Opinions on Audi A8 (D3) as a family barge?

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Caporegime
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As I'm changing jobs soon and will have to commute by car, I'm looking for a family saloon for around £20k. With a young baby I've become slightly obsessed with the concept of a massive, safe, family barge, with lots of boot space for the ultimate amounts of baby-luggage that we now have to cart everywhere.

We still have a Mk6 Golf, which is serving us admirably as a family hatchback, but that will now become the shopping trolley (in before 'it already was') so I'm thinking about what I can buy to supplement it.

The newest generation of A8s are out of my budget, but decent examples of the facelift D3 second generation models should be coming into it.

I don't know if anyone on this forum even owns one, so this might be better asked on an Audi forum, but I was wondering things like: where the sweet spot is in the range of engines if doing around 10k miles p.a., what toys and extras to look for, what to look out for mechanically, potential bills and how they vary between engines...the usual stuff really. Is the A8 even the right car? I have reasonable funds for when expensive things go wrong, but do the smaller-engined versions of these cars still have things that can lolbankrupt you when something breaks?

Many thanks.
 
Rilot had one. I think it constantly went wrong.

I actually really like these - I am not an Audi fan but the A8 is a car I really like very much. It looks good, it's nice inside, etc etc. It is, however, an older design now and they unbeleivably start at just £5k and the £5k ones - though a massively scary prospect - are fundamentally the same car as the £20k ones. This might make it quite difficult to justify spending £20k on such a thing.

The level of stuff to go wrong is simply biblical though (and makes me wonder just who buys the £5k ones?). Air Suspension, electronics, etc etc - you name it, it has it. One of the advantages of a £20k one is you'll be able to get one with a decent warranty which surely has to be essential.

With somebody else paying the repair bills I'd imagine owning one is fantastic. If its you paying to fix it I'd imagine owning one is a nightmare.

If you want some Audi Saloon despite being a technically inferior car I'd imagine an A6 is a better, safer buy - it'll be virtually brand new for this money if you buy the shape thats just been replaced, as well.

You can also now buy a 10 plate F10 5 Series for about £22-23k - though not one of the sought after engines (Though there is a 528i SE with low mileage for £20k on Autotrader right now). This is where my £20k would go and is where my £20k would have gone were they that sort of money last year!! Even a private sale example will still have a year of BMW New Car Warranty, so it's a very safe bet from a bills perspective. It's also a literally box fresh design - 7 years ahead of the A8. In terms of longevity and how long it lasts before it begins to feel a bit old you've got a 7 year march on the A8..
 
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I think A6 estate would be a better option for a family car with plenty of space.

For your money you would also get a newer and lower mileage car.
 
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Thanks.

I had no idea that the F10s were even remotely in this price range already.

Since there are roughly zero petrol A8s around, it looks like the 3.0 diesel would be a good mix of power and sensibleness, even at my low mileage.

The problem I have with the A6, is that I had my heart set on a saloon for optimum noise isolation and the saloon A6, as mentioned, isn't quite as vast inside as I had envisaged I'd need. Quite right to say however that there's always a compromise and that the A6 would probably still be big enough.

Hopefully Rilot will come along at some point, in the mean time I'll go hunting for some of his threads.

Another spanner in the works is that there are also loads of 730ds with sensible mileage around for this money.

This one is very near to me
pSwRL.jpg


Next step is some test driving I suppose.
 
Don't the 7's lose money much quicker than the A8 and S Class because people feel they are too 'sporty' for this end of the market and they don't quite have the same market appeal as the Audi and Merc. Making them a much better used buy providing the 'sporty-ness' doesn't bother you.
 
Have you considered the S Class? I have no idea in regards to warranties so that's something you'd need to factor into the cost.

A8, for the reasons mentioned above wouldn't be recommended. Too much money, in my opinion for that car, now. However they have that understated classy look which I like. Saying that, I think a completely new S Class model is out sometime soon so that may effect prices of the current S Class.

http://pistonheads.com/sales/3598800.htm

http://pistonheads.com/sales/3747231.htm

http://pistonheads.com/sales/3261911.htm
 
sorry to hijack the thread, but Im interested to know how the Lexus compares at this price point. The v8s look good value, not sure if this is the case?
 
Not in the same class of car as those described above but with excellent rear room, saloon, toys, noise isolation, etc. It may be worth looking at the skoda superb.
 
Peerzy said:
Don't the 7's lose money much quicker than the A8 and S Class because people feel they are too 'sporty' for this end of the market and they don't quite have the same market appeal as the Audi and Merc. Making them a much better used buy providing the 'sporty-ness' doesn't bother you.
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Interesting, I didn't know that. I hadn't considered the 7 series as too sporty, in fact I thought punters were keen on sporty models if anything, hence everything having a 'Sport' label on it these days. Unless I'm missing your point and you're referring more to the fact that the Audi and the Merc are more understated.

TS7 said:
Have you considered the S Class? I have no idea in regards to warranties so that's something you'd need to factor into the cost.
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Short answer, no I hadn't. I just can't get on with the interior compared to the other two.

dilated said:
sorry to hijack the thread, but Im interested to know how the Lexus compares at this price point.
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Not at all, the Lexus (and Skoda) are both worth considering in the discussion, though for me the BMW wins at driving and the Audi wins at looks, whereas the other two win at nothing except price.
 
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The trouble is that really is the bottom of the market - there isnt much for £20k. Thankfully the bottom of the F10 market isn't exactly like the bottom of, say, the E60 market in that it contains nearly new cars under full warranty but you wont get uberspec or uberengined examples. Infact that was the only non 520d for under £26k.

There is no other car on the market now that interests me more next than the F10 - I'd imagine you'll be very impressed with one were you to take it for a drive. A current generation vehicle as well, as nice as that 58 plate 7 Series was its a car that originally appeared in showrooms before even my 530i had been collected by its original owner!
 
Just for info, as much as I enjoyed my A8, it was very expensive to run.

Little sensors would go, brakes were prone to failures etc and it just became too much. I loved it as a car, great engine (4.0 v8 td) but in the end it became too much of a risk.

I would consider an approved used A8 again but they command a much higher value for the decent engined versions.
 
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