Paoli

All the dealers hereabout want $45k for a clean low-miles 1998 car. Yet on e-bay there's a '98 with 66k miles where the bidding stopped at $31k. Is it safe to buy one of these baby's private or off lease at auction -or- is it much smarter to give a dealer $15k more and have a certified creampuff? I guess the question is about repair history. What brakes frequently and how expensive to fix?<ul><li><a href="http://fred50fred@msn.com">FREDA8</a></li></ul>

Bill Mills VA

Uh, Fred- if that '98 on ebay has 66K miles it is no longer under warranty unless the owner bought an extended warranty. Anything that breaks on a German car is expensive to fix. Buying a low mileage '98 from a dealer gives you three advantages that I can think of right away:

1) Low milage = still under warranty (big plus) = free maintainence service.
2) You can usually get the car certified for free as an Audi Assured car extending the basic warranty to 5 years 75K miles (see dealer for details) as part of the deal if it it's not already certified
3) Loaner car when you need to take your in for service. Also a big plus because from what I have seen the dealer usually has your car for a few days when you take it in for anything short of an oil change.

Paoli

Thanks Bill.. Well both of the Dealer cars sold over the weekend! So now I'm waiting...

Bill Mills VA

Well, sit tight. I'm sure another one will come in soon enough now that the 2001 are coming in. You should be able to have your dealer search other dealers for their preowned A8 inventory as well. I think you can look this info up on Audis' US website also.

Paoli

Bill.. Thanks for the advice about the Audi Assured extended warranty. There's a '99 on e-bay with no reserve where the bidding starts at $38,500 but with 38k miles and no extended warranty. So I passed. I am now only looking at A8's for sale by Audi dealers. Have found a '98 with 36k miles that's black w/blk int.for (asking) $44,000 and a '99 with 15k miles that's ming blue w/blue int. The '99 is $3,000 more than the '98. Have not seen the blue interior. Sure like the black on black. Was wondering if a '99 is better than a '98? (Except for age), were there improvements made in '99? Fred