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.
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.
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).
This car has the optional Ban & Olufsen sound system, which pushed the price tag past the six-figure threshold (in 2007 dollars).
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.
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