What made you..

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Originally Posted by Mkoneman

hahah yeah the carpets always come 1st in my eyes

Plastic bin liners?

[E.L.M.O]

Originally Posted by tonupkid

'What's the best bang for your bucks'.

I thought that was a Twin turbo Nissan 300zx? But I wouldnt be seen dead in one! There are lots of other reasons why the 8 is a better motor, but there pretty dam good for bang for your bucks

Originally Posted by PsYcHe

U only kill fat people James?

I reckon I could get 3 no problem, 5 with a good shove and 8 with a cordless reciprocating saw

Or are you only prepared to risk the bodily fluids of two getting into the carpet

lol

For me it was

I was driving a V70 T5 already, wanted something equally comfy ( broken back and 120 miles a day makes this a necessity) significantly more power ( I set myself a 300bhp minimum ) in my budget ( < £6K as doing my mileage kills cars in 3/4 years so I buy and run till they drop and assume I'm getting nothing back for them). Heavy ( I tow a 24foot caravan sometimes.

From this I looked at

A8s, Gearbox worried me, rightly so...
Jag XJR - nikasil worries made me discount these but I loved the idea, maybe next time round the post NS cars will be in my budget )
BMW M5 - never been a BMW fan so this wasn't really high on my list
Alpina B10 - saw 2 for sale that interested me, sort of BMW for those in the know so not a BMW in my eyes..
S class - never liked Mercs at all so quickly discounted.
Lexus - too 'boring' looking for me


In the end I asked my mechanic his opinions on my shortlist and he already looked after a couple of A8s and loved them to work on, he hated BMWs and Merc saying build quality had gone seriously downhill post late 90's, Lexus were very good but I'd already mentally knocked it off teh list. Jags he liked but warned me about teh NS issues and to be very careful with service histories etc

I drove a couple of A8's and an S8 before I found the one I eventually bought.

Its been a rocky ride so far, despite checking over as well as we could and having what looked like a guaranteed recently rebuilt gearbox its been a checkered start for me in 8 ownership.

6 weeks in my gearbox destroyed itself and the guarantee turned into vapourware

lots of little niggles come to light, its using a bit of coolant which we now believe to be going through teh gas vapourisor diaphragm. This will be fixed in the next few weeks when our new baby is born as I won't need my car for a couple of weeks. The pool under the front which I assumed to be the leaking coolant turns out to be air con water so not as worried about that although it is quite embarrassing going back to my car on teh company car park to find its wee'd itself every day and in a particularly noticeable place too.

other niggles? squeaky brakes that no amount of re copper greasing teh back of teh pads solves, wiper motor linkage coming loose, expansion chamber starting to leak, washer pipe coming loose. oh and a gearbox that just doesn't seem to be programmed like my brain wants it to be. ongoing investigations in this space

lots of little bits that just never happened in 4 years of volvo ownership.

Anyway, its running and reliable now so I look forward to the next few years of ownership then I'll probably buy something different.