New (to me) D4 W12 owner :)
 

I had a D3 A8L back in 2009 - been a long time follower here. The Stars weirdly aligned to give me a 2013 W12 last week. :) I am a long time Audi /VW fan/ tinkerer, with the added benefit (or curse according to my wife) of owning a Auto body shop. :)
Initial thoughts - the W12 is simply amazing. I have had LOT of cars over the last 20 years or so, and nothing comes close in my opinion, not even the D3 I had. So completely superfluous in so many ways ( who really needs a fridge between the back seats?) , and yet, in the words of James May, makes me 'fizz' every time I drive it.
I will update as I delve deeper into this completely non-sensical purchase, lol!

Congrats!
Pictures please :)

What a lovely car, and a bit of a unicorn. Not many W12 A8's running around, yours is only the second I've seen claimed on the forums.

Congrats!

For anyone thinking about a similar purchase, I spotted a pretty lightly used one at a Seattle area dealer a little while ago: 2012 Audi A8 L WAUR4AFD3CN007993 for sale in Seattle Bellevue WA

John

Welcome. 9 year owner of a D3 W12 pre- my now empty nester D4. Great ride and great motor.

wow, some completely useless gadgets in the W12 and yet I want all of them!!!!!!!! love that there's even an outlet in the back.

I would love to drive one for about a week. I bet it is AWESOME!

Thanks for the warm welcome. I will definitely post some pics when she gets her next wash later this week, along with her window sticker package specs.

I plan on doing just a couple of modifications/fixes in the coming months and will post pics of those as they happen.
Already did the $25 black paddle shifter extensions from Amazon - not 100% sold on the aesthetics (but they are growing on me), but they do appear to be a practical upgrade as I find they fall much easier to hand.
Next will be the removal and smoking of the tail lamps, just too darn red! Lol. At least Audi made them easily removable, and one of my guys does amazing work with LED tail lamps.
Then as we get time we will remove the front bumper cover and hood to fix the usual stone chips and road rash and repaint them. Unfortunately I am pretty anal about that stuff.
Weirdly, unlike pretty much every other car I have owned, that is all I want to change. She is pretty much perfect already! I even really like the stock wheels !! ( not too sure about the noise from the Pirelli P-Zero Neros that the last owner put on though!)

Before I pulled the trigger on the W12 I had test driven a bmw 750i, S550, and a D4 A8. The S550 seemed cavernous inside, but did absolutely nothing for me when driving it. The BMW was a close second to the A8 in the 'joy to drive' category, but the interior felt 'cheap' and disorganized in comparison to the A8. The A8 interior has a timeless style to it and oozes quality just about everywhere you touch. Based on my last BMW ownership experience (2004 760li) and updated research on the 750, it became apparent that there are so many issues that are not 'if' they are going to materialize, but merely when !

So the A8 appeared to be the one for me. Then the opportunity for the W12 came up, my wife green lighted the deal, so we pulled the trigger. The strange thing is I still cannot justify going with the W12 over a standard A8 in the rational part of my brain. I think it is a much more emotional decision, and for me, one that I'm still ecstatic that i did. There is nothing that is different between an A8 and a W12 that I 'needed' or that are really justifiable in any way. But I absolutely love this darn car !!

I am still surprised the difference in character between 'comfort' and 'dynamic' modes. I did not have enough seat time in a regular A8 to know if it is the same - but with 500 horses, even in such a large car, in dynamic mode it comes alive and every response is immediate and the car just wants to go...... Scared the crap out of my kids the first time I got on it (and even then only a little )coming out of a corner in dynamic mode - no body roll, and the car grabs the road and the huge torque pulls hard right NOW. Something this big and supremely comfortable and quiet, should not handle and drive like this.... Or be this darn fast lol!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!! We have a D4 A8 6.3 on the forums :D

Very happy for you, and hoping to see your beast. Most of these came standard with the rear executive seating package (Airplane seats). Does yours have it?

I have had conversations with other members on here about the rarity of these cars. There are ALOT of D3 W12 owners on here compared to D4 W12s. I completely agree that buying one of these is purely emotional decision. The S8 is pretty much the same used value about now. It's faster, SWB, sportier, and looks more aggressive, yes.
...But in my opinion... There's NOTHING like driving a 12 cylinder engine.

And quite honestly, No hate to the S8 guys, Hope they don't shoot me ;)... I don't really like or see the point of it. Same with Mercedes with the AMG S63. These are limos, not sports cars. They are wafters, made for crushing highway miles in absolute silence. After driving several A8s, I could never understand why if you ever bought one of these cars you would be looking for sport. If I wanted a hyperfast, loud, rambunctious sedan... That's why the RS6/RS7 exists. Again this is all my opinion. I respect the S8, but I don't really understand it.

This leaves your car. Which for me is the REAL king of the lineup. Cheers, and enjoy your VERY rare automobile. I'm looking to add one of these to my future collection (After college haha), being a naturally aspirated, perfectly smooth breathing 12 pot, since the D5 W12 will be blown and turbo'd to 600+hp.

These cars, minus the current RR phantom, are to my knowledge, the last large luxo barges with naturally aspirated 12 cylinder engines. These cars will be a steal in the near future.

Enough of my rabid ranting! let's see it!