D3 3.0 TDI buying advice tips?

[The_IMF]

Hi guys,

I sold my 2001 D2 A8 a while ago now due to:

a) It absolutely caining petrol
b) Random sillyness going wrong with it for example; mirrors that just randomly decided to fold up and refused to fold down while driving! Scary! Especially when they started to flap up and down for no reason while I was driving on a motorway and needed to change lanes!

I've been driving a 2.3 v5 Passat since getting rid of the Audi... but I miss the big size of the A8.

I'm looking at some 2004/5 A8 3.0 TDI's as they're quite reasonably priced for the amount of car that you get.

Can someone give me tips on what I should be looking out for when checking these cars out? i.e. what is likely to cause me the biggest grief?

Is it worth getting the AA or RAC in to do a quick check on the car?

Should I be concerned if the mileage is around the 130K mark for a diesel or should I aim for below 100K?

Do people report good MPG on the motorway with these beasts?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[slabber]

I've just bought a pre-facelift 2007 3.0 TDI and the computer (not necessarily accurate!!) is showing 33 mpg for my 60-mile round trip to work which is a mix of motorway (66%) and country lanes (34%).

In terms of what to look out for I'm sure other longer-term owners will be able to chime in with problems that can cause big bills. My focus on my recent purchase was on getting the options I wanted. Bluetooth phone prep and BOSE were the main ones however I waited / found a car which also has DAB radio, advanced parking with reversing camera (love it), heated comfort seats with memory (would never opt for anything less in the future), power close boot lid (something of a gimmick perhaps but makes me smile) and adaptive xenons with coming/leaving home function (superb, great for dark country lanes). I've retro-fitted AMI (for iPod / USB connectivity) and a universal USB charger (integrates with phone prep unit under arm rests) for my Nexus 4 (or other smartphones with Micro USB-B) for an eye-watering cost. Some options weren't available at launch (eg Bluetooth was from Aug 2006) and if this sort of thing is important it's worth paying a couple of quid for the Parker's fact sheet which has all the options listed. My other focus was on ride quality so the SE (rather than Sport) was fine for me.

Just to complete the picture my car had 88k on the clock and full dealer history. I'm sure a higher mileage car that has sat on the motorway for most of its life would be a good bet if it has full service history.

For the record I am completely smitten by my purchase. Despite the fact that the power boot close motor stopped working today. lol

[snapdragon]

I bought mine exactly two years ago. A A8L Feb -06.
I was looking for an £6ish A6, but they were all clocked dogs owned by eastern europeans or romanian gypsies.
Then I saw a lovely black A8L and the screen price was only £7999 and I negotiated £7800, the dealer went bust and closed a few days later, so he probably wanted the cash for his back pocket. It was much better than the A6s I had my heart set on which now seemed rather basic.

Common ailments are the timing chain tensioners rattling on startup - saw this a lot on the A6s I looked at.
Chocolate diesel injectors - white smoke idle when hot and poor mpg, can cause damage eventually, budget at least £1,000.
DPF, later ones (2006-on) with DPF can need new DPF or hollowing out and new software.
Air suspension can be expesnive to fix if it fails but rarely goes wrong.

Running costs for me for things such as services and brakes have been similar to the Passat I had, quite low.

All in all, I heartily recommend, but if you are a DIYer, a copy of VCDS, interface cable and old laptop is a must.

[The_IMF]

I bought mine exactly two years ago. A A8L Feb -06.
I was looking for an £6ish A6, but they were all clocked dogs owned by eastern europeans or romanian gypsies.
Then I saw a lovely black A8L and the screen price was only £7999 and I negotiated £7800, the dealer went bust and closed a few days later, so he probably wanted the cash for his back pocket. It was much better than the A6s I had my heart set on which now seemed rather basic.

Common ailments are the timing chain tensioners rattling on startup - saw this a lot on the A6s I looked at.
Chocolate diesel injectors - white smoke idle when hot and poor mpg, can cause damage eventually, budget at least £1,000.
DPF, later ones (2006-on) with DPF can need new DPF or hollowing out and new software.
Air suspension can be expesnive to fix if it fails but rarely goes wrong.

Running costs for me for things such as services and brakes have been similar to the Passat I had, quite low.

All in all, I heartily recommend, but if you are a DIYer, a copy of VCDS, interface cable and old laptop is a must.

I've got a copy of VCDS, the cable and my laptop is pretty old (updated to a solid state hard drive though so it's pretty speedy!) and I still have the Audi/VW DVDs with Elsawin on there so yeah I do DIY quite a bit (i.e. changed all my Passat's discs and pads and have changed both the control arms on the wife's 3 series).

Timing chain tensioners... now there's something that I wouldn't like to touch!

Not too concerned about the DPF as most A8's have been cruising up and down motorways (then again every seller has told me that and A8 owners seem to only drive them on motorways so maybe I'm being gullible!).

Thanks for the tips!

[The_IMF]

I've just bought a pre-facelift 2007 3.0 TDI and the computer (not necessarily accurate!!) is showing 33 mpg for my 60-mile round trip to work which is a mix of motorway (66%) and country lanes (34%).

In terms of what to look out for I'm sure other longer-term owners will be able to chime in with problems that can cause big bills. My focus on my recent purchase was on getting the options I wanted. Bluetooth phone prep and BOSE were the main ones however I waited / found a car which also has DAB radio, advanced parking with reversing camera (love it), heated comfort seats with memory (would never opt for anything less in the future), power close boot lid (something of a gimmick perhaps but makes me smile) and adaptive xenons with coming/leaving home function (superb, great for dark country lanes). I've retro-fitted AMI (for iPod / USB connectivity) and a universal USB charger (integrates with phone prep unit under arm rests) for my Nexus 4 (or other smartphones with Micro USB-B) for an eye-watering cost. Some options weren't available at launch (eg Bluetooth was from Aug 2006) and if this sort of thing is important it's worth paying a couple of quid for the Parker's fact sheet which has all the options listed. My other focus was on ride quality so the SE (rather than Sport) was fine for me.

Just to complete the picture my car had 88k on the clock and full dealer history. I'm sure a higher mileage car that has sat on the motorway for most of its life would be a good bet if it has full service history.

For the record I am completely smitten by my purchase. Despite the fact that the power boot close motor stopped working today. lol

33mpg sounds good to me! A 90% trip on the motorway in my Passat is telling me 33mpg!

The car you're describing sounds exactly what I'm looking for... the only issue is that a fully loaded pre 2007 facelift costs about the same as a half loaded post 2007 face lift (late 2007). Is it worth getting the post 2007? I think it's definitely worth the post 2005 face lift as they look so much nicer. Have only seen one advertised with a reversing camera though and they're about 2K more dear than ones without.

Interesting about the comfort seats... I had the sports seats in my old A8 and found them really comfy but I have been reading that others have been raving about the comfort seats too. This changes everything. I've only been looking at cars that have had the sports seats! I guess I should open my mind a bit more.

For me the main usage will be when I drive up to Birmingham and back from London to see the in laws. I just need a motorway cruiser with a big boot (for the baby's pram), ride comfort and a good sound system (bose for me always).

Main issue for me is to make sure I don't buy a lemon. I remember how many issues I had with my old A8!

[snapdragon]

What Passat do you have? B5.5? This is what I had before the A8.
It was a damn good car in retrospect.

I would really reaserach the options and check them, as it's very tempting to retrofit those you don't have which is a waste of money, especially now thee cars are getting cheaper but the second-hand parts prices remain the same.

[The_IMF]

What Passat do you have? B5.5? This is what I had before the A8.
It was a damn good car in retrospect.

I would really reaserach the options and check them, as it's very tempting to retrofit those you don't have which is a waste of money, especially now thee cars are getting cheaper but the second-hand parts prices remain the same.

Yes the B5.5! It's an 02 plate black V5 which was a distant cousins company car which he bought personally and then sold onto me. Only got 74k on the clock which is fairly decent for a car that old but mostly because I'm destroying my wifes 316 which is pretty good on petrol!

I want to avoid retrofitting completely. I've gone that route in a previous car before and worked out that it costs a lot more to retrofit than it does to already have it fitted.

Should I be concerned about mileage on these A8s? I've seen some bargain cars but they're about 150K miles on the clock!

i.e. a fully loaded 2008 A8 3.0 TDI with 140K on the clock is £10K or I can get a 2006 fully loaded 3.0 TDI with sub 100K on the clock for £10k. Then again if I really wanted to be cheap I've seen a 2008 with 180K on the clock which isn't quite fully loaded but it has plenty of extras for less than £8K!

Having a baby limits me to many viewings unfortunately and don't want to waste time travelling 100's of miles to find a dud!

[The_IMF]

Interesting... Private sellers selling as much as trade sellers and parkers car check tells me that every car on auto trader is about £2k too expensive.

[slabber]

Have you adjusted for options? I did this using the valuation tool (CAP) on AutoTrader (more options listed IIRC) and worked out that the price I was paying from a Jaguar main dealer was just below the middle of the valuation range.

Just to be clear, I haven't actually compared the comfort of "comfort seats" against the standard ones which I'm sure are excellent. I suspect though that having had comfort seats I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less in the future.

The 2007 pre/post-facelift question was one that I faced. In the end I decided that a pre model with all the options I wanted was a better fit for my budget, especially as I was retrofitting AMI and the universal phone cradle (£28 USB cable possibly not needed though - buy cradle first and check with a standard cable with your phone first) and buying a couple of warranty packages.

Not sure about the mileage question - but somebody must be buying these cars. Is there a mileage where if a common problem hasn't appeared it probably isn't going to? I'm cautious and bought at 88k with FDSH and a 1-year extended Jaguar warranty. If anything is going to go wrong fingers crossed it will be in the first year...

[The_IMF]

Have you adjusted for options? I did this using the valuation tool (CAP) on AutoTrader (more options listed IIRC) and worked out that the price I was paying from a Jaguar main dealer was just below the middle of the valuation range.

Just to be clear, I haven't actually compared the comfort of "comfort seats" against the standard ones which I'm sure are excellent. I suspect though that having had comfort seats I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less in the future.

The 2007 pre/post-facelift question was one that I faced. In the end I decided that a pre model with all the options I wanted was a better fit for my budget, especially as I was retrofitting AMI and the universal phone cradle (£28 USB cable possibly not needed though - buy cradle first and check with a standard cable with your phone first) and buying a couple of warranty packages.

Not sure about the mileage question - but somebody must be buying these cars. Is there a mileage where if a common problem hasn't appeared it probably isn't going to? I'm cautious and bought at 88k with FDSH and a 1-year extended Jaguar warranty. If anything is going to go wrong fingers crossed it will be in the first year...

Just seen your pics again; the ones you refer to as comfort seats are what I refer to as the sports ones. I've seen ads with "comfort seats" and they are the standard looking ones.

I think I'm thinking more like you in that a 2006/7 fully loaded may be better than a 2007/8 fully loaded. Good point about the extra's. I was using the parkers text car check and wasting £1.50 every time.

As for the mileage; what you mention is exactly the kind of info I was after. Is there a "dangerous" mileage where I should be worried about? i.e. I bought a 1994 BMW 318is in 1999 with 60K on the clock. At 90K miles the water profile timing gasket went which is apparently a common problem for these engines costing me £2k in repairs!