Lot Ended
Description
First owned by Ashley Cole and just two owners since; 75,200 miles
with excellent service history; twin-turbo 4.2 V8 diesel; 8-speed auto; 385bhp
and 627lb/ft; 38mpg; dripping with luxury options; double glazing; massage
seats; mood lighting; rear privacy curtains; A8 number plate; ULEZ compliant;
fantastic condition; stupendously quick!
Imagine you are
a top rank footballer earning £200k per week playing for Chelsea and you have
just signed a £6m deal to play for Roma in Italy. You can buy more or less any
car you want so what’s it going to be – a Ferrari perhaps, or a Lamborghini or
what about a McLaren?
Well, in the case of
Ashley Cole, a level-headed 34-year-old, it was this – a brand new Audi A8 SE
Executive 4.2 TDI Quattro packed with so many luxury options it must have bumped
the basic £72k list price up considerably. Loose change to a man on his salary
but step aboard and you can see why he took a shine to it.
It’s like a
luxury jet inside and it would be hard to find any car at any price with a
more sylish and well-equipped interior - double glazing, massage seats,
Bose surround sound system, rear privacy curtains are just the tip of the
iceberg.
Cole bought it new in March 2014
when it had the registration number AY14 PLX and kept it for just over three
years. He must have taken it to Italy when he went to play for Roma (lounging in
the back, no doubt, chauffeur at the wheel) because there is a service invoice
in his name from an Audi dealership in Rome dated January 2016 when the car had
covered 32,692 miles (see last photo).
It has
had two owners since, our vendor acquiring it in November 2019 when it had
covered 58k miles. He has added another 17k miles to the odometer and had the
car serviced three times by Ned Potter of Hereford (see photos), the last being
an oil service in November 2023 at 73,412 miles. It also had four new brake
discs and pads in September 2023 at 73,372 miles, the odometer currently showing
75,270 miles.
A
print-out of the service history shows 9 services between 2015 and 2023 (but
doesn’t include the one in Italy) and there are also many supporting invoices.
It has an MOT until July 2026 with no advisories recorded.
As you can see in the photos, this car is in
wonderful condition for its age/mileage and we won’t even begin to describe
all the high-tech features it has because the list would go on forever – just
come and see it for yourselves, or look up some reviews on YouTube where
the 4.2 TDI Quattro version is universally admired for its off-the-scale ‘feel
good factor’, cutting edge driver aids, brilliant all-weather
capability and 'oh my god' acceleration.
The D4
generation of Audi’s flagship A8 saloon ran from 2009 – 2017 and was the
lightest all-wheel-drive luxury saloon available thanks to its Space Frame
aluminium construction. In 2014 it had a facelift and a major upgrade with all
manner of clever new feaures including adaptive air suspension, night vision
assist and intelligent Matrix LED headlights that automatically react
to changing light conditions and other traffic, keeping full beam illumination
everywhere except in the eyes of oncoming drivers. Ingenious stuff all explained
in fascinating detail on YouTube.
This
particular car has the heroic 4.2 TDI twin turbo diesel V8 which produces
385bhp and a humungous 627lb/ft of torque, sprinting to 60mph in 4.7
seconds with an 8-speed automatic gearbox. It actually feels even quicker than
that due to the way the grunt is delivered so immediately via the
four-wheel-drive.
Leaving aside boring electric hair dryers, there can
be very few cars that could stay with it away from the lights – it is
laugh-out-loud fast and so uncannily quiet inside that your unsuspecting
passengers will feel like they have been dropped down a lift shaft when you give
it some beans. The mid-range thrust is equally intoxicating: the constant,
massive surge of torque never more than a toe-twitch away.
It is also remarkably frugal and owners report 40mpg+ on a
run and 30mpg+ average even when driven hard. The road tax is only £395 per year
and it meets the Euro 6 emissions standards so it is ULEZ compliant
too.
The eagle-eyed will note that the engine
management light is on but our vendor had this investigated and states the
following: “This fault popped up just a couple of days before I dropped the
car off at Brightwells prior to going on holiday. The fault code is P275300
which is a transmission fluid cooler control that is faulty and probably needs
replacing. The part will cost about £100 and, according to YouTube, this is
quite a common item to go wrong and is no big deal to
fix.”
This hugely capable and
pleasingly understated A8 needs to be seen and driven to be fully appreciated.
OK, this is an auction so you can’t test drive it yourselves but we have done
that for you and take our word for it – this thing is fantastic and the
performance will blow your socks off.
Add in the Ashley Cole provenance
and a nice A8 number plate and it looks like a no-brainer at the guide price
suggested. Go on, treat yourself...
Consigned by James Dennison – 07970 309907 – [email protected]