old S8 vs new A7 and a S4

[pragmatist]

hello!

im about to buy my first Audi and with little experience in Audi i need some decision help. i've (hopefully) narrowed it down to 3 choices all in great condition.

1: 2007 S8 41k mi, $39k. smoothest, biggest, strongest, no warranty, rarest.

2: 2012 A7 premium plus, 40k mi, $43K. most modern luxury, smallest pwr/wght, sexy looking, only one not at an audi dealer.

3: 2012 S4 premium. 48K mi, $33K. cheapest, under warranty, smallest, least comfortable, least features.

my reasons for buying a car in order are comfort, HP, uniqueness, mechanical piece of mind. the S8 is my favorite but it is most worrying in terms of maintenance cost, and gas mileage.

looking for advice reliability and repair cost (especially the S8), which car is best for the money, what will last the longest, and any other tips of experience.

thanks!

[AnTarbh]

hello!

im about to buy my first Audi and with little experience in Audi i need some decision help. i've (hopefully) narrowed it down to 3 choices all in great condition.

1: 2007 S8 41k mi, $39k. smoothest, biggest, strongest, no warranty, rarest.

2: 2012 A7 premium plus, 40k mi, $43K. most modern luxury, smallest pwr/wght, sexy looking, only one not at an audi dealer.

3: 2012 S4 premium. 48K mi, $33K. cheapest, under warranty, smallest, least comfortable, least features.

my reasons for buying a car in order are comfort, HP, uniqueness, mechanical piece of mind. the S8 is my favorite but it is most worrying in terms of maintenance cost, and gas mileage.

looking for advice reliability and repair cost (especially the S8), which car is best for the money, what will last the longest, and any other tips of experience.

thanks!

The S8 stock is absolutely the most power, but if you get bored with it you can only mod it so much. The other cars have engines that take nicer to mods, so you can increase the power significantly. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you can get more power out of the 3.0T than the engine in the S8 with mods.

As you mentioned the A7 and S4 are more common and therefore should be easier to fix if needed. In any case Audis are great cars and hopefully you will be joining the Audi owner ranks soon enough.

[RoadRage]

hello!

im about to buy my first Audi and with little experience in Audi....mechanical piece of mind....

LOL.

[FormulaElement]

Skip the s8, there maintenance whores. That also seems a little expensive for a car going on 10 years old.

I would get the a7. You can tune the 3.0T to be faster than the v10. It's also the most reliable.

[LINDW4LL]

Take the old S8 off the list, immediately. They are maintenance whores and in reality are not fast despite the claimed power figure. They also suffer from carbon buildup which further robs power as well as causing other issues.

A tuned A7 (or 3.0T A8) is faster than the V10 S8, makes power power, and without any of the reliability issues.

[WasTiSLine]

I was in the exact same boat last year. I had it down between a D3 S8, D4 4.2 swb, and A7 3.0T. I ended up with the 2007 S8. Had it a year so far and never looked back. Such a joy to drive. Love the B&O sound and open wthe windows to hear the big v10 scream past 7000rpm. The car gets a lot of attention at gas stations thinking it's brand new and people even rubber necking on the highway LOL. And that's a problem. She loves gas. 90 liter tank in just over 400km worth of premium. I don't mind, I didn't buy the car to hyper mile. These cars are over engineered and pretty damn stout. And boy have they aged well. This is subjective of course

[4RCFED]

A7, it's comfortable and the 3.0 is a hell of a motor. Torque everywhere and when you get bored just throw a pulley and tune on it.

[pragmatist]

thank you all!

it was a tough choice but i went with the A7. the pulley/tune/(exhaust) puts it beyond the 8 in HP (with a co$t). all the talk about reliability is what got me. did a lot of digging and while there seems to be no hard evidence of issues on the 8, they are both are expensive to repair and the 7 is regarded as the more reliable of the 2. but the sound that lambo V10 makes at 7000rpm...... absolutely intoxicating.

thank you everyone!!!!

[WasTiSLine]

Congrats on your choice, the A7 is an incredible car. There's no wrong choice here. Here is a quick video I made of the S8 accelerating inside and out for the giggles. I plan to cut out my resonators soon to really make it sound great. The 3.0 could never sound as good

[somedude]

I love the D3 S8 but if you are not doing work your self I would be a bit cautious getting into one. I had an 2005 W12 for 3 years and loved it to death. I don't think I would enjoy the power band in a S8 being up top. The W12 has downright violent power if you are not careful with the go pedal in first gear which is just the way I like it. 0 aftermarket on the W12 and S8.

If you were interested in modding for power pull some money together and get a new 4.0T A8 or S6. They are monsters and have a ton of head room for power down the road.

Don't count out the 4.2 A8. They still move out. Often times people assume because it is a base engine it is slow but that is just not the case. They always impress me. For luxury you really can't beat the A8. It is literally in a different class compared to everything else audi makes. I love my audi's but I would strongly consider cross shopping mercedes S class.

If I had to choose from your list I would go S4, s8, and then A7. Many factors go into this for me. A important one being depreciation. The A7 is going to dive prety hard still where the S4 is a S car so it will hold up a little bit better. If you can get a S4 CPO that is key. The S8 you have listed seems really expensive to me but I never look at low mile cars so my knowledge in that range is very limited so that could be a fair price I truely don't know. Just based on what I am seeing coming in the shop you have another 2 years or so before the air ride will have a good chance of needing service. 12 years seems to be about the time I start seeing more of air ride cars for repairs. Can you get into a D4 A8 4.2 for that money with the new ZF8 speed trans? that would probably be faster than a older S8 by a good bit. the 2004-2012? 6hp26 is a solid reliable trans but is slugish compared to the new 8 speed.

[WasTiSLine]

I love the D3 S8 but if you are not doing work your self I would be a bit cautious getting into one. I had an 2005 W12 for 3 years and loved it to death. I don't think I would enjoy the power band in a S8 being up top. The W12 has downright violent power if you are not careful with the go pedal in first gear which is just the way I like it. 0 aftermarket on the W12 and S8.

If you were interested in modding for power pull some money together and get a new 4.0T A8 or S6. They are monsters and have a ton of head room for power down the road.

Don't count out the 4.2 A8. They still move out. Often times people assume because it is a base engine it is slow but that is just not the case. They always impress me. For luxury you really can't beat the A8. It is literally in a different class compared to everything else audi makes. I love my audi's but I would strongly consider cross shopping mercedes S class.

If I had to choose from your list I would go S4, s8, and then A7. Many factors go into this for me. A important one being depreciation. The A7 is going to dive prety hard still where the S4 is a S car so it will hold up a little bit better. If you can get a S4 CPO that is key. The S8 you have listed seems really expensive to me but I never look at low mile cars so my knowledge in that range is very limited so that could be a fair price I truely don't know. Just based on what I am seeing coming in the shop you have another 2 years or so before the air ride will have a good chance of needing service. 12 years seems to be about the time I start seeing more of air ride cars for repairs. Can you get into a D4 A8 4.2 for that money with the new ZF8 speed trans? that would probably be faster than a older S8 by a good bit. the 2004-2012? 6hp26 is a solid reliable trans but is slugish compared to the new 8 speed.

The power on the S8 isn't just on top. The W12 428 pounds of torque at 4000rpm where the S8 is 398 at 3500rpm. And both have over 80% available under 2000rpm and the S8 weighs in quite a bit less(swb and less goodies). When this old dog I have is ready to be put out to pasture, I hope the prices of a 4.0T equipped car are more in my price range. I couldn't imagine the thrust with just a tune..

The D4 4.2 A8 is almost tied with the D3 S8 in 0-60, but slower in the 1/4 by half a second compare to the S8.

[somedude]

The power on the S8 isn't just on top. The W12 428 pounds of torque at 4000rpm where the S8 is 398 at 3500rpm. And both have over 80% available under 2000rpm and the S8 weighs in quite a bit less(swb and less goodies). When this old dog I have is ready to be put out to pasture, I hope the prices of a 4.0T equipped car are more in my price range. I couldn't imagine the thrust with just a tune..

The D4 4.2 A8 is almost tied with the D3 S8 in 0-60, but slower in the 1/4 by half a second compare to the S8.

I don't really have anything to add to what you said, but I can provide my dyno graph on my W12. Both a very powerful cars. I lived with my W12 for 3 years and I have also driven a V10 S6 and seat of the pants delivers a very different powerband, but both are fun.

http://s621.photobucket.com/user/som...6ac7c.jpg.html

[WasTiSLine]

I don't really have anything to add to what you said, but I can provide my dyno graph on my W12. Both a very powerful cars. I lived with my W12 for 3 years and I have also driven a V10 S6 and seat of the pants delivers a very different powerband, but both are fun.

Sure. The S6 weighs almost exactly the same as the S8(steel vs Aluminum) and has less power from different tuning. The S6 should feel slower as it is slower. I'm not detracting from the W12 at all, it's pound for pound one of the best sedans around. I was looking for one but they are more rare than S8's in my neck of the woods LOL

[Kruat]

Watch out for 3.0l oil consumption issues. 2.0l oil consumption is well documented, and 3.0ls are starting to come out. I've heard of dealers already dropping pistons in 3.0l.

Point is, every car has its + and -. The 5.2 v10 isn't the problem on the d3, it's the rest of the car that breaks down and needs fixed. And I'm sure, give the A7 time and issues will start coming about.

But, enjoy the A7, they are pretty sexy rides.

[LINDW4LL]

Nah. The 3.0T has been out for six years now and is in hundreds of thousands of Audis.

I think it's safe to say at this point that oil consumption is a rare issue.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[Kruat]

Well, might be rare, but when I was a tech, audi was already taking steps to help prevent consumption issues on the early 3.0ls. Every one that came in got updates on the pvc system. That was about a year ago. And then we have the waterpump issues on early 3.0ls. Oh, and the fuel rail leaks as well...Just saying, no car is perfect.

[ENV²]

Go with the 2012 S4. Best of that grouping.

[WasTiSLine]

Where's the pics of the A7 you picked? We are waiting here

[Articus]

Congrats on your choice, the A7 is an incredible car. There's no wrong choice here. Here is a quick video I made of the S8 accelerating inside and out for the giggles. I plan to cut out my resonators soon to really make it sound great. The 3.0 could never sound as good

Good god their is just nothing like the sound of a V10 Audi.

[soltez]

Good god their is just nothing like the sound of a V10 Audi.

Chrysler 8.0L V10 (Gen 2 Viper rear exit exhaust) > Lambo 5.2 V10 IMO

[WasTiSLine]

How about after a wee bit of exhaust tuning