Quote:
Originally Posted by sarg
It's a lot, but it's a lot less than a whole new car.
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Agreed. And, as they say, 'better the devil you know' ... even if you replace the car, you could have similar, unforeseen repair costs with your next vehicle.
While I dread these kind of failures, and spend a lot of money on preventative maintenance, I view them as an inevitable part of owning these cars. In fact, I have a savings account that I use just for car maintenance that I try to keep topped up at a level that is just above the cost of a transmission rebuild.
As I see it, when I bought my S8 at 8 years old (when the car was 8 that is, not me), I saved over 60 grand on buying new. It would take a hell of a lot of repairs, maintenance, tyres and petrol to even come close to spending what I've saved there alone. The depreciation of these vehicles at this age is so little from year to year that you should consider that as the money you've saved to offset against repairs.
It's getting very difficult to find good D2 S8s. I spent 3 years trying to find a good one in the right colour combinations, and that was 4 years ago. I suspect it would take much longer now. The price of these cars doesn't yet reflect their rarity, so they're still being scrapped when the cost of repairs exceeds their worth. I think we're reaching an interesting tipping point though where there are fewer cars remaining than potential buyers.