I couldn't help but giggle to myself a little over this one, the only person that is telling you it's going to be expensive is the mechanic (mate) of yours he’s already greasing you up before he rapes you. They’re all crooks, the hassle I have with these lying, 2 faced, unreliable and more times than not useless ****s has to be experienced. And only since owning the 8, strange you may think, but I never had these issues in the Landrover they just fixed it. Now all of a sudden it’s a nightmare for them, parts are hideous, took ages to do, and my personal favourite “It’s one of those cars mate” They should be shot in the face, I have fixed most things outside on my drive with crap tools in the rain and they do it for a living. So why so expensive?

I’m not bitter about it, honest

And i'm not saying your mate is a crook, just venting. And in then out deaper in and out, deap breaths

Dezzy it just doesn't happen to 8's!

Yeah, the D4 is rocking full postcode nav too.

Hi Dezzy, im glad that you managed to let off a bit of steam there as you may have exploded otherwise, My mechanic friend is a mechanic i have used for years and have become friendlier with over the last 3yrs and is very easy to pay aswell which helps alot, Im not sure what his underlying problem is with high end Audi/VW's but when the two of them got together they nearly scared the bejesus out of me and may even have oput me in a bad mood for a few hours as they where beginning toaffect my thoughts and dreams of owning a D3 but i think i am over that now after getting words of encouragement/ advice on here.

Hi Chris, i'm feeling much better now thanks. I'm in an old D2 so can't really comment on the D3 really, but from what i've seen from this site there is very little or if there is it's not being posted.

I was nearly talked out of my D2 by friends that said stuff like it's a ticking time bomb and it'll cost a fortune to run and the like but as it is she's been a true trojen and to be perfectly honest not cost a lot at all really.

So in your face friends.

I'm in a much more playfull mood now i've had some good news..... My 8 is back, woop, woop.

If it helps, my 2006 D3 has just had its MOT last week. The only failure was a tyre that I managed to cut on some drainage kerbing while avoiding a pothole :mad:

I did not realise that I had cut the tyre, but none-the-less, the car passed as they popped the spare on for me. +++

This was a nice change for me as I was running a 20 year-old Lexus Soarer V8 which whilst it was great, the age was the problem with new pipes, refurb calipers etc being needed. But again, for a high-end car, it was pretty trouble-free for the 8 years I owned it, with only age related problems rather than ECUs failing left right and centre.

I don't agree that the cars stuffed with ECUs are automatically money pits, it really is about whether the car has been made well or not, and the 8 is very well made.

Casing point - I looked at many cars before the 8 and the Merc CL600 was one I looked at. Lovely looking car - but a serious money pit. I was looking at cars that had done 60K and they had £12K suspension rebuilds and perished coil packs.

I tend to agree with what you all seem to be saying and i really do appreciate other peoples points of view. I think that its the same if you go somewhere and have a bad meal then thats the one that you will hear about most often, so if someone has a major issue occur on their car then that is the story that is most likely to be passed around instead of all the people with years of mostly trouble free motoring. I have a GtTDI Golf which is remapped and sits nicely on its coilovers and i have driven for the past seven years and still love the car. Unfortunately it will have to go as i also have a MK2 Golf GTI which i dont want to sell but there would be hell to pay if one of them didnt go. As i have a good car i am willing to keep looking for the Right A8 with as good a spec list as possible for the money i want to spend.
Hopefully i'm not living in cloud kookoo land, I guess only time will tell.