Hyundai Aftermarket - Vehicle: Audi A8L (2001)

The Tiburon was an absolute blast to drive, and handled like a dream in the snow with the Continental extremewintercontact tires I bought for it. But it was time to let the ol girl go. The rust had almost completely consumed the underbody. It was bad when I got it, and only got worse after 5 years pulling winter duty in Northern Indiana.

My last few cars had all been on the small side. Being 6'4" I wanted something a little bigger this go round, a nice comfortable daily and the A8L really fits that bill nicely. It reminds me of my First car, a 94 Caprice Classic, they're very cozy inside, absolute boats. The A8 is only a boat because the size however. It has an Aluminum frame which actually makes the whole vehicle lighter than the same model year A6's and with the 4.2L 40V V8 it has ~50% more power than the 4.3L V8 the caprice had in it's day. Some wideish 255 tires all around and quattro, surprisingly makes such a large vehicle feel like it's on rails.

Of all the vehicles I've owned I've had the absolute worst luck with this A8. After test driving it 3 different times. The day I bought it Reverse goes out (typical problem for these things) and unfortunately a seal just goes out.. and it doesn't slip or anything before it goes :(

Then both rear calipers seize up, blower motor goes out, etc...

Earlier this year, I hit a Raccoon and it was totaled out. It was completely cosmetic damage, Front lower bumper, Fog Lights, Lower 3 grilles, & undershield. Which was actually a blessing. State Farm valued it at $5.5k (I paid 2k, had 3k total in it) and the buy back was a couple hundred bucks. So I figured buying it back was a reasonable thing to do. I got a check for $5k in the mail from State Farm and have been driving it as a daily most of this year. I've rounded up all the parts it needs to repair it back to how it was before. Front bumper/grilles/fog lights/etc, I was told by State Farm if it was repaired I could put full coverage back on it.. but not sure if I want to do that or not.

I have all the hard to find parts to do a manual swap on it. I've traded a few parts with a guy in Croatia who had a manual S8 he was parting out including the Euro trunk lid. I still need the expensive ones however, Trans, center&rear diff, and an extended driveshaft to swap it, just need to find a donor S4/A6 for those though. I'm still considering whether I should do the swap too. I've contemplated buying a S8, Manual swapping the S8 (which would be slightly easier and probably more fun in the long run) and putting the Auto from that into the A8L, I don't know.

Anyway... despite her problems & quirks, I do love her.

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