Life before 8s - What's your story?

[moltuae]

I was digging through some old car folders and came across these photos of one of the last cars I owned before I became an octophile.




As my forum sig' shows, my route to the four rings was littered with some quirky cars (and one or two downright awful ones too).

So what about everyone else? Was it a natural progression through smaller Audi models, or did you arrive at 8s from a different angle like I did?



This is my story, and why I bought my first '8 ...



While the last non-8 I owned was actually a Xantia 'Activa', that was a vehicle I acquired, rather than chose (amazing car to drive though), and ownership was cut short (a heavy right-foot, combined with an over-powerful remap, dramatically killed the engine one fateful day). It was the XM above, and the one I owned before it, that led me to buying my first 8, for a number of reasons ...


What I liked about the XMs was that they were quirky and rare, relatively luxurious but, most of all, they had exceptional ride and handling. While the grip from the front wheel drive setup was average at best, the 'Hydractive 1/2' suspension system did a good job of keeping you out of trouble and getting you out of trouble whenever the tyres let go of the road. Despite a new price tag of around half that of a new A8, they had leather-clad electric seats and the mirrors, sunroof, etc were all electricically adjustable too. They even had an electrically adjustable centre armrest (pretty pointless really, but I do miss that little quirky extravagance).

What the XM didn't have though, was good build quality. Interestingly, the hydropneumatic suspension system that puts most people off buying larger Citroens, was very reliable. It was generally the small, but annoying things that broke: Electric window cables would frequently snap, causing the glass to fall inside the door, interior trim would break or come off in your hands, and dashboard LCD displays would fail or become unreadable due to faulty segments.

When the time came to replace the XM, I was looking for something that could make up for a lack of Hydractive handling/ride with sheer grip and road-holding, which meant that it had to be an AWD vehicle. I also wanted something at least as big, luxurious and quick as the XM and preferably something with good build quality (therefore probably German or Japanese) and something that was also reasonably rare. An AWD '8 was really the only car that ticked all the boxes.