Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Audi A8
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I called my dealer yesterday, and my car has been built and is expected in the states in one to two weeks. That is very acceptable to me (although I would like to have it yeasterday!!).
The rental was a bit of misadventure. When we arrived at the Hertz office, they informed me that no A6 had come in yet, but I could have any other "prestige" level car they had and $100.00 off the final price.
They offered a Jag S series, I asked for the XJ8, which they did not have (they did list the Audi A8l, but that one never shows up there).
I settled for the Volvo S80, which I have rented before, and was very hapy with it, but it was not what I had expected. All in all, it was okay, and I ended up saving over $200 with the differnece in cost and the "sorry" from Hertz.
Great weekend with the granddaughter. Barney is fine and still purple....
(e)
I called my dealer yesterday, and my car has been built and is expected in the states in one to two weeks. That is very acceptable to me (although I would like to have it yeasterday!!).
The rental was a bit of misadventure. When we arrived at the Hertz office, they informed me that no A6 had come in yet, but I could have any other "prestige" level car they had and $100.00 off the final price.
They offered a Jag S series, I asked for the XJ8, which they did not have (they did list the Audi A8l, but that one never shows up there).
I settled for the Volvo S80, which I have rented before, and was very hapy with it, but it was not what I had expected. All in all, it was okay, and I ended up saving over $200 with the differnece in cost and the "sorry" from Hertz.
Great weekend with the granddaughter. Barney is fine and still purple....
(e)
It was an impulse purchase since my S500 is in the shop for the third time, for an oil and transmission leak. Did i do ok? And is there anything i should be worried about?
One thing that i did buy was a tire plan, for 2900$ it covers my alignment, bulbs, windows, and they will replace my tires every 10,000 miles (regardless of wear), i have 19's and discount tire told me one set of tires will run me roughly 1750$.
Look forward to y'all's input
Good luck!
What color, etc.??
(e)
What's even better is that at $123k(minus 13k off the sticker at $110k), this car is CHEAPER than the Mercedes($157k) and the Bimmer($127k). The last time a bought an Audi was way back in '86. I was hesitant because I was one of the owners who experienced the "sudden acceleration". It scared the stew out of me and I opted not to buy from Audi again. But all has changed now.
I thought that the car would ride harshly because of the 20" wheels but in fact it rides better than the Bimmer and Merc. This car deserves more attention than it is getting. I'm driving from Long Island to the Rose Bowl(GO LONGHORNS!!!!!!) shortly and I'll post how well the car performs on the open road.:)
P.S.- Both BMW and Mercedes can take lessons from Audi on how to integrate all of the controls through MMI. i-Drive and COMAND are useless when it comes to MMI. 1 up for AUDI ona job well done.
I did find one gripe.... With 16-way power front seats it sure did take a long time to find a comfortable driving position( about 3 mins), but other than that everything about this car is polish and poise.
Did you get the wheel protection plan? My plan cost me roughly $4K because Audi of NorthAmerica says that 20" tires need replacing every 9500 miles no matter what the wear is on them. I thought the price was well worth it seeing how on my '05 Dodge Ram 1500 HEMI with the 20" wheel option I was out of about $1200 just for tires. I'm pretty sure the A8 tires will be way more expensive because of the certain tire that is required. They also said that the price is more over the 18's and 19's because the 20" wheel is more prone to "bending". I checked out the price of 1 20" W-12 wheel and they're about $784 a piece. So $4k is well worth the price of avoiding all of the road hazards that we New Yorkers experience.
The seat is extremely comfortable(one of the best in the business) but there are so many adjustments that it takes a while to get it just right. Oh, I found out this morning that the seat heaters turn into ovens if you're not careful(OUCH)
The car is white ext/oat interior with bird-eye maple wood veneer(special order). It's a gorgeous combo. My wife now wants me to take her CLS55 after bashing my Audi because it's too "ordinary". Well I'm sorry if I don't want to bang my head on the roof of the car everytime I enter/exit. Oh, but one ride changed her mind after seeing how the Audi soaks up bumps in the road that Merc transmit into the interior. Sorry toots, but the Audi is MINE.
P.S.- Did you get the free maintanence service plan? I checked out some of the service interval prices(especially the W-12), long story short, thank Heavens Audi saved us from wallet execution for 4yrs/50000 miles.
The CLS55 ordinary? Uh...ok...I'll have politely disagree with that.
I saw one of these A8L W12s at the Detroit autoshow this past Jan and it has a 27K "Quattro GmBh" special build package which turned the already stunning inteior the A8 into the best I've ever seen this side of a Maybach or Rolls. I had contrasting piping and some type of leather I hadn't heard of before (the name escapes me). Anyway please stick around and keep us informed on your experiences with what is an extraordinary car.
M
I heard of the package that you're referring to, and after careful consideration, it proved a bit to glitzy for me. I think the stately Audi interior is impressive as is.
P.S.- What type of MB do you own? I'm interested in hearing if any previous and present owners or excited about the new S550. I still have a question mark looming???????????
P.S.- The Quattro is SUPREME!! Not once did I slip and slide last night in the snow. This car was dead ahead like a bullet, better than some SUV's. Only when you mash the gas pedal ever-so-slightly does the Quattro take a millisecond to compute how much traction is needed. I tried very hard to break traction by doing full out acceleration runs, still no slips just straight foward getaways. And the brakes....... marvelous, yes even beating the 760
No MB for me just yet.
I'd ask on the S-Class board about the new S550. I personally like the car a lot - pending an in person review in about a month at Detroit.
M
So, just wondering what others have thought about theirs, especially since many A8's don't come with it pre-ordered.
//J
I appreciate the heads-up from Merc. He mentioned that there hasn't been a 12 cylinder car owner on the post in a while so it was great I could ablige.
P.S.- did your car not come with roadside assist? Onstar? If I breakdown, between roadside assist or Onstar I should be taken care of.
Very disappointed- stay away....
How is your baby doing? I've been reading your posts and all seems fine, yes??
(e)
(e)
There are only 2 W-12's registered on LI, mine and a newly aquired one, so it's probably the same people were talking about.
P.S.- Hope you enjoy your new Audi. What color combo did you go with? wheel option? Hope you went with the 17's or 18's because I got the 20's on my W-12 and no one makes snow tires for them, only 20" SUV/Truck snow tires. Ended up going to the Audi dealership and buying a set of the 17's for the A8L and getting snow tires from tirerack.com. I took the 20's off and will be putting them back on when we get warmer weather next year.
I see your other half has a CLS. My boss has one, and he loves it, but he prefers his "bad weather car"...a VW Phaeton. His wife has a 2-year old A8L, and that is what convinced me to go for the Audi. I looked carefully at the VW, but the handling and "feel" was much better (for me) on the Audi.
Anyway, any day now.....
(e)
Your color combo was my second choice if I couldn't get the white pearl/oat combo. That green is a very deep color. It's gotta be a least 5 coats.
The V-Dub may be on the same basic design as the Audi, but the 2 cars are so different, like my twin brother and myself. He likes Harley's and tattoos, I drive an Audi and am clean-cut. Go figure. The Phaeton is a well rounded car in that it does everything it is supposed to do. But it has this "disengaged" feeling that's absent in the A8. But those automatic closing vents are so sool tho................
I was in your shoes about 2 weeks ago saying any day now, so I know how it feels. It'll be here before you know it.:D
Paul was very disappointed that the Phaeton will not be available in the W12 when his lease is up on the V8 he has. He says he is going for a 12, and is in love with his Phaeton. The S8 is no for him since he has the CLS55 for "sportin'" stuff.
..I saw the Green at Biener when I ordered it. It was not the exact color since it was in an A6, but it had to be pretty close. I ordered the car in green with ameretto, then called and changed to the lighter interior. The dealer said it was "too light" in the cream-beige, but since the car is handwashed every few weeks anyway, it costs the same to clean brown as white.
(e)
As far as the fridge goes, thanks but not thanks.
So how is your car so far? All okay with it?
I'm thinking of hiring a chauffeur(lol) to drive me around because today I was messing around in the car and just so happen to get in the backseat because I've never sat back there, and all I can say is WOW. The power recliners and the massage works miracles, even better than the front seats. I called my Audi guy and told him about the rear seat and he mentioned that in countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland and others that the Audi and BMW's are the most requested cars by the elite because the rear seat beats some limos. IMO, a $400K Maybach or a $110K Audi? I would definetely have to say Audi. I had a Maybach 57 for a week at Nantucket last year and the seating in the Audi is just as good. Given that the Audi doesn't offer nearly as many gadgets as the Maybach, it's a good place to lean back and read a book or look at the DVD/SAT TV screens or just go to sleep.
I guess since we are preferred customers of Mercedes that they offered me the Maybach that week in hopes of me purchasing it. I don't think so. So they sweetened the deal today and offered to send me Maclaren SLR today straight to my Oyster Bay, LI home driveway. Of course I accepted. This car is lightning fast, and @ $600K it had better be. HOWEVER, while talking to my Audi guy, he says that the Audi Lemans supercar will be available "sooner than I think". This is the car that is said to put Ferrari, Lambo, and Mercedes to shame. So in other words, he was trying to thwart my purchase of the SLR. I told him don't get his undies in a bunch, I'm just leading Mercedes on.
M