I am looking at purchasing a 1999 Audi A8 with the 4.2 under the hood. I know for the most part that the plugs, water pump, and timing belt all need to be changed by 80k or so, and the car that I am looking at is a third owner, with all the maintenance records including the above all done at 70k. The car shifts perfect through all gears including reverse which I am well aware of. I have owned many volkswagens and one 1999 audi a4 2.8 quattro in the past, are there any other major things I should be looking for? What bout the cv joints, motor mounts, rotors etc? The car at hand has 130k but from what I hear with the maintenance done this is fine he is asking 5600 or best offer, you can see the car here, thanks in advance guys and hopefully I will soon be a regular of these forums and back to VAG world..
-Jami
http://http://louisville.craigslist.org/cto/913933855.html

 

Anyone is these forums? I cant seem to get a hold of anyone on vwvortex either.

 

Well he's either lying about the fuel mileage or he's an idiot. No 4.2L V8 gets 26mpgs, not even the direct injected FSI 4.2L.
Well everything on your list is good, if the tranny is working good i wouldn't take that info straight to the bank, if you buy it get the tranny immediately serviced by audi.
Things like motor mounts, cv boots, brake rotors go bad yes, they are all wear items, but they don't have any specific problems. For CV boots look at the inner wheel for any grease that may have flung out of the boot, check to the see if the motor mounts are leaking hydraulic fluid (red fluid) and make sure the brake pedal doesn't pulse when braking. Other than that i think you are getting a pretty good deal.

 

yeah... so here's my 2 cents. i agree with everything auditech has to say on the A8. downside to it all is that i would suggest a post-facelift A8 above the pre-facelift. as far as the gas mileage goes, yes it is possible to get 26 mpg on my car, but the only way is if i'm driving at 60 mph lightly giving it gas over a steady rate throughout the entire trip. me, on the highway, i usually only get around 21-23 mpg on the highway driving around 65... but since i'm usually around 85-100mph on the highway i'd say you're really looking at around 19-20 mpg max at those speeds. city driving is a whole different story... on my daily driving i usually only get 16-17mpg at an average speed of 24 mph over a 35-40 minute trip through average traffic.

 

Yea I would love to have the post-facelift A8 but you pay a premium for those..At least here in tennessee you do, VAG cars are hard to find around here. One more question, at one price would you guys say that this car is a steal? I think I can get it for 4,000 as he just dropped the price to 5.

 

I have never seen any A8 go for 5k but of course im in california. I wouldn't offer him less than 4.5k, it would **** me off if any lower than that if i were the owner.

 

Yea, I need to start exporting cars from down here to over in cali, oregon and seattle.. They can be bought for so cheap here.

 

Yea, $4.5k sounds about right. Maybe if you offer $4.5k and ask for something else to be thrown in you can get another hundred or two off the price, but I doubt it unless the current owner is just in a really bad situation. Most A8 owners generally don't want to part with their cars anyway.