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We owned a 2009 LP-560-4 bought new in Jan 2011 for about 5 years and 20k miles.
They made significant updates to the egear clutch in 2009 (I think it was 2009, but maybe 2008 - you should double check). I know for sure 2007 was the older style clutch which wore very quickly. We had less than 10% wear after 20k miles including a year of tracking the car (my husband and I shared it on track days). You can request a report called an e-gear snap which gives the transmission wear. I'd consider it a requirement if not buying the manual transmission.
Because the car was still under warranty, we serviced at an authorized dealer. The closest was over 300 miles and we typically had their transport pick it up and bring it back. This was a pain, it was expensive, and if there were issues it took longer because of the transport. I would NEVER again buy a car that I could not service locally.
It was relatively bulletproof. Remember, when VAG bought Lambo it became 80% an Audi in an italian suit with some bespoke Lambo-only bits. When the car was up on a lift there were plenty of Audi part stickers beneath. The Gallardo is a V-10 that sounds spectacular. Our car had carbon ceramic brakes which were incredible. It also had the nose lift which we used a lot, although I'd guess my GT4 is lower.
The Lambo was fun to drive. The e-gear wasn't the smoothest in that generation but it was fine. Our car was a 3 stage metallic "pearl" white color with "lipstick red" leather interior which was spectacular.
One of the greatest joys of ownership was sharing the car with people. It was the greatest ice-breaker at a show or in the garage at WGI. It drew kids like a magnet but even adults. We loved letting people sit in it, or take folks for a drive if we had a chance. Kids lit up when they sat in the driver's seat for a photo. Many people figured a lambo owner would be an unfriendly snob who didn't want anyone touching their car. We are fairly particular about our cars and found everyone respectful. No one minded taking the keys out of their pocket first before sitting in it. We met lots of great people and had fun with it.
It got too much attention sometimes. People race up on the highway to take a photo and drive like idiots to get close. Sometimes they assume a celebrity is inside and want to see who is in the car. Maybe in a major city it would get less attention, but in western PA during the time we owned it, there weren't a lot of lambs around (or other exotics). We never had a negative experience in terms of anyone vandalizing it when parked overnight.
We took several trips in the car. We had it shipped to AZ for a Lambo factory trip (called GIRO) and we drove from Scottsdale to Sedona to the Grand Canyon and eventually Las Vegas. It included laps at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch with the newly released Aventador factory cars. The weather was severely hot (over 115 F for much of the desert trip) and the car was fine.
We found it quite comfortable for road trips. Obviously luggage space is limited and packing in soft duffles with minimum gear is required. But we travel light, and on the trip they trucked our luggage from hotel to hotel. It was good on gas (not that it mattered) and we ran Michelin Pilot Super Sports once we burned through several sets of Pirelli PZero Corsas on track that chunked despite following the Pirelli engineer recommendations. Pirelli wouldn't do anything for us - so no more Pirelli on our cars. Never had a problem with Michelins.
Service was expensive (as expected). We had our local Mercedes dealer do simple maintenance like oil change, brake fluid flush, or brake pad change (only needed new pads once). Parts were expensive but there were sources for OEM parts that were more reasonable if you searched. We didn't buy much from the dealer network.
We met some truly fun, wonderful people and made some good friends. There were a percentage of "jerks" but you get that with any marque. We found Lambo to be no better or worse than any other. We did some Italian car events run by the Ferrari Club (track was Pocono) and we found the Ferrari folks rather strict with rules and they seemed to want to keep to themselves rather than blend with the other italian marques (Lambo, Pantera to name two). But it was fine and we met lots of nice people including some nice Ferrari folks.
We didn't drive cross country but the AZ-NV trip was over 1000 miles, and we did other road trips ranging from 400 to 1000 miles. Never had an issue. We kept up with basic maintenance and it was bulletproof except for an electrical issue that turned out to be loose battery terminal connections. An easy fix and good as new (but the dash lit up like a Christmas tree while on track and it went into limp mode so we had it trucked to the dealer). This was early in ownership and we probably could have figured it out but with the warranty coverage we wanted it serviced at the dealer.
The A/C started to fail just before we sold it. A charge fixed it and probably would have held it for awhile, but we had already decided to sell and rather than fix it we sold and left that to the next owner (of course highlighting the fault as part of the deal).
It was a fun car and we had some life experiences that we wouldn't otherwise have if it wasn't for that car. In the end, I didn't really miss it once it was gone, but we moved on to other things. It was a fun track car. It's the car I achieved my personal high speed (165 at Pocono) and it was rock solid. The car had more to give but I did not. 165 is WAY faster than I'm comfortable and especially since I was only in my 2nd year of driving and my vision skills hadn't developed. But it was a confidence inspiring car at high speed. I was entering the Bus Stop at WGI as a relatively new driver with a new-to-me instructor and he had no idea how capable the car was until we went through at speeds far higher than he thought possible (for a new driver). It's not that I was going THAT fast - it's that the car handled it with aplomb and no issues whatsoever. Of course the tires had something to do with that.
I'd say buy a solid car with good service history. Know where the Audi dealers are along the way in case you need a specific part (although the earlier cars were not so much Audi so it depends on the year you bought). We had a Performante for 1/2 a day and found the bucket seats very harsh and I wouldn't want to drive long trips in those. But our seats were more like a Porsche 14-way. Very adjustable, very comfortable with padding.
The E-gear had different modes (Street, Sport and Cross). This affected the speed of the shifts and how "harshly" the car handled. Corsa was fun, but on the highway we usually chose Sport.
Best of luck. They are an experience to own and most whom I knew had good ownership experiences with few mechanical problems. Of course the older the car and higher the miles, the more chance of an issue with wear-tear items. A thorough PPI with a reputable knowledgeable shop is highly recommended.
Unfortunately the Lambo Power forum participation has dropped dramatically since they made changes to the format but I'd say introducing yourself and joining Lambo Power might be a good resource. I found it extremely valuable when I was searching for the car, and then as an owner it was a great resource for all types of info.
Best of luck!
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