# AUdi R8



## Bbuk (Jan 18, 2015)

this is next on the list of my cars to purchase.
how reliable is the audi 4.2 engine found in the r8, any common problems to watch out for


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## J•RED (Feb 10, 2013)

Probably the best place to look is here. 
http://www.r8talk.com/forums/#/forumsite/20712/forums/4


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## Blade_76 (Aug 11, 2004)

You might want to read my comments in this post, re my experience of the R8:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=557969

FYI - the guy who bought it has sold it on (12 months on), it went in numerous times for other issues, including a new gearbox (around £8-10k) and clutch...


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## dextter (Oct 29, 2007)

Blade_76 said:


> You might want to read my comments in this post, re my experience of the R8:
> 
> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=557969
> 
> FYI - the guy who bought it has sold it on (12 months on), it went in numerous times for other issues, including a new gearbox (around £8-10k) and clutch...


Flaming hell Blade; just read of your VERY bad experience with yours in your other post ! 

It shows that no matter how much money you pay for a car, you can still get a "Friday afternoon" version !

What is also quite frightening is the cost of stuff to fix when it does go.......everything seems to be 1k plus, and then some !

I`m commenting as I`m possibly weighing up the idea of a used one later this year, but this has certainly given me food for thought, and knocked me back a bit.....

Thanks for posting though, as potential owners need to know these things. Cheers.


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## Blade_76 (Aug 11, 2004)

I was the lucky one, I had Audi warranty and was able to get a lot done for free. The shock failing the mot was a shock, my feeling is the mag ride caused it, I'd never use mag ride on the road again. Luckily I had the Audi mot guarantee, so only cost me £60.

Despite it all, I loved the car, my RS is nice but it's not the R8. I feel lucky to have owned one for two years, had lots of fun in it. If you buy one make sure you buy it through an Audi dealer and remember its a super car that comes with super car repair bills - servicing was fairly cheap for the one I had done.

I still want a Spyder one day, but I'd want a brand new one with three year warranty then chop it in before it runs out :lol:


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## dextter (Oct 29, 2007)

Blade_76 said:


> I was the lucky one, I had Audi warranty and was able to get a lot done for free. The shock failing the mot was a shock, my feeling is the mag ride caused it, I'd never use mag ride on the road again. Luckily I had the Audi mot guarantee, so only cost me £60.
> 
> Despite it all, I loved the car, my RS is nice but it's not the R8. I feel lucky to have owned one for two years, had lots of fun in it. If you buy one make sure you buy it through an Audi dealer and remember its a super car that comes with super car repair bills - servicing was fairly cheap for the one I had done.
> 
> I still want a Spyder one day, but I'd want a brand new one with three year warranty then chop it in before it runs out :lol:


All sounds good advice mate, that..
Thanks for the input, and as I said, certainly food for thought !


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## Blade_76 (Aug 11, 2004)

Good luck with making the decision.

IMO I think the more these cars become affordable for some of us, the more problems will come to light. Up to now they have been a high end car, that people who own them have so much money that they don't care what goes wrong, people who wont use the internet car forums and tell others of their experiences. I saw two or three other R8's at my local dealers, all which had problems, yet I was always told mine was the only one but every other dealer I visited.

All this said, I was looking over Christmas at what was on sale, some very cheap ones out there, but not through Audi dealers. If I win the lotto I will be straight down to Audi to buy one


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## mullum (Sep 16, 2011)

Blade_76 said:


> I still want a Spyder one day, but I'd want a brand new one with three year warranty then chop it in before it runs out :lol:


You'd still be losing a tonne of cash though wouldn't you? The person buying it could have 3 years no issues but not suffer the same amount of depreciation. I say "could" of course ;-P


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## Blade_76 (Aug 11, 2004)

Not look into it that much to be honest, at the time my dealer offered me an extremely good deal on a brand new spyder and with the pcp payments at a very tempting rate. The spyders dont seem to be dropping in price, be hard pushed to find one under £65k (at least the last time i looked).

The downside of the spyder is that you dont get to see the holy grail looking at you through the back window, I loved how the lights came on over the engine bay once it was dark and lit up the v8


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## Bbuk (Jan 18, 2015)

Sorry for the late reply, after reading this it's definitely making me think as the 4.2 model is over 5 years old
I will onlly do about 1k miles a year max and I have vast amount of experience working on sports cars so servicing repairs etx will not be an issue

Will after market warranty protect the r8 ?


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## billyali86 (Jul 26, 2011)

The 4.2 r8 runs the same V8 as what was in the last rs4. These are notorious for getting coked up with carbon deposits and losing alot of power. Stick an rs4 on the dyno and basically none of them will make the stated 420bhp unless modded and de-coked (process for removing the carbon deposits). You will be lucky to see 370bhp. The v8 r8 has the same issue. A friend recently sold his rs5 which runs a later version of the same engine. Audi advertises it as 440bhp, his made 370bhp on the dyno


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## Bbuk (Jan 18, 2015)

370bhp is not far off from my 3.2 m3.
So I take it the r8 is not worth 40k and better off looking at ferrari f430 or a gallardo for an extra 30k


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## billyali86 (Jul 26, 2011)

My money would be going towards a used 997 turbo


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