They overwhelm all the rational decision processes that you promised yourself you would stick too :love:

James: There's an options list sticker placed in the spare tyre well and in the front of the service book.
Get a photo of this and run the codes given through an Audi options list decoder (google it).
This will tell you what paint, leather type and colour, trim and extras were fitted at the factory.

But these are details. For me I want the best chance of a sound car and a complete, but not necessarily all Audi, service trail is essential.
I also like to see.
As few previous owners as possible
To see the bumpers align with the arches
S mode on the box. This allows you to access Tiptronic from the steering wheel at any time you want. Without having to first move the gear shift into manual. Plus all the stuff I've said before.
Remember, shabby wheels and scuffs and even dents can be fairly easily fixed. I had a horrible dent in one door of my D2 S8, it was right on the body line crease. For under a £100 a bloke pushed a rod and other weird tools around (sliding them past the window) and when he finished I honestly could not tell which side the dent had been on +++

i didnt even see mine before I bought it+++

I had someone come to see mine three times and he still didn't buy it. :Confused:

I confess to going to see one in Manchester twice (on the way to and from our holidays in Greece - negative brownie points!) and not buying it

I did bring a experienced Audi mechanic with me though, and he got the price down for me by £100 because the alarm battery was playing up.
Also he found coolant stains on the undertray, which he quizzed the seller about. This turend out to be the annoying "stupid plastic pipe" a few months later.

The S8's are great cars, and it seems to be a general trait of us buying the first one we viewed.

I viewed just one, and bought it. It was a 4-hour coach trip too, all that wasn't as described was the driver's door lower rubber buffer that was missing, grrr.

Worked out well though - seller knocked 100 bucks off the asking price (which I'd haggled down prior to viewing) and A8 Parts came up trumps with a replacement at 32 bucks delivered. Arrived yesterday, all fitted and looking great.

Strangely enough, I bought the first one that I saw too....
Other than the output oil seal over the N/S cat (sorted by main dealer), I'm into my third year of trouble free S8 ownership.... I've kept up the dealer servicing :)

Normally people waste your time when buying my time was wasted looking at the first 8 i looked at, it was fully loaded but he must of sold that one before i got there because the 8 i was stood looking at even had some sort of manual adjustment type thing for the front seats, i mean they didn't operate via electricity. Knowing what I do know it must be in the running for worse spec’d 8 out there. And he wanted top dollar for it, I didn’t even stay around to hear it start.
I bought the second I viewed

I looked at quite a few, first one was fl with a boot full of pine needles and a leaky rocker gasket/torn cv gaiter/broken rear spring (who the blazes sells a car like that!!! I was assured it'd be fixed if I bought it......) several 4.2's that look tired/slightly odd coloured paint on surfaces and one of which had no oil in it :O When I looked at mine it was described as not the cheapest but in good order, it was a 2.8 and a pf which wasn't my first choice but it had every option on it except parking sensors and ski bag, everything was straight, couple of small scuffs matching the mileage and I knew that was the one from first walk round. It has plenty of go and aside from a coil pack issue (non gen replacement, oops!) and a weeping rad has been flawless. It pays to look around, there was a lot of tat I searched through for mine :D

My first '8 was a 2.8 - looked at loads on line but it was the first one I saw 'in the flesh'. It was 'dressed up' as an S8, but I soon put that right. It's now owned by Titan's mum. Then I saw a couple of 4.2s before I bought my S8. One was originally owned by a famous golfer (can't remember which one) but was pretty scruffy and the other was beautiful but, for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on, it just didn't feel right.
It was Amar that put me on to the S8 and it was love at first sight - and despite the catalogue of problems, I still love it!