Well owning Japanese cars for at least the past 15 years, I finally sold my GT86 in favour of something different. This was March and since then I’ve enjoyed ownership but a few niggles and the first part replacement. Fortunately my warranty covered me and I opted for carrying out the labour myself. Rather know my car is in safe hands.

Suspension was starting to show signs of leaking and one was knocking - all four corners replaced, and what a difference. Ride quality is really good, not having much experience with this car, I found it really nice to work on and the quality of parts and materials is very impressive.

Car feels loads more solid now and doesn’t knock or bounce around, had I driven a few more before I purchased this one maybe I’d noticed, but maybe not....

I’m converted to German machinery, really nice to work on.











#AudiR8

Rob

It's great to hear you like working on them cos you'll be doing that alot

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
It's great to hear you like working on them cos you'll be doing that alot

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I’ve owned quite a few cars over the years and do the work myself.

Was just impressed with the build quality, clearly thought has gone into thinking how it’s going to be worked on.

Audi wanted £600 to fit, so Saturday morning well spent. Enjoyed doing it, only way to learn doing it yourself. Good job R8 isn’t new, they’d insist they had to work on it.

I've mentioned this previously - my daughter left a VW Golf Mk4 GTi behind for me to sell on her behalf when she moved to Australia. That car had a catalogue of faults that were very well known on the VW forum (glass dropped in driver's door, jammed glove compartment, rear washer leaking into rear footwell, etc). This was supposed to be the top-of-the-range Golf, but it was a POS and these faults were very difficult to fix.

Later Skodas and Seats based on the Golf Mk4 chassis had EXACTLY the same faults, so VW obviously couldn't be bothered to rectify them.

Me confused! I gather you are referring to an Audi R8 - which costs as much as a house (size dependent on where you live) and you are impressed by the quality of the parts? How many miles has this car done to need anything replacing - 300,000?

I bought an Audi A6 V8 in mint condition for £500 as the engine "has an issue" still ran ok, but to repair it, bloke in a shed (my tintop maintenance chap) was gonna charge over £3000, most of that just to get the engine out. Bloke who owned the car was put in touch with me and I got it cheap; he then went and got another A6 (but diesel) and within a month the steering rack died and Audi quoted him £1800. Fortunately he got his money back from dealer, then bought a £500 pos (not Audi). I got the Boxster gearbox for my Beetle as engine in sellers car had expired spectacularly.

Have to agree with Steve M, german stuff is seriously overpriced and over rated. I know a chap who heard a BMW motorcycle sales manager refer to BMW as "their bikes are poo but their warranties are great". Same chaps brand new X1000XR was back in dealer within a week.

You pay your money etc...

I'll stick with Rover or Renault as both have always been brill for me.

None of you must have owned a lotus Elise then lol.

I’m just reporting my experience here, from Japanese cars, Celica’s, Auris and GT86, and yes the Audi R8 seems well designed and easy to work on. Remember the donor car for my locost was a Fiat coupe, these are “lovely cars” to work on! I had my GT four at the same time and the difference between the cars was night and day!

My R8 has done 33k, yer disappointing the shocks failed (and I avoided the mag ride option) but I think it was age as much as anything. They should be good now. Any way it’s just my daily and as I’m working from home most of the time it won’t do huge miles over the next few years and it will live a pampered life.

If we all have to go out (with the kids) we take the Landrover. (Can’t criticise me there?) British!



[Edited on 18/8/20 by b14wrc]

How do you know someone has a BMW ?

They tell you,

"ive got a BMW "

Cocks !!!

who else in a a conversation says, ive got a Ford, or Vauxhall, or Chevrolet , Nissan ?? exactly no one

I will admit, that out of all the German car brands, I don't mind Audi A8/Q7, are of the best cars ive driven, except the Bentley Continentals, but I could never own one, they are in a different class

I forgot to add, that the Porsches we have, we are not allowed to take them to the garage, they have to be collected from our site, in a fully covered unbranded trailer, about 3-4 a month, again zero to very low mileage

The Ferrari's however, ive not heard of any issues, but will check

says it all really, and this is on BRAND new zero mileage cars

steve

Bentley Continental - the only car where you have to take the engine and transmission out to change the spark plugs.

I'm glad you got such a nice car I hope you enjoy it immensely and I still think it's a much better purchase than a Ferrari etc

Doing most of the jobs yourself should make a huge difference in the running costs, maybe try to get hold of a Audi workshop manual and a good diagnostic reader. I think the trick with these kinds of cars is to keep on top of the maintenance and not let anything slip.

I think before I'd have put the new shocks on I'd have given them another coat of paint as it's clearly not enough going by the old set. Tbh I'm a bit underwhelmed by them, I'd have expected nice alloy adjustable coilovers like we have on the 7's but they just look like series landrover shocks with springs on them (I'm sure their not...)



[Edited on 19/8/20 by Mr Whippy]

They are Bilstine.

But yer I know what you mean, if I was paying for them myself I would have gone for some coil overs, cheaper. But there are mixed reports on ride quality. So thought restore it to factory and then take it from there. The Gallardo that shares the chassis has adjustable versions of what I have. But getting ahold of them is not easy. Mine came from Audi, can’t get them any where else.

I think it’s a decent way to spend the money, prices have almost bottomed and with the Gen 2 cars all being Auto, the manual gear box should help retain value for the future. Plus it’s an absolute joy to drive, going from 200bhp rear drive to 420bhp 4wd (mainly rear) is quite a change. It makes you feel special and is almost the Lamborghini but a load cheaper to live with and run.

Guess it’s just what your into. I’m still expecting the locost to be crazier than my R8.....

Totally agree on keeping on top of stuff, noted a few bits when I did the shocks, oil cooler was partly blocked with soil, got that cleaned out to avoid issues, not sure the dealer would have bothered.

Rob

Stunning car, great work getting stuck in on the maintenance, you'll enjoy it a lot and fingers crossed it doesn't throw you a big bill. Not sure it was meant to be a how reliable and what money pits german cars are though lol. I'd love to have a drive of one.

My input, I like Audi's as my daily drives, I want to like BMWs as they are/were better to drive but had no joy with recent ones since I sold my very reliable K reg 3 series about 17 years ago. Not had a VW since my Mk2 sirocco that was bomb proof.

Thanks Mike, the tread wasn’t supposed to be a rant about German cars no....

I was just sharing some recent experience and was pleasantly surprised with the design.

Thanks re the car. I’m really happy with it generally, needs a couple of bits but will be done over the next few years. It’s a nice overall package the 4.2litre V8 and the manual box. It’s quick enough for me at the moment and appears to attract less hate than other super cars.

Sorry - didn't mean to rant!

Whatever I've said previously - I'd still wouldn't mind a drive in an R8 as they're lovely looking cars that, I'm sure, are tremendous to drive.

I just have a downer on VAG!

i like German cars they look so much better than that jap shit

I like German cars too, VAG brands in particular. Driven them for many years both as company and private cars. Always been reliable for me as well.

Slight gripe with Passat B6 IRS in that it wore the rear tyres to a saw tooth on the inner edges. I think other manufacturers IRS cars possibly exhibit similar tendencies though so no buggy. Decent tyres seemed to overcome the issue to some extent as well.

Did the Honda Civic do that saw tooth thing with it’s tyres?

No worries, every one has their own taste. It’s my first VAG car, and I’ve been lucky enough to get a gen 1 R8, people have asked what I’d get next and although I love the Gallardo (LP 560-4 Supperleggera = dream car), with the overall experience so far owning this car I’d honestly consider another R8, just back from a quick blast, first time I’ve really driven it in the dark and it’s awesome.

I’ve been into Japanese cars for year when I first got my Celica GT4 but when considering replacing my GT86 with the new Supra, I just wasn’t that impressed with it for an out lay bigger than the cost of a good used R8 and the Supra is underneath actually a BMW, just put me off. Oh and no manual option.

I wouldn't swap my BMW M140i for any of the other pieces of crap that are on the market. People are only jealous because most are poor and can't afford quality

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Originally posted by steve m

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
It's great to hear you like working on them cos you'll be doing that alot

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HAHA

And when the bills come in, there immense!

Ive said this before, many many times, my job was !! delivering brand new cars to customers for non fault insurance claims, and on fleet we have Honda's BMW, Mercs, seat, volvo, Bentley, etc and many more variants,

The only garage that I have been to with a brand new car, or extremely low mileage car is BMW, and out of a five day shift, have been to the same Bmw garage 3-4 times, a week, normaly take a busted one in, and bring a crap on out, and these are 2019/20 cars, brand new, or under 12000 miles, when we scrap them, (only in my dreams)

Ive never been to Honda, Seat, Volvo, Nissan, nor any of the other manufactures Garages, nor has any of my drivers

BMW stands for overated, overpriced, and overhere

Just saying, as I wouldn't own, a piece of German engineering, if it was the last thing on the road,

steve

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Interesting thread and love the R8. Also love the idea of working on one yourself and debunking myths that you can't do that on cars like that.

Re German cars, Of all the cars I've owned over the years the 2007 A6 I had new was both the most disappointing and least reliable/worst built car of them all. Disappointing because it was the first "premium" brand car I'd had after years of Vauxhall and Ford plus a few Renaults so I expected more. The 2.0tdi was agriculturally rough, the clutch always juddered (maybe you are supposed to go auto?) and it just felt unpleasant to drive. In two years of ownership (so pleased I only had a two year contract hire so it was always in warranty) it spent 13 weeks in the garage. That also worked out well for me as 7 weeks of that was in one block and I put 12,000 miles on their courtesy car in that 7 weeks that would have put me over my lease mileage limit otherwise! Even the courtesy car (also almost new A4) broke down and had to be recovered and replaced with another. It seems the car came from the factory with a missing piston ring but even after they replaced it it was still rough and used LOTS of oil. The dual mass flywheel needed aslo replacing. One of the window motors failed, the central locking controller failed, the sat nav failed, the CD changer failed, the ABS pump failed, the carpet wasn't installed properly and came loose around the pedals, some other bits of trim came loose and buzzed/vibrated. It was by a long way the worst car I've ever had and I'll never go near Audi again. It may have just been a Friday afternoon car but modern quality control shouldn't allow that to happen.

Maybe not how Audi would change the header tank.....

You're working on an R8 - it's not your average German car. And it's shiny new with no real corrosion.

Come back when it's done 200K miles

"glass dropped in driver's door" - our Golf GTi did that with regularity!

"rear washer leaking into rear footwell" My brand new Passat did that!

From my experience of VWs they are a bit like 1970s Italian cars - great engines but the rest isn't up to scratch.

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Originally posted by SJ
"glass dropped in driver's door" - our Golf GTi did that with regularity!

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