[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by SilberUrS6

Having owned an UrS car for a long time, I would agree. They are good-quality machines, and finding similar quality would be hard.

OK, cut to the chase. W8 is out - too complex, lots of parts that are W8-only. I love VAG cars, but you couldn't give me a W8 car if I was being forced to keep it, use it, and keep it on the road. Of all the cars listed, the S8 is the best choice, IF. The "IF" is all about that automatic transmission. The rest of the car is golden, even if the motor is a bit thirsty. It is a hell of a machine. But if that trans eats itself, you're down US$10k. On the upside, you can get these cars pretty cheaply. Probably due to the failure rate of those transmissions. I have heard of folks retrofitting these cars with an 01E six-speed...

$10k?! No effing way, maybe if you bought a brand new one from Audi. TozoM8 from Audi World, who I believe is in Chicago, rebuilds them very reasonably. I'm a few years removed from S8 ownership, but I believe it was around $3k. Lots of positive reviews of his work on AW, he is an Audi guru. I actually spoke with him about a 6-speed manual conversion as he has done several, he doesn't do them anymore because they are so expensive.

Also worth noting, again, that changing fluid is the key to transmission life. Lots of guys with 200k+ on their original transmissions because they changed the fluid every 80k.