is always better but I'd only want to run one of these at throwaway money; Tales abound of engine out jobs for the most trivial issue on W12 cars across the VAG stable, a friend worked as a Bentley tech and tells me they had loads of those hydraulic tables for removing engines and they were always fully utilised!
Imagine trying to mount a full length quarter of a ton 80cm long V12 in the nose like that and having to extend your already large front overhang by another foot.
Still, more is always better but I'd only want to run one of these at throwaway money; Tales abound of engine out jobs for the most trivial issue on W12 cars across the VAG stable, a friend worked as a Bentley tech and tells me they had loads of those hydraulic tables for removing engines and they were always fully utilised!
Imagine trying to mount a full length quarter of a ton 80cm long V12 in the nose like that and having to extend your already large front overhang by another foot.
Absolutely glorious, so pointless it's perfect! owning it would be like a game of chicken hoping that nothing goes wrong and selling at the right moment. You could get a nice v12 7 series for 5 grand a few years back, those days are over.
I do a lot of mileage in my job and this is would be the dream - for 12 months max!
I do a lot of mileage in my job and this is would be the dream - for 12 months max!
The D3 A8 is actually a pretty solid car. Certainly compared to its absolutely disastrous contemporaries from rival manufacturers. Well engineered and built, rust free (Aluminium) and no common fatal flaws. Solid engines and bulletproof transmissions. Air suspension needs attention sometimes (as all they all do, regardless of marque), but the aftermarket supports them well so no need to go to a dealer who will invariably quote you for an entirely new suspension system for £10k when all that’s wrong is a leaking £400 airbag or a worn compressor.
Regards the W12, it’s actually quite a bit shorter than the V8’s and obviously way shorter than the V10’s so they’re not terrible to work on. Plenty of room around them. As it’s designed to be used in twin turbo format, ala Bentley, in non turbocharged form it’s very under stressed and consequently very solid.
Likening these to Bentley TT W12 borkage levels is simply claptrap peddled by pub bores and mates of mates. Although the pick of the range is not the W12, which is the poshest and the only version available with the 2-seat executive rear seating package, and the V10 can’t be had in LWB format. All that aside though, the 4.2TDI V8 is the one to get.
Regards the W12, it’s actually quite a bit shorter than the V8’s and obviously way shorter than the V10’s so they’re not terrible to work on. Plenty of room around them. As it’s designed to be used in twin turbo format, ala Bentley, in non turbocharged form it’s very under stressed and consequently very solid.
Likening these to Bentley TT W12 borkage levels is simply claptrap peddled by pub bores and mates of mates. Although the pick of the range is not the W12, which is the poshest and the only version available with the 2-seat executive rear seating package, and the V10 can’t be had in LWB format. All that aside though, the 4.2TDI V8 is the one to get.
Edited by dvs_dave on Saturday 29th October 20:20
dvs_dave said:
The D3 A8 is actually a pretty solid car. Certainly compared to its absolutely disastrous contemporaries from rival manufacturers. Well engineered and built, rust free (Aluminium) and no common fatal flaws. Solid engines and bulletproof transmissions. Air suspension needs attention sometimes (as all they all do, regardless of marque), but the aftermarket supports them well so no need to go to a dealer who will invariably quote you for an entirely new suspension system for £10k when all that’s wrong is a leaking £400 airbag or a worn compressor.
Regards the W12, it’s actually quite a bit shorter than the V8’s and obviously way shorter than the V10’s so they’re not terrible to work on. Plenty of room around them. As it’s designed to be used in twin turbo format, ala Bentley, in non turbocharged form it’s very under stressed and consequently very solid.
Likening these to Bentley TT W12 borkage levels is simply claptrap peddled by pub bores and mates of mates. Although the pick of the range is not the W12, which is the poshest and the only version available with the 2-seat executive rear seating package, and the V10 can’t be had in LWB format. All that aside though, the 4.2TDI V8 is the one to get.
I have a LWB 4.2 TDi V8. Already, I'm depressed, as I have no idea what I'll ever replace it with that will be better. Regards the W12, it’s actually quite a bit shorter than the V8’s and obviously way shorter than the V10’s so they’re not terrible to work on. Plenty of room around them. As it’s designed to be used in twin turbo format, ala Bentley, in non turbocharged form it’s very under stressed and consequently very solid.
Likening these to Bentley TT W12 borkage levels is simply claptrap peddled by pub bores and mates of mates. Although the pick of the range is not the W12, which is the poshest and the only version available with the 2-seat executive rear seating package, and the V10 can’t be had in LWB format. All that aside though, the 4.2TDI V8 is the one to get.
Edited by dvs_dave on Saturday 29th October 20:20
Best family car we've ever had.
I am struck with the slightly-gloomy realisation that, of that type of car (over-engined limo), this probably is some sort of pinnacle.
Always, in the past, driving some car, you always thought, happily: "not bad, and when i get a bit more £, I can get a newer, bigger,
better version".
But no longer.
It only gets worse from here.
The forthcoming Audi replacement model (from 2025) is going to be a largely self-driving 4-seater EV - with a retractable steering wheel.
All the bad-assery will have been taken out of it.
Apart from the size, the A8 is peachy easy to drive, and you could pootle all day long in it. But snap your right foot down, and it piles on an avalanche of velocity in near-apocalyptic fashion - absolutely hilarious.
V quiet inside, but I heard it drive away from the gaff the other day, and I thought, that sounds like a quiet American - absolute Mafia style V8 pulsing bass rumble, very discreet but with a thuggish undercurrent to it - but gets away with it, as visually it's so conservative.
It hasn’t been compromised in any way. For me, with my tastes, Audi will never make something as good as this again, with that link back
to their big diesel development from their Le Mans wininng diesel race cars, and one in this LWB V8 tan leather spec is next to impossible to find.
I feel part-owner, and part-custodian.
Rob 131 Sport said:
Dombilano said:
Every LWB version of a car looks like it was the result of a paper jam in the printer, as it was printing the rear doors.
I’m with you on this, I’ve never liked the LWB version of anything. This model of A8 was a great looking car and a V12 would be interesting. In reality however I and I suspect most people would prefer a SWB V6 Diesel.
For me, an A8 which isn't LWB is a sad travesty of itself, and I aways regretted that my first A8 was non-LWB. The LWB’s additional space transforms the car. Your kids, your passengers, yourself when your better half is at the wheel when you’ve had a few – everyone loves it. My 2 older kids scrap to get in the front seat of our A6. But they prefer to sit in the back seats of our LWB A8. The rear seats in the LWB A8 are exceptional. It’s a superb way to travel.
There is also an accepted passive-aggressive narrative that many motoring journalists adhere to when writing about any saloon with a 12 cylinder engine, when there are smaller engines in the range. You must say all or any of the following:
- the V8 is better / just as good
- you couldn’t carry fuel to it
- it's pointless
- it's ridiculous
- it's only for people with more money than sense
- blah blah
And, of course, there is much truth in all of the foregoing sackcloth and ashes miserabilism.
But there is also a whiff of class rigidity – a 12 cylinder middle-class car? How preposterous! Fine for Astons, Royces and various Fezzas, but not for you. Know thy place squire, and get thee a lesser-engined variant.
What they never tell you though is that a 12 cylinder, while unnecessary and pointless, is also bloody wonderful.
Try one, and never mind the rainy-day merchants …
When we owned an Audi S4 cab with the bonkers timing chain time bomb I had the car serviced by some well known Indies on the Wirral, and got chatting to them one day about any potential pitfalls on the W12 A8. They said they’d had one in a few weeks previously as a non-runner and the computer said some sensor on the back of the engine had failed and needed to be replaced - only £30 for the sensor but something silly like £2.5k for the labour as it was an engine out job - the entire front end of the car and front suspension had to be removed, then the exhaust and gearbox before dropping the engine.
All for a £30 sensor.
It so happened another Dad at my daughters school was quite high up at Bentley in Crewe so I retold the tale to him shortly after and he confirmed it was true but the Bentley work around was to remove the glovebox, pull back the carpets and cut a precise hole in the bulkhead to gain access - the repair included a removable plate to fix back over the hole for the next time the sensor failed!
I bought a somewhat more conventional V12 instead.
All for a £30 sensor.
It so happened another Dad at my daughters school was quite high up at Bentley in Crewe so I retold the tale to him shortly after and he confirmed it was true but the Bentley work around was to remove the glovebox, pull back the carpets and cut a precise hole in the bulkhead to gain access - the repair included a removable plate to fix back over the hole for the next time the sensor failed!
I bought a somewhat more conventional V12 instead.
stickleback123 said:
Interesting engine that W12; it only exists in that odd format because Piech era VAG had to have a 12 cylinder engine if BMW and Mercedes did, but couldn't sensibly fit a proper V12 if they were to continue hanging the entire engine in front of the axle line. The W12 is about 2/3rds the length of a V12 (20" odd vs 30" for the BMW N73 or Mercedes M275). As this article points out the refinement was well off the pace for a 12 cylinder as a consequence, and it was always more about willy waving (or at least being able to get yours out with the big boys) than sound engineering practise.
Still, more is always better but I'd only want to run one of these at throwaway money; Tales abound of engine out jobs for the most trivial issue on W12 cars across the VAG stable, a friend worked as a Bentley tech and tells me they had loads of those hydraulic tables for removing engines and they were always fully utilised!
Imagine trying to mount a full length quarter of a ton 80cm long V12 in the nose like that and having to extend your already large front overhang by another foot.
VAG in that era wasn't anything like as commonality-crazy/brand-engineered as they became through the 2000s, they loved developing kooky niche models. And that makes their unbending commitment to FWD-style drivetrains seen very odd; the whole W12 story just seems like engineering compromise covering for engineering compromise, rather than something clever of itself.Still, more is always better but I'd only want to run one of these at throwaway money; Tales abound of engine out jobs for the most trivial issue on W12 cars across the VAG stable, a friend worked as a Bentley tech and tells me they had loads of those hydraulic tables for removing engines and they were always fully utilised!
Imagine trying to mount a full length quarter of a ton 80cm long V12 in the nose like that and having to extend your already large front overhang by another foot.
With the resources to hand, and the brands they could have extended it to, they could have made a proper, big-car RWD platform to underpin everything from the A6 upwards.
McGee_22 said:
When we owned an Audi S4 cab with the bonkers timing chain time bomb I had the car serviced by some well known Indies on the Wirral, and got chatting to them one day about any potential pitfalls on the W12 A8. They said they’d had one in a few weeks previously as a non-runner and the computer said some sensor on the back of the engine had failed and needed to be replaced - only £30 for the sensor but something silly like £2.5k for the labour as it was an engine out job - the entire front end of the car and front suspension had to be removed, then the exhaust and gearbox before dropping the engine.
All for a £30 sensor.
It so happened another Dad at my daughters school was quite high up at Bentley in Crewe so I retold the tale to him shortly after and he confirmed it was true but the Bentley work around was to remove the glovebox, pull back the carpets and cut a precise hole in the bulkhead to gain access - the repair included a removable plate to fix back over the hole for the next time the sensor failed!
I bought a somewhat more conventional V12 instead.
Yes this is still the case for a main dealer All for a £30 sensor.
It so happened another Dad at my daughters school was quite high up at Bentley in Crewe so I retold the tale to him shortly after and he confirmed it was true but the Bentley work around was to remove the glovebox, pull back the carpets and cut a precise hole in the bulkhead to gain access - the repair included a removable plate to fix back over the hole for the next time the sensor failed!
I bought a somewhat more conventional V12 instead.
You can however easily replace the said sensor if you remove the intake manifold and it can be accessed from the top just....
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