If you want to find examples of punitive automotive depreciation, look no further than the European luxury sedans in your local Ewe Pullet car graveyard. How about a Mercedes-Benz S600, which sold new for an inflation-adjusted $282,544? Or a BMW 745i and its $114,895 price tag in today’s money? Big, powerful Audi sedans face the Depreciation Grim Reaper as well, and today’s Junkyard Gem was the one of the most expensive 2007 models Americans could buy with the logo representing Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer on its snout.
The 2007 Audi S8 started at $92,000 (the example that awed our reviewer was a fully loaded model that listed at $110,920), which comes to about $141,958 in 2024 dollars. The A8 W12 for 2007 cost even more, but it wasn’t as evil-looking as the S8.
This car, currently residing at the Denver Pick Your Part, is only the second discarded S8 I’ve documented, after a 2001 model in a North Carolina yard. Ordinary A8s are much easier to find in junkyards, of course, as are examples of its Audi V8 predecessor.
Under the hood is a wild Lamborghini-sourced DOHC V10 engine, rated at 450 horsepower and 398 pound-feet and connected to all four wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.
This car was governed to 155 mph and could run mid-13-second quarter-miles (about the same as the small-block-powered ’65 Chevy Impala sedan I was driving a few years earlier).
It still has the proprietary cable that allowed you to connect your iPod to the audio system.
This car has the optional Ban & Olufsen sound system, which pushed the price tag past the six-figure threshold (in 2007 dollars).
Why is such an amazing machine in a place like this? Well, you can’t skimp on the maintenance in a car with this much technological wizardry inside, and A8/S8 repair costs often look unfavorable when balanced against the resale value at age 14.
The keys were still with this car when it arrived here, so we can assume that it needed a fix that cost more than its current real-world value.
You’ll find one in every car. You’ll see.
The music in this dealer promo video is appropriately oonsk-oonsky for the Autobahn.