CML

For the past 8 years I've had a 4.2L C6 A6 as my daily driver. It's the most reliable car I've ever owned. Aside from routine maintenance, I've only had to replace the starter and the backup sensors in 70K miles. I've maintained the car obsessively, and it's in great shape. The only mystery is a very slow coolant leak. Someday we'll figure it out.

Although the car is good from every practical point of view (reliable, comfortable, can carry a lot of stuff), I'm a bit bored by it. So I've been considering a replacement. I've looked at the current A6, S6, A7, and A8, but but none of them seems preferable to the A6. In a way I can't describe very well, the A6, S6, and A7 all seem less substantial. There's more plastic and less metal. And the D4 A8 is too glitzy. Subjective judgments, I know.

Recently, a 2008 S8 has come up for sale nearby. This car has been well-maintained and is beautiful inside and out. Driving it is a lot more fun than the A6. It seems like a clear step up from the A6, without being glitzy. The gas mileage is a negative, but I can live with it. My question is about reliability. Should I expect the V10 to be much less reliable than the V8?

All thoughts welcome.

ScottCNelson

Congratulations on your reliable A6 C6. I owned a C5 and it was NOT the most reliable car I ever owned by a long chalk which is why my wife now has a Lexus. Despite my A6 experience, I took the plunge on a 2008 S8. I wouldn't have without having the reliable Lexus to fall back on and in hindsight shouldn't have anyway. It was relatively good to me until about 90K and has been a hangar queen since. It just threw a MIL the other daty for O2 sensors...

Here’s my 2008 S8 story. I bought it second hand in 11/2013. I did buy an exclusionary service contract at the time for $4,333. To date there have been $10,548 in repairs and so I’m $6,215 to the good. The contract recently expired. Within a week, the THIRD external door handle lock failed. I fixed this myself with a salvage door handle. You might say this is the more expensive/exotic S8, but most of the failures have been on electrics and electronics identical to the A8.

11/09/13 59,077 Initial Purchase
08/01/14 63,689 Alternator
02/17/15 67,859 Front Control Arm Bushes, Passenger's Side Curve Module
05/13/15 69,812 4F0-941-329-D Left Power Headlight Module
10/29/15 73,082 Master & Spare Key + program 4 keys
01/13/16 73,339 Window Washer Pump 3D0955681 SEAL 4E0955687
02/13/16 73,432 Front Air Dampers
05/16/16 73,989 Power Steering Return Pipe 4E1-422-891-N
06/08/17 92,077 Replaced Wind Deflector Motor
07/14/17 92,350 Passenger Seat Mem Module, HVAC Module, Coolant Reservoir Cap, Left Side Door Handles, Right Footwell Heater
08/11/17 93,897 Driver's Side Curve Module 4F0941329D
08/29/17 94,720 Left Rear Footwell Heater, Side Assist, Oil Loss CND
09/02/17 94,940 The notorious G410
09/07/17 95,398 Right Rear Door Handle


11/06/17 98,707 Decarbon, R & R IMF, Oil Filter Seal
03/11/18 103,345 CEL faults both O2 sensors Bank3.

YESHONEY

My 2007 S8 I bought with 67K and it has 74k now. Only issue was a throttle body I had to replace right after I bought it. Never put cheaper replacement parts from over seas on them. They just don't manufacture to the same tolerances. $100 throttle body from a junkyard motor that was OEM worked fine and I replaced it myself. Knock on wood, continues to perform great! When, and if, you buy it check all electronics before you sign. Have a VAG report run to see any lingering codes, recently cleared codes or any other anomalies. Go thru the MMI extensively to make sure all systems functioning as they should. If it passes all that, Buy and enjoy!

Joe

ScottCNelson

7K miles of service and only one major repair! This may be an AUDI world record.

mixja23

I've only had my 2008 S8 for one month or so, I didn't have the option to do a scan or check anything other than drive it and look round it...
It's only done around 48k miles and has a full Audi stamped service book at all the right intervals and I can tell that it's been kept out of the sun which is a german car killer here in Qatar, it looks great inside and out and it drives as sweet as a nut... Looked good on paper as we might say...
There was a couple of issues with it that I found which I was aware of when I bought it but at the equivalent of around $10k, it seems too good to pass up, the sunroof doesn't work at all, at least one of the B&O door speakers has blown and is blowing raspberries at me whenever I turn it up a little bit, surprising for a $6800 set of speakers, not impressed with that at all tbh, one of the dash tweeters won't rise and the boot won't open by itself, I thought these problems were minor given the price of the car so I bought it anyways...
However.... Within that one month, I've had to put a litre of oil in after around 6500 miles since its last service and it is quite oily underneath.. I'm told this could be a common S8 problem, oil filter housing O ring seal...
It also started dumping coolant out, around a litre a day, had to top it up 3 or 4 days in a row but the last 2 days, that seems to have stopped lol so not quite sure why that happened...
Also, the yellow suspension light come on intermittently and although it doesn't seem to be affecting the suspension or any of the modes when it does come on and goes away when I turn the car off an on again, there must be a reason why this is happening.... And the fuel gauge lol, God only knows what's going on with that, it seems fine when you're driving, maybe a little fluctuation here and there but if the car is sat still running for any length of tine, it's up and down like a yoyo...!! And that is proper annoying if it's only got 1/3 tank or so as it keeps dropping into the red and I get the noisy warning every few seconds to refuel....

So, I'm in mixed minds about it tbh, at the moment I can't do anything with it as I need it for work and can't be without it but I'm hoping to get all these issues fixed within the not too distant future when I can finally get it to my german car guy here...
It does drive and sound great tho, i think it'll be a while before I get bored of that...
At the end of the day, all cars of this ilk and age will make you suffer, you just gotta decide which one is worth suffering for...!!

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

No car is worth suffering, actually nothing is worth suffering over
Buy nice cars to enjoy, if you can't afford to buy a nice fully working one, it defeat the purpose to buy a broken one.
Cheers,
Louis

Chris L

Thanks for all the responses. Are there any S8 owners out there who have found their cars to be reliable over the long term? BTW I'm the OP -- I seem to have 2 Audiworld accounts, one on my laptop and one on my phone. Modern life...

Howaboutthat

2007 S8. Roughly four years and 50,000 miles. We experience the customary suspension groans in cold weather and have replaced one parking brake motor. Special car.

mixja23

Well, even if they're working when you buy them, the chances of any 10 year old hi spec car, however well it's been looked after, not ever having anything going wrong with it are slim to none...!!
What to do, I can afford a 10 year old S8 at $10k and afford to repair it but I can't afford a $100k brand new S8...!!

If you have a car like this that doesn't make you, or more specifically your wallet, suffer, that's almost a miracle in my book...

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

I've been buying new and used Audi's for many years. As my experience, they're all reliable if you get a working one for the start. My average yearly cost of driving these cars are $500 for 5 years or 50k miles. My 10 year old Q7 bought new, $400 for tires with 55k miles... yes, nothing even brakes while others spent tons of money.
No ones ever listen to me, Audi break down due to operators errors. The shops make mistakes, break the cars, look at the VCDS and start to replace good parts because of NOT understanding the system, creating new problems and then the cars became walking wounded.... domino effect.
People said I was lucky, but all my Audi's since 80's until now? My 98 A6 bought new and my father is still driving it. My 04 cabriolet bought used from original owner, my sister is still driving... one thing they must do is only change oil with Mobil 1 once or twice a year, no recommended services from anyone as long as it starts right up and drive fine. If it works don't fix it. No flush this, flush that, no bleeding this, bleeding that... just check fluids levels.
All my Lucky Audi cost less to drive than even Toyota or Honda.
I've never buy cheap Audi... I truly believe cheap doesn't mean good deal. I only buy from owners because I can tell if the owners are honest. Honest owners will not cheat you, especially Audi owners, they're mostly nice people, not bums at least in my case.

Cheers,
Louis