Help Buying a 2007 R8 Coupe

[SDeConinck]

Hi Guys,

I’ve been browsing for an R8 for a while and now in a position to purchase. A car has come up that seems to be good value but I’m a total newbie when it comes to the second hand market and also to the R8.

Any advice anyone can offer me about what to look out for and what to check when I go to see the car this weekend?

Thanks,
Simon

[SDeConinck]

I’ve run an HPI check on this car and can see from the MOT that rear shocks and breaks will need replacing soon. Does anyone have an estimate of how much these replacements would cost? I’m not sure the car looks like such good value now if this is expensive to do.

[Trev450]

Get yourself over to R8talk.com. It is the only R8 forum that is highly active.

As a starting point, are the dampers passive ot magride? The former will cost you around £300 a corner while the latter ones are closer to £1K a corner. Rear discs are are about £500 a pair and a further £200 for pads. All plus labour of course.

One final bit of advice is to have a PPI done on any potential purchase as repair costs can escalate very quickly.

Good hunting and you you may also want to check out our FB page at UK R8 owners club UK..

[Dr G]

Yes, you could do worse than to have a look through a few 'R8 buying' threads on here too.

...but if you want some subjects to feed your Google fu with, search:

Corrosion (bonnet and arches)
Air conditioning
Dampers
Oil leaks
Brake judder
Seat wear
Diff noise

I imagine some other members can add a few to that list as well. A lot of these cars were run on a budget a lot smaller than they really needed. A lot suffered from under-use.

Wonderful, wonderful cars but the cheapest examples will likely be the most expensive to own.

[SDeConinck]

Thanks for the help guys. I’ll check out the other threads. It’s mag ride, so i’d be looking at 1k each for the shocks, plus disk breaks and pads so that’s pretty much 3k before labour. It isn’t looking as good a price as I thought anymore.

[Phil Dicky]

Post the add link..... give people a better footing for advising you.