jlbell

Hello everyone,

Louis was kind enough to find me an Audi A8 SWB in his area that is in my price range and is missing only two of the options I would like to have. Here is the link:Audi A8 for sale Adult Owned. My two concerns are the air shocks and transmission at the current mileage. I am just wondering if I should stay away from an A8 with this high of mileage or is it not a concern. Also the options that are not fitted are the ventilated and massaging seat. I was wondering if it is possible to fit seat with them, change to center console controller, to include ventilated seat control, and code it to work. Just looked over the ad again and it states that it has the sports package. What does that do to the suspension, doesn't it make it rougher? Thank

Jack88

Well, I don't like that he put the W12 badge on the grill and then says it's a german only thing. Makes me distrustful on the rest of the car, and at that mileage, having some trust in the owner to tell you everything is important.

The car's price is unremarkable.

If the car is at 145k and he did the timing belt maintenance 40k ago, that means it was done 30k late, which makes me expect he was lax in the rest of the maintenance on the car.

As far as putting in the seats, changing the console buttons, and recoding the car, you can do that but it's much easier and cheaper to find a car with those options already.

I'd pass on that one, and keep looking. That's my two cents, anyhow, trust your gut.

Doc_A8

At that mileage, the most important thing is maintenance history records, you NEVER take the sellers word for it, only printed receipts.

You already know one major service was done late. Not inexcusable, but now everything else warrants closer examination.

Ventilated seats are awesome, but not worth a retrofit IMOP.

I have the sport pkg on mine, and love love, LOVE it, not rough at all. You can still select comfort and dynamic modes, so it's amazing.

TSHong

That grill is not the original grill because those only came on 2008 or later W12. That means that either just the grill or the front end was changed at some point.

05audiman

I'll say this, I got mine in January 2010, 2005 a8l with 100k and didn't know if belt was done. Really had a lot done but didn't see that receipt, here I stand five years and 45k later and it still hasn't been done. Maybe previous owner did it maybe not, still running fine, inspected and ok. This one doesn't seem bad, I actually like the old grill better and lwb better tho. Cooling and massaging seats aren't a big deal, don't retrofit. This is ultimately a choice you'll have to make.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

When you read an ads, you can't feel the person who wrote the ads, you better off buy a new car.
I bought all my Audis at least 100 or more miles from me through Autotrader or Craiglists. I think what they called is Karma. Who you are is who you'll get.
If you're an honest buyer, you'll find an honest seller. If you're sincere, you'll spot a sincere seller. NO CAR is greater than a car that's sold by an honest seller and I happened to spot all honest sellers.
Your VCDS and records won't tell you what's state the car is in, what intermittent problems the car has. Trust the seller, if you can't trust anyone, you're not trust worthy.
Who's savvy buyer here that can claim buying used Audis that don't have problems 3-5 years straight. All my Audis have been.
Honest seller won't cheat you for a few hundreds bucks, honest seller will tell you what's wrong with the car. It took me at least 3 weeks to 2 months communicating with the sellers before the deals were done. NO one cheated me.
I read the ads and sent it to Jarret because I felt the owner is honest, but it's only me.

-Buying a used Audi you need to have a plan, what do I expect from the car I buy? Yes, anything can happen since it's a used car, ask yourself again "do you feel lucky?"
To me Audi A8 is a disposable car- Buy it, drive it, depreciate it, and donate it. Each year accept the $2500-3000 depreciation or 25cents-30cents a mile.
-If people based on maintenance records on time - I can't sell my car to anyone here in Audiworld, and I don't need to when the time comes. Again, my car is 106k miles today, original timing belt... there.
-I paid $18k for my car, I drive 5 years at $3k/year depreciation, I can sell the car for $3k-4k, I'm sure around my area will have someone will take a nice car with 150k-160k miles without new timing belt (if it ever gets there).
<a href="http://forums.quattroworld.com/a8/msgs/48268.phtml" >sold my A8 D2 to a forum member</a>
<a href="http://www.dognmonkey.com/audi/time-to-say-goodbye-my-a8.html/">7 years with D2</a>

A car is a daily driver, the owner should know what's good and bad of his car. It's his right to tell you the truth, or not. MR. Bally has 220k miles, original transmission, there. The timing belt is done 40k miles ago, I can drive at least 40k miles more (worrywart I'm) before I have to replace timing belt again. New brakes, control arms, all from dealer (if you can't trust dealers, who can you trust? :-)).
So, if 40k miles trouble free = 25c/40k miles = $10000. The car is paid for...
Now, if you don't know, you don't miss it, massage and ventilated seats - don't bother to retrofit.
I'm sure he can't sell the car for $10k with 146k miles, if you go to edmunds.com it's worth $7500. I'm sure you can buy for $9k if you hold out long enough.
Make sure all the other features like heated seats, soft close, smart key exist, believe it or not there are base models out there.

Cheers and good luck,

Louis

2001 S8

Well put Louis. Karma is Karma.

richard-tx

I think that the cooled/massage seats are not a big deal. I don't have them and so far have not wished that I did. Cooled seats requires a perforated seat cover. So if tiny holes is not your thing, cooled seats are not for you.

I do have the wood steering wheel. I really like it. Can't get a heated wood wheel for obvious reasons. Everything is a tradeoff, but I would pick a wood wheel if ordering new car.

The options that I wish I had was the B&O stereo and Adaptive cruise but if I had to pick between the two the B&O is at the top of the list. Hard to find a A8 with B&O. Adaptive cruise is nice.

Another option that is nice if you entertain others is the separate rear seats with HVAC controls in the rear. Since I don't do that, that option would be wasted. The cool factor might be worth it to you ... or not. As with most things, YMMV.

I bought an 06 with 98k on it. It had the timing belt done at 95k so I am set for a while. I changed the trans oil and filter. Cost of oil, gasket, and filter from dealer is about $350. The dealer will want your VIN number so they can order the correct trans oil.

I thnk the owner is fishing for a buyer that will pay top dollar, he is willing to take less hence the OBO statement.

If black is your thing, then I would go meet the owner and look at the car. It could be a nice ride. Having said that, the oil cooler pipe is the only worrysome bit. Black is not my thing so I had to hunt for an A8. Tons of black A8s out there. Black interior is preferred here as it doesn't show the wear and tear.

My son has an A8 with about 350,000 miles on it. He changes his oil every 4000 miles or so. No problems.

There are two common failures on the A8. One is the soft close drivers door. The drivers door is usually the first to go. The part is not expensive, but it does require a few hours labor. The other is the power trunk motor. The motor usually starts to get weak. The part is $500 but is easy to change. If the MMI buttons are sticky then that usually means that someone has slopped a sugary drink over the buttons. Time consuming to clean.

If music is your thing you will want to get an AMI if the car does not have it. That is another $600-$700.

I think you are doing the right thing by looking at an 06. It is the last year that Audi used timing belts. 07 and later use timing chains. To service the chains or chain guides usually requires removal of the engine. Big $$$ The direct injection engines suffer from intake carbon buildups too.

I would ask the owner about the control arms, etc. If 3rd party parts were used, they may not last. I have seen the cheap 3rd party front end parts fail in a few months. Genuine Audi parts are warrantied for 1 year.

Good luck.

MP4.2+6.0

A lot covered already, so back to OP's message on the few missing things, both of which I have.

Ventilated seats? Hah, don't bother. These aren't Lexus seats with real cooling. Its Clarkson's description of Lambo A/C before Audi bought them--some wheezing asthmatic type blowing through a straw is about all you get. Literally under the seat at its core is like some $5 type pancake fan out of a 20 year old PC design. You really cannot feel any meaningful airflow, though it is there just a bit. And, it is ambient air given the cheapo PC fan design, not cooled air. Maybe the little holes in the seat cover help, but the seats in my A8 are more comfortable and cooler to sit in for hours than the 2013 Q5 with no ventilation (fan) even running. The Q5 seems to have some kind of dense foam in the upholstery that retains a lot of body heat over hours of driving. I have never felt that in the A8, nor did I in my prior unventilated 2000 A6.

Massage seats. Yes they work, but its kind of a novelty. I rarely even remember to push the button for it. From the D4 loaner I had, the ventilated seats were still powered by Clarkson's asthmatic, but that massage set up was a lot better that the more basic D3 one, plus it is tied into MMI display unlike the D3. Basically on the D3 it moves the lumbar support up and down with some rhythm. It's a simple on/off button for control. On the D4, it has a variety of massage choices, some of which are also more vigorous (when desired).

Net, I would pretty easily pass on either of these in favor of any of a sharper or cleaner interior and body, a better service record, or some other things like adaptive cruise (which I have), B&O, AMI, etc.

As far as sport package, technically it drops the car 20mm from stock at base setting. It only goes down another 5mm, so at its lowest setting it ends up at the same ride height as the non-sport. It also has somewhat stiffer air shock units and one level stiffer sway bars. One arguable downside is in some ways the VAG COM/VCDS ride height mod somewhat obsoleted it, at least if the basic objective was appearance. If it was a firmer ride, then of course not true. You do have more range of adjustability though with VCDS on non sport than sport in general, since non sport can go down either 20 or 25mm at flick of dial instead of only 5mm.

MiMitch

its called the timing belt service, but more importantly, the water pump gets changed at this service. if the water pump goes (and it will at some point) it will take out the timing belt, now you need a new motor. you will get absolutely no warning when this happens, your cars motor will just suddenly stop..... although you wont hurt anything by doing it late, you do run a HUGE risk that most audi owners wont take.