jlbell

Oh I know what you mean Jack88. Since 2010 I have owned a 2001 740iL. Love the car to death but after this winter, as well as possible location of graduate school in Colorado, I'm in need of a car with 4 wheel drive. That is why I am moving to the A8 and nothing less. Its something about the room, drive, and quality of everything. Also how you drove a loaner A6, I had an 320i loaner, it think, which drove like a bat out of hell, but the interior quality and comfort was lacking majorly.

MiMitch

hands down, silver one over the black one. the last thing you want is an audi with issues rite out of the gate, the ebay add Jack found for the car says its "valued at $15,000" , thats quite a bit high, with what needs to be done to the car you'll wind up in the hole on it most likely (for sure if you send it in to the shop for anything) that dealer seems really shady from the get go, and keep in mind, he's a business man, if the car was worth $15k with minor fixes he would have fixed it before he listed it for $9k (realistically its worth $13k in like new condition and needs $4k of work from what we can see)

Jack88 and I (mostly him because he's meticulous, skeptical, ocd, and very scrutinous for a living) looked at a few hundred cars over a 4 month period (probably 10 - 15 in person) before we (he) found the rite one.... theirs always going to be the rite car out there at the price you want to pay, just gotta find it.

personally, i would avoid buying anything in the snow belt for corrosion reasons, these cars are all aluminum frames and body, but theirs still stuff that will rust here and there, if your willing to travel to look at the rite one, why even mess with snow bunnies?

im not sure how well the wood steering wheel works or if it's heated.... but i have the heated leather one and i didnt realize how nice the heated leather wheel was till i had it (i'm ruined for life now) a few of the options to look for as "bonus points" are the B&O sound system over bose (bose in 2005 is still amazing), extended leather (leather dash & well... everything else too), AMI module ($400+ to retrofit, lets you play music from phone/flash drive/mp3 player), adaptive cruise control (i here its not as good as the newer ones), parking sensors, winter package.... The DC / Baltimore area seems to have a good selection of full size luxury sedans on the used market most weeks, and because they see a few inches of snow a year, you have a good shot at finding one with the winter package.

hope this helped a little.... and jack, did you see the headlights? they dont look like they need polishing

just looked at the silver one one last time before i hit "submit post" ....

what is the white stain on the rear passenger seat? its visible in 2 pictures from different angles and didnt change shape or location (makes me think stain over lighting) also, same discoloration on front pass seat but much smaller (lower back area).

drivers seat, the plastic rectangle thing (odd shape button?) between shoulder blades is crooked in 1 pic.... only 1 pic though (this shouldn't move).

light under front pass seat is out (both of mine are out ).

one of the sensor "buttons" is pushed in on the front bumper (passenger side)

rear ash tray is open, mine is permanently closed because it wanted to stay open... seems odd to have it open in the pics, also, even if it'll never get used... it would annoy me that the rear cig lighter seems to be missing.

hood appears to be slid foreword (looking at body line over headlight) not sure if this is normal.... could be, and now its going to bug me if mine is foreword also

front bumper... lower corners dont seem to be properly attached, causing larger than normal gaps in the panels, could be from service, could be from accident with a curb during parking.... you'll need to take the bumper off to fix the pushed in sensor anyway... fix it then. (hint, go in threw the wheel wells to get at the hidden nuts holding the bumper on, 3 on each side, elbow deep)


just some little things i saw.... bargaining chips, not deal breakers, also use any missing options i listed above as negotiation points, at the price they have listed, the timing belt / water pump service should be done already, and possibly valve cover gaskets.... they'd have to knock minimum $3k off the price for that alone, not to mention more since its not in "new" condition.

you should be able to find that car for $9k and talk someone down to $8.5k easily if your willing to do a timing belt service in your garage.

MiMitch

also... this ... https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-...ivery-2880586/ (thanks Louis )

richard-tx

I will never, ever buy a car from a used car dealer. From an AUdi dealer, yes.

I just bought a 2006 A8 from a private party. Apart from two common issues, (soft close and trunk close/open motor) the car is in excellent shape.

If you really want to know what the story is behind a car, borrow a VCDS and see what the engine and the rest of the car is doing. Service records are a must. No service records? No sale.

richard-tx

One more thing. When searching CL or any other online car selling site, watch the phone numbers. I always did a a google phone number search. There are many people out there lying about the car. Dealers are listing cars as being sold by owner when the phone number given is a used car lot. If the seller is lying about that, then what else will he lie about?

Keep searching and the right car will show up. I know it is frustrating. Just keep looking.

In the end you have to look for reasons to NOT buy the car.

BTW I am in Dallas, and if you want to discuss this over the phone, send me a PM.

Jack88

I couldn't have put it better. It's okay to buy a car with a fault or two, just don't ignore big red flags. I judge cars by the interior most. If the interior looks gently used and well maintained, the rest of the car tends to follow. Chipped paint on the buttons is painfully common, and I don't discount a car for that, as annoying as they are.

Petahs

If you want I can go look at the Dallas car for you since I'm off on Thursday. I'll email you the VCDS scan if I can get one.

Pothole5000

something looks wrong on the silver cars tail light also... it is broken?

jlbell

The one with the broken MMI is in Houston. The silver A8 is in Dallas which, if you don't mind going to look at that would be amazing.

MiMitch

Nice catch lol..... theirs another few hundred!