Today, you can buy a supremely luxurious Audi with a powerful and economical V8 diesel for the price of a poor Octavia

These cars rang a bell, one of them disappeared from sale a few years ago, even though they were ideals of their kind. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have them. You can. And in this version, they really represent a lot of music for good money.

The year 2020 remains written in very black letters in the minds of fans of large diesel engines. However extremely unlikely it was after all the previous steps, there was still at least a theoretical hope that one of the diesel V8s would survive the current decades. It didn’t happen. The Vé-eights ended up in Land Rovers, Audis, and finally the hope that he would stay at least in the Volkswagen Touareg was extinguished. And those were just some of the last Mohicans, earlier such engines were offered by BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Toyota and others.

However, eight-cylinder diesels will not disappear from the face of the earth any time soon due to the exodus from the offers of new passenger cars in Europe. If nothing else, they will continue to be bought in used cars produced so far, of which there are not so many on the market. Sure, there will be fewer of them, but in another 5 years they will be easy to find in promising condition. It is also shown in the piece that we will present to you today. It’s far from the only interesting example of this car available today, but this one is likable in that it’s unusually little driven, superbly specified, has a clear history and doesn’t cost a fortune.

It is the Audi A8 of the previous generation, which, to be honest, I never really liked visually. In particular, its large headlights with strange interior graphics hinted that this car was not going to be pretty when it got old. It’s just my opinion, but I feel that it seems paradoxically better today. It is a measured, relatively inconspicuous car in appearance, but perhaps that is why it is still chic, unlike, for example, the BMW 7 series, which with its crazy looks seem to be wearing the towel after a few years.

But make up your own mind about the design, the most interesting thing about this car is the technology and its top diesel 4.2 V8 TDI. It is a generation older engine than the one that waved a scarf at us from under the hoods of “concern” cars last year, but it still had and still has a lot to offer. The output of up to 351 hp makes it one of the most powerful production diesels in passenger cars, which can operate in the A8 with a combined consumption of 7.4 liters of diesel per 100 km. In a truly luxurious carriage, it is a unique combination, especially with dynamics that are not in vain – a hundred under 5 seconds and a maximum limited to the mandatory 250 km/h? A lot of would-be sports cars will have a problem with these numbers even today, they will have twice the consumption and the driving comfort will not even be talked about.

The particular car in front of us today is from 2010, so it is not exactly young, but it has only 91 thousand kilometers in the hands of two owners. That’s really not much, for such a mileage swallower, it’s something like 10 thousand kilometers from the capture of a regular car. Finally, we once saw this exact version for sale with 855,000 km, which still did not look like a write-off. In addition, this is a regularly serviced and obviously sensitively used piece, you would look for signs of more wear on the car in vain.

The car is very well equipped, even by the standards of an eight-cylinder A8. There are not only some “luxury essentials” such as massage ventilated seats, but also a night vision system, on-board TV and about 20 other gadgets reserved for top-class cars. But the essence of the car, its technology and little wear and tear are just as important. And to top it all off, there’s a nice price.

Such cars were sold new for between 3 and 4 million CZK, but this one is now for sale for 26,990 Euros, i.e. about 660,000 CZK. Sure, it’s far from nothing, but it’s a fraction of the original price with still good prospects for many years of continued use. And 660,000 for all the above and with an engine that can boast of high dynamics and acceptable operating costs? We would like to say, but for that kind of money today you can only buy a poor basic Octavia Combi, nothing more. Sure, he’ll still need enough courage to reach for a 13-year-old A8 for that kind of money, but you know how it is – if you don’t play, you won’t win, everyone can drive an Octavia to death…

You can deal with the end of eight-cylinder diesels in Europe in your own way, for example by buying an Audi A8 4.2 TDI. This, despite a large drop in value and 13 years in the world in the hands of two owners, did not drive much. Photo: Autohaus Mitfari, published with permission

Source: Autohaus [email protected]

Peter Miller

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