Filed under: Car Buying, Euro, Paris Motor Show, Supercars, Audi
Audi R8 pricing released, Cabrio rumors
With the successful debut of the R8 in Paris yesterday, the next logical question is when is it going to hit dealers and what's it going to cost? Auto Motor Und Sport answers the latter in a recent article on their website, stating that the 420 HP, V8 FSI-equipped model will come in at 104,400 Euros. The currency conversion puts that at about $135,500US, at today's rate, but we'd expect that figure to be closer to the $100k mark when playboys and well-to-do recent divorcees pick up their own in the summer of 2007.
Additionally, Road & Track put their crack team of photochop gurus on a rendering of the R8 in drop-top form, which can be viewed here and is rumored to be available in early 2009.
[Source: Auto Motor Und Sport (translated) via The German Car Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ZAMBONO 11:08AM (9/29/2006)
I am sorry but nobody is going to spend 135k on an audi on this side of the atlantic. Even with the 100k it will be a hard sale, a starting point of 90 might be good though. Whomever is looking at a vehicle for 135k will opt for a gallardo, vantage, or bentley gt. Same thing will happen as the VW phaeton, priced too high for the brand.
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Adam Singer 11:15AM (9/29/2006)
Are they insane? That's 911 turbo price range. And honestly what would you rather drive?
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Michael Karesh 11:40AM (9/29/2006)
Ford sold GTs at well above this price level. It all depends on the level of performance the car can deliver, and how many they want to sell.
Response to the first post: A Vantage isn't a mid-engine car, the Bentley is a 165k front-drive-based nose-heavy pig, and the Gallardo starts at $175k. If the Audi offers much of the performance and character of the Gallardo, for over $50,000 less, there will be takers.
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Aki 1:06PM (9/29/2006)
I wouldn't pay 135,000 for this piece a crap 4.2 engine.
Maybe a brand new engine thats unique I would.
But a warmed over 4.2 I would not.
This car is cut and paste of all audi parts from all the car lineups in all the brands. At 135,000 I would expect uniqueness. Honda can sell a car that has nothing to do with any other car, The S2000, for 32,000 dollars. And it goes 0-60 in 5.4 seconds. This Audi is bullshit.
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Ryan 1:08PM (9/29/2006)
I really dont know what in this car is worth 135,000.
Looks?
Well looks can be bought for maybe 10,000 at an aftermarket shop and done on any car.
What a joke
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MikeW 1:59PM (9/29/2006)
$80,000 tops, and maybe $100,000 for the V10
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Jonathan 2:06PM (9/29/2006)
I agree with number 4,
If other car companies can give us an absolute stand alone car for a fraction of the price, why cant the R8 offer something that is exclusive to it?
At 135,000 dollars!
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Steve S 2:26PM (9/29/2006)
And an STI or EVO will do 0-60 in mid 4s, C6 vette in mid 3s. Beautiful looking but for that kind of money I'd expect a V-10 and better numbers.
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RDL 2:48PM (9/29/2006)
No more than $70K.
Styling is great, but if they want to charge $100K+, they need to give the car more power; I'm talking about mid-low 3 sec 0-60 time, at least.
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kag 3:02PM (9/29/2006)
So when will people figure out that currency conversion is useless when determining the price of a car? It'll be nowhere near $135k when it goes on sale here. Nowhere near.
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Paul Allen 3:39PM (9/29/2006)
Autoweek says Audi is planning to make 3500 per year.
http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060927/FREE/60927003&Profile=1056
That is a HUGE number. I'm an Audi guy, on my second S4, but think they'll have trouble selling half that many.
(BTW, that fugly side panel is distinctive, all right, just like a dog turd on the side of a car would be distinctive.)
I say when you see an R8 driving around next year, it will probably have dealer license plates on it. Most folks spending that much will insist on a Porsche or Mercedes badge.
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james 3:41PM (9/29/2006)
The roofless version looks like a pchop of a smart roadster...BLAH. I would buy the smart roadster for $30k if they brought it here.
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fordman 3:51PM (9/29/2006)
I would buy this car as is just the way it is no changes same as pictured for = $70,000
If Audi wants a penny more, I expect more from this car.
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leo 4:04PM (9/29/2006)
Somehow teh Alfa C8 stole the show from this car. and the Alfa is exponentialy more beautiful and desirable than this Audi. I bet the regular Corvette will be faster than this car, not to mention the C6.
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mid-engine madness 4:24PM (9/29/2006)
I agree with others, it should be around $70K and not a penny more.
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Ekow 5:05PM (9/29/2006)
Funny...without even reading the comments...that was my first thought. Who the hell is going to buy a heavy ass AWD audi with only 420HP HP for 100+K.
MAYBE $70....maybe.
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rob 5:57PM (9/29/2006)
let's get to the bottom of the case here.
the only reason I'm spending that kind of dough on a car is to impress other people.
Screw that. Impress the ladies.
And if u tell a gal u're trying 2 impress that u drive an audi R8, they'll go, "hmmm, ok."
But if u tell the same gal that you drive a ferrari, a porsche or even a bentley, u're getting that gal in ur bed. And she may not even ride in ur car.
She doesn't know and frankly doesn't care that the Audi is more expensive than the ferrari or porsche...
What the folks at Audi need to do is build a name brand..
It's gonna be expensive, though...
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jayson 6:01PM (9/29/2006)
Look bottom line great car but asking too much.
As the previous guy said, this is a bunch of parts from every other car. This should make it cheaper. Why the hell is bringing parts from everything else make this more expensive than everything else? An Audi A8L with W12 engine is cheaper than this. Comon, who is Audi kidding?
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nirad 6:35PM (9/29/2006)
This is misleading- a 19% tax is included in that price. The base price without tax is 88k EUR for the 6 speed and 94k EUR for the r-tronic. It's also worth noting that AoA's base price undercuts the European base price on all models. For example, the S8 has a base price of 92k USD in the US and 98k EUR in Germany (don't ask me how they make any money in the US). Except a similar discount on the R8.
See this PDF file for R8 pricing info:
http://www.audi.de/etc/medialib/cms4imp/audi2/product/r8.Par.0001.File.pdf
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ZAMBONO 9:23PM (9/29/2006)
I posted the first message. I do realize the 16% tax is included in prices in europe, and that taken the math into account the R8 will be about 80k. At 80k I think it will have a chance, any more i doubt it. One must also realize that in the U.S. vehicle prices are decided at the dealer where as in europe the price is what you see and there is no haggling. Don't forget that we here must also pay a tax on top of that price but the average will be 5%, depending on state of course.
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