If I was generously wealthy and not as young as I am Yes.
But I am neither of those things so I'm afraid not.

 

I am not wealthy, by any stretch and don't even get the age correlation.
I love cars, so I buy used exotics and do the work myself....otherwise I'd simply have access to boring "transportation". Including original purchase price (with 2.5 yrs of warranty remaining), costs me less than owning a Ford Taurus and takin it to the dealership for service.
Aged beef or fresh spam.

 

I've owned Audi's since 1987. They are the best winter car out there. I have never been stuck and have seen many cars off the road or spinning their wheels. My 1996 A6 held up very well. But, my 2004 A6Q is another story. I have replaced one of the catalytic converters (there are 2!!), the power steering pump, and the radiator between miles 80 and 86K. I have never had to replace these parts on any of my other Audi's. Any thoughts?

 

Yes...Get an A8 ...completely different animal. After driving/owning an A8, A6's are a huge disappointment.

 

I've owned a 2001 A8 for about a year and a half now, and I strongly suspect I might never own anything other than an A8 again. I drive over 500 miles a week to work, half of the year through snow and ice and this car has amazed me by some of the crap that it has bulldozed it's way through.
Some may be put off by maintenance costs, but I'm reasonably handy with a wrench and have found any work that I've done on this car to be surprisingly simple and straight forward. Having owned and worked on a couple of Euro cars I don't ever want to have to work on a Japanese car again, and obviously the longer I own an A8 the better I'll get to know my way around it.
Every so often I start to think about my next car, I research my options and weigh up all the pros and cons, and I just keep on ending up back at the A8.

 

Now that alot of the country is in the middle of a snow storm I look foward to hearing more about these cars and would you buy Audi again?

 

I have a 2000 2.7 that I've had for 5 years. I've probably spent as much money on maintenance and repair as I spent for the car since I've had it. I love the car and the quattro, but I would never buy another audi again, especially for an everyday driver.

 

That's the issue. Should use by a used A6Q at 50K and hope the next 50K will have reasonable costs. I think the A8 is out of site for working people who do not do their own work. I think the A6 from 1998-2004 may have maintenance issues and might be very VW like.

 

99 A8. Car is incredible in all conditions. I have smelled oil when I put the car away hot and yesterday I was 225 miles out of town and something bad happened. I punched it in traffic and at the next light I smelled oil and saw smoke. It's leaking oil at the rear of the motor, it seems. I checked the oil after it cooled and it was fine. I drove it home, stopping to check the oil periodically. Oil on dipstick never dropped but bottom of car is covered. Also, started leaking water at rear of motor on each side, slow drips. Temp stayed in range and reservoir was normal.

After some reading, it sounded like it could be the camshaft position sensor cover gaskets, but the water leak contradicts that, or at least doesn't support it. I did have the climate control set to 'auto' and I'm wondering if the AC could have kicked on and caused the dripping, but it was 2 sources of dripping. Could it be a head gasket? Any other ideas out there?

I am brand new to AudiForums.

 

If not losing engine oil, the oil you see could be ATF coming from front seal (behind torque converter)...no easy way to check ATF level (involved and NO dipstick for it). Also could be gear oil dripping from center differential onto left cat converter...common problem with leaking output flange seal where drive shaft connects to trans...actually center diff attached the rear of trans.

AC runs as part of climate control air mixture if set to Auto, any time temp is above 40 F...has 2 drains, one on each side of center console.

If you don't seem to losing engine oil or coolant, the above are more likely sources.