Arkay

Very good explanation - my situation is exactly per your points and is why I lease

Arkay

Being a former A8L lessee, I enjoyed the car but when I looked at the S8, that's exactly why I am not a repeat customer.

See B-Line's note below - that's exactly my situation and why I choose to lease all my vehicles, with the exception of the M3 which is a dedicated track car; none of the others I plan to keep beyond the lease expiration.

I'd originally ordered an S550 4matic but decided in the end to lease an '08 E63 AMG because I wanted something a little more 'special', hence why I looked at the S8.

And lastly, the E63 AMG I got (MSRP $94,930) on a 33 months lease has a residual of 64% - which I would not consider to be a bad number compared to the S8's numbers as noted by B-Line.

Brav Oh

I ended up getting an M6. I am single, prefered a sedan, but at the end of the day it was SOOO much cheaper leasing the M6 with a 74% residual on 24k. Cant really compare the two, besides they both kick ***. the S550 leaves me wanting more and the 7 lacks personality. I would probably run iwth a 750 if pressed for a sedan, perhaps E63, but I had just come from an E500.

I will wait patiently for a used S8 in the mean time.

Inocent Bystndr

like crazy, including some of the AMGs. I could have had a fully optioned E63 at year end (when I leased the S6)at a LOWER lease payment for 27 months than I have on the S6 for 36 months (10K vs 12K miles though). Of course, MB makes many more E63s than Audi makes S6s and they wanted to get a lot of the new product on the road to start to offset the bad rep that previous models had earned.

Audi's business decision is obviously that it can reach its profit goals without significant support of the AFS lease programs. Time will tell if it works.

alexpho

I bought a used 04 A8 last year with 20k miles on a 5 year loan and loves everything about this car. However, I am horrified to see how the value dropped on my car along with what a used A8 is going for. My daily commute is 40 miles a day to work. If Audi does not fix the leasing problem and their flagship car aren't retaining reasonable value, it will certainly turn off a lot of buyers. With the high payments that I am making, I am having second thoughts and should have lease/or bought another high end car with more value.