A8 Parts Forum - Shes here.....

..... and well worth the wait.

Its been almost a week since I put the deposit down on her blind from a desk in London, and today was the journey up to Edinburgh to collect her.

For anyone that was unsure if you missed a bargain, sorry, I think you did :D

On arrival, it looked stunning. Everything as I'd hoped, clean, tidy, unmarked all round. Spec exactly as I'd hoped, and a quick test drive confirmed that mechanically it was as tight and well preserved under the hood as the leather and paintwork suggested.

I had a lovely journey cross country from Edinburgh to Harrogate down the A68 and around and about, and I'm so pleased I didnt buy an S8 now.

i've arrived home with 35mpg showing on the clock, and I wasnt being gentle. Sure, the S8 would have hit 60 faster, and pulled harder, and sounded far better, but with the B&O wailing away above the sound of everything within earshot, somehow the extra time it took to accelerate was just not important.

Getting from Edinburgh back to Yorkshire on quarter of a tank of fuel - Now thats real world practical stuff. The S4 was nice, but life revolved around fuel stops.

It is the tightest, most solid low mileage D3 I've been in. Not a whisper of anything out of place, with even the B&O tweeters retracting silently into the dashboard when everything is over.

My previous D3 was awesome. I loved it. But I love this more, even if it does use Satans fuel. The handling and feedback on this is considerably better than my last, with dynamic mode making a difference in road holding almost immediately. The 19's seem a perfect comprimise between comfort and sport, and the black interior is highlighted gently by the interior light pack, standard on this model year.

I drove the whole journey home with the sunroof open, and the bum warmers on. The B&O delivers 1000w of audio, and even with the sunroof wide open, the midrange seperation compared to Bose is out of the this world.

I *needed* Adaptive cruise, and really, really desired a sunroof. The B&O was a bizarre bonus. Its a £4500 option on the 3.0 Tdi..... In contrast, Bose was way less £1000... Admittedly, I think the B&O cost breaks down more like this:

Cost of shiney speaker grills everywhere to impress your mates: £2500
Cost of pop up tweeters in dashboard £500
Actual cost of enhanced audio £1500

If I was buying a new A8, would I buy B&O? Hell no. Thats just rediculous. Its good, dam good, but is it worth 6 or 7 times more than Bose?... Er, probably not.

Would I however encourage you to find it on a second hand motor at a fraction of the cost because it sounds great and looks even better? Yup.... +++