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Audi A8 - Page 4

post #46 of 59
2/20/11 at 6:01pm
Over the last 6 years my family has put 240,000 miles on 3 A6's. With one unscheduled dealer visit. Am I a German fanboy? Yeah I guess. Have I experienced anything other than good things? No. Anecdotally the bills on the fleet of 10 Lexus's that my dad's staff run have meant that he's never buying another one. All staff are getting VW Passats in March. Additionally I would buy Aston Martin and Porsche (Used) before an Audi (New) so I wouldn't put myself in a "mindlessly loyal" class.
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post #47 of 59
2/20/11 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 
Just happened to see this thread back at the top. I ended up buying one last week - 2008 A8L black on black.
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post #48 of 59
2/20/11 at 9:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PERhodes View Post
Just happened to see this thread back at the top. I ended up buying one last week - 2008 A8L black on black.
The car looks great in black/black. Please provide a review after you've had it for awhile.
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post #49 of 59
2/23/11 at 7:24pm
My neighbor bought his wife an IS350 RWD last summer, and even in the relatively minor snow and ice we had a few weeks back, the car was absolutely useless. The "intelligent" traction control system would sense wheel slip and cut the power to the rear wheels, so she was basically stuck on a sloped driveway on two patches of ice the size of doormats under the drive wheels. Absolutely useless.

Car is already sold and they are getting, yes, an A8.

In response to the OP, I've had three Audis: TT, A4, and A6. Every one has been a pleasure to own and drive, and all extremely reliable. Would not hesitate in any way to do the A8 if that's what you want. Plus I've found Audi dealers and sales staff, at least in the three cities where I've dealt with them, to be really dedicated to the maker, extremely knowledgeable, and very pleasant to deal with.
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post #50 of 59
2/23/11 at 7:36pm
What tires were on the IS350? Traction control can't do anything if there is no traction to control.

--Andre
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post #51 of 59
2/23/11 at 8:22pm
Yeah, certainly sounds like it would have had summer tires on it. I'll take RWD and good snow tires over AWD and all seasons any day.
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post #52 of 59
2/23/11 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
Lol. German manufacturers, their PR machines and fanboys know they can't beat Lexus in terms of reliability, residual values, and owner satisfaction so they invent some mumbo jumbo like soul, heritage or whatever to defend their aryan Ãœbermensch masters. Really pathetic.
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post #53 of 59
2/23/11 at 8:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackhood View Post
Over the last 6 years my family has put 240,000 miles on 3 A6's. With one unscheduled dealer visit.

Am I a German fanboy? Yeah I guess. Have I experienced anything other than good things? No.

Anecdotally the bills on the fleet of 10 Lexus's that my dad's staff run have meant that he's never buying another one. All staff are getting VW Passats in March.

Additionally I would buy Aston Martin and Porsche (Used) before an Audi (New) so I wouldn't put myself in a "mindlessly loyal" class.

My personal experiences with Audi's have been nothing like yours. I had constant problems. So did several friends and friends of friends.
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post #54 of 59
2/23/11 at 8:45pm
I'm intrigued as to what you've suffered with. I'm looking at picking up and A4 or A6 used as my next car. My Experience has only been with Brand New cars that get sold at the 80,000 mile mark. All three had the 4.2TDi and were main dealer serviced. (Owned by my Father, I'm not baller enough to be dropping £55k on a car just yet) If I pick up an Audi it will be Petrol and a minimum of 60,000 miles already on the clock. I certainly wont be able to pay Main Dealer prices, though I trust my current mechanic. What kinds of issues did you have? I assumed that most models would perform in the same way, but there is clearly a difference in experiences.
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post #55 of 59
2/23/11 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kookz View Post
I'll take RWD and good snow tires over AWD and all seasons any day.

Sure if you don't mind swapping tires (and storing them). All seasons on AWD give you more then enough control to handle up to a foot (and maybe more) of snow - and without the swap/storage hassle.
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post #56 of 59
2/23/11 at 9:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by deaddog View Post
Sure if you don't mind swapping tires (and storing them). All seasons on AWD give you more then enough control to handle up to a foot (and maybe more) of snow - and without the swap/storage hassle.

It's not really comparable. Snows have far more traction than all-seasons. AWD just gives you the ability to accelerate forward. Turning and especially braking are still determined by the tires and not the drivetrain. And were you really plowing through a foot of snow?

--Andre
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post #57 of 59
2/23/11 at 9:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
It's not really comparable. Snows have far more traction than all-seasons. AWD just gives you the ability to accelerate forward. Turning and especially braking are still determined by the tires and not the drivetrain. And were you really plowing through a foot of snow?

--Andre

I don't think we disagree. Tires are the key and RWD with dedicated snows is better than AWD with all-season. And AWD with dedicated snows is best of all. But, for most of CONUS, AWD with decent all-seasons will be sufficient. And, yes, I'm in chicago and plowed my S8 through a foot just this month with no problem, driving carefully of course. It was a little nutty but more due to the low clearance of my front end then to the inability of the tires to grip.

Now, when it got to 20 inches on the ground I just stayed home and cracked open a nice bottle of Zin.
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post #58 of 59
2/24/11 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PERhodes View Post
Just happened to see this thread back at the top. I ended up buying one last week - 2008 A8L black on black.

Sir has excellent taste. All the cool kids are driving black on black A8s
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post #59 of 59
2/24/11 at 5:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A Y View Post
What tires were on the IS350? Traction control can't do anything if there is no traction to control.

--Andre

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kookz View Post
Yeah, certainly sounds like it would have had summer tires on it. I'll take RWD and good snow tires over AWD and all seasons any day.

Not to derail the Audi love, but the IS350 had Michelin all-weather tires on it, nothing intended for snow. It's North Carolina, so we normally don't get bad snow, and when we do it's like this was, bad for a few days and then gone... not enough to justify switching tires for 3-4 days.

I've just never seen a car with traction control like this IS, and to the best of my efforts to help her, it couldn't be turned off. It seemed determined to eliminate wheel slip entirely, even if the car couldn't move. The engine would rev (it was an automatic) for an instant, but the instant it detected a lack of grip, the revs would to drop to idle. I sat there with my foot to the floor on the gas and the engine ran down to barely idling. Ended up just waiting for the ice to melt. Her husband thought I was an idiot until he tried to move it himself when he got home in his Suburban. He got so angry he decided to dell the IS.
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