Our long-term Audi R8 is one of the more rewarding vehicles in the long-fleet, but only if you can take full advantage of its combination of luxury and performance. I enjoyed driving the R8 for the past two weeks, but within 24 hours it was clear something was amiss regarding its normally refined ride quality.
At higher speeds a subtle, but consistent, vibration intruded upon the Audi's upscale interior. I figured (and hoped) it was simply a wheel balance isssue. A trip to Stokes Tire in Santa Monica confirmed my suspicions...and more.
Turns out three of the four tires where vastly out of balance (the driver's side rear was fine). In fact, the front passenger tire had no weights on it at all, prompting the Stokes technician to question whether the tire had ever
been balanced before being mounted on the R8 at the factory. Certainly that would explain the high-speed vibration.
Problem solved, right? Not quite. While fixing the balance fixed the bad vibes there was another gremlin lurking under the Audi R8.
Upon pulling the front driver's side tire the technician noted uneven wear on the tread pattern. The wear bars were flush with the outside treads, and these treads had an almost "squished" look. The front passenger tire, while also pretty used up, did not have this uneven wear pattern. Clearly new front tires were in order, which Stokes priced out at $435 for each Pirelli P-Zero 235/35ZR-19. Total cost, including taxes and mounting/balancing, $949.67 The tires weren't in stock, but Stokes arranged for delivery the following day. Appropriately, as the tires were being mounted inside Stokes Tire Center a downpour began outside (gotta love that timing).
Front tire replacement is often paired with an alignment, particularly if the old tires had uneven wear. Stokes was prepared to give the R8 a four-wheel alignment, but the technician didn't expect to find such an elaborate collection of adjustments tucked above those underbody panels. "This thing is as exotic as a Ferrari" he told me. When I reminded him that the R8 and Gallardo share the same platform he replied, "True, so I guess that makes sense." But the alignment's price jumped from $110 to $170, and the time involved went from one hour to two.
That timing didn't fit with the rest of my day's schedule, so the R8 will be retuning to Stokes soon to complete its alignment service.
Karl Brauer, Edmunds.com Editor in Chief @ 24,400 miles
ddoouugg says:
02:30 PM, 12/ 1/08
Wow that sucks.
kurtamaxxxguy says:
02:33 PM, 12/ 1/08
Ahhh, so the R8's really an expensive Italian Stallion, disguised as a German Vundercar.
It's fun to read about this model, but doesn't seem all that practical to own, unless one is very wealthy and has really good roads to drive/race it on.
Then again, how many people own cars that expect them to be practical? :-)
m_thrizzle says:
03:09 PM, 12/ 1/08
With as much business as you give Stokes, you'd think they would give you better pricing. The TireRack sells the P Zero's for $343 ea (fronts). Shipping is $50 and there's no tax to CA.
Stokes: $870 a pair.
Tire Rack: $736 a pair (including shipping).
Savings: $134, which would pay for the installation and part of the alignment.
Print out a TireRack price quote next time to force them to reduce their price. If they won't, just order from the TireRack and have them shipped directly to Stokes, or another installation shop of your choice.
ttummy says:
03:31 PM, 12/ 1/08
Sounds like a lot of effort to save less than 15%. Not to mention annoying the dealer, and losing another X days if you have to order from Tire Rack and wait for delivery. If you have an expense account for the car, as the writers here do, then why bother?
m_thrizzle says:
03:38 PM, 12/ 1/08
True re: expense account, but if it's your own money, I'm sure you'd love to save $134, and it's not much work at all. Shipping is from NV and only takes a couple days, so unless it's a tire emergency, again, not a big hassle.
tcolberg85 says:
03:44 PM, 12/ 1/08
We should only be so blessed to consider saving 15% on a several hundred dollar purchase too much of a "bother".
lazyhater says:
05:45 PM, 12/ 1/08
"Ahhh, so the R8's really an expensive Italian Stallion, disguised as a German Vundercar"
It is the other way around, the Gallardo is a German Vundercar disguised as an Italian Stallion.
The R8 is German all the way.
estreka says:
07:11 PM, 12/ 1/08
Discount Tire has ya beat. $387 each, $901 installed, with lifetime service.
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/findTireDetail.do?c=2&ar=35&rf=true&rd=19&rc=CALINT&cs=235&dVeh=dVeh&tc=PIRHZ7&yr=2008&pc=41336&cf=false&vid=014381&sw=false
Sorry for the length.
dragonflight says:
11:44 PM, 12/ 1/08
ugh, the expenses on this car seem to be more M3, GT-R, or Ferrari, than say, Karl's GT40. Disappointing, especially if I had (will?) buy this as my "dream car"!
ahightower says:
05:54 AM, 12/ 2/08
Yikes. I wonder what the dealer would have charged. 24,400 miles really isn't bad for such high performance tires. But it's a shame to let them die early from neglect. I'd think an actual owner would rotate and balance every so often and get more life out of those expensive tires. No fleet car, no matter how exotic, is going to get the love and attention it deserves. Except for that Ferrari which was coddled by the few who didn't hate it.
vacagrande says:
06:39 AM, 12/ 2/08
estreka - but then you'd have to let Discount Tire touch your supercar. If you're comfortable with a business and feel safe leaving them with your car it's worth a little extra IMO. I wouldn't take my car to Jiffy Lube if they paid me for it.
vvk says:
08:18 AM, 12/ 2/08
estreka, take a look at http://tinyurl.com
compliance says:
09:24 AM, 12/ 2/08
Uh, you sure you want them doing an alignment on the R8? Especially after hearing "This thing is as exotic as a Ferrari". Alignment is one thing I really wouldn't want screwed up. I'd go to the dealer.
stingray454 says:
11:18 AM, 12/ 2/08
"It is the other way around, the Gallardo is a German Vundercar disguised as an Italian Stallion.
The R8 is German all the way. "
I don't know how you figure that. The Gallardo was built first and had been sold for many years before the R8 was even conceived. When it came time to build the R8, VW used the Gallardo as its platform.
stingray454 says:
11:22 AM, 12/ 2/08
" But it's a shame to let them die early from neglect. I'd think an actual owner would rotate and balance every so often and get more life out of those expensive tires. "
You can't rotate the tires on most supercars - staggered wheel sizes (larger wheels in back), and some are uni-directional.
20k miles is about as good as you can hope for on tires like these.
ttummy says:
12:16 PM, 12/ 2/08
"I don't know how you figure that. The Gallardo was built first and had been sold for many years before the R8 was even conceived. When it came time to build the R8, VW used the Gallardo as its platform."
We're going to visit the Lambo factory on our family trip this spring and in doing some research found the following:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=106496
Edmunds says "The Gallardo's skeleton, by contrast, is a 600-pound aluminum space frame manufactured in Germany, and arrives in Sant'Agata preassembled and painted."
...
"the Gallardo's V10 block is manufactured off-site and shipped to Hungary for finishing before it reaches Italy."
estreka says:
02:45 PM, 12/ 2/08
Wk - That's awesome!
CycloneRcr says:
02:51 PM, 12/ 2/08
"Yikes. I wonder what the dealer would have charged. 24,400 miles really isn't bad for such high performance tires"
If I remember correctly those tires on the R8 are already replaced once. So this is the third set (at least for the front axle) in 25K miles. So, it's not as good as you think =)
lazyhater says:
05:56 PM, 12/ 2/08
"I don't know how you figure that. The Gallardo was built first and had been sold for many years before the R8 was even conceived. When it came time to build the R8, VW used the Gallardo as its platform."
stingray454, to be honest, I don't have any facts about it, I just know the Gallardo looks and feels 100% German to me. The Gallardo was conceived after VW bought Lambo, and the car was pretty much engineered under VW's direction. The interior is 100% Audi, the exterior don't have any sexy Italian in it, it doesn't have the sexy Italian exhaust notes. The way I see it, modern Lambo are just a premium brand of Audi, a rebadge Audi is a bad way to say it. They share all the parts from the same part bins. The Gallardo came 1st is because just like how everyone does it, they sell the cool new stuff under the premium brand first, then it get trickle down to lesser brand, lesser model....... Like how stuff appears on Maybach first, then S-class, E-class.....C-class.....etc.
lazyhater says:
06:00 PM, 12/ 2/08
In another words, VW/Lambo developed a mid engine platform, made/sell the Gallardo first, then the R8 came next, who knows, maybe the future R4 will use the same platform, then some mid engine VW model.
This is why the Gallardo is A LOT more reliable then old school Lambo, because it is a mass produced German car, not a small volume Italian kit car.
lazyhater says:
06:03 PM, 12/ 2/08
ttummy, thank you for confirming my feeling that the Gallardo is German.
stingray454 says:
08:21 AM, 12/ 3/08
"Edmunds says "The Gallardo's skeleton, by contrast, is a 600-pound aluminum space frame manufactured in Germany, and arrives in Sant'Agata preassembled and painted."
...
"the Gallardo's V10 block is manufactured off-site and shipped to Hungary for finishing before it reaches Italy.""
Interesting. I wasn't aware of that. Doesn't sound very Italian at all! I thought Lamborghini's were hand made in Italy by Italian virgin women? Oh well, so much for that idea! Chalk up another reason I would pick a Ferrari F430 over a Gallardo. If I'm paying for an Italian exotic, I want an Italian exotic, not a German trying to pretend to be Italian.
This does explain why the early Gallardos were so slow though...
lazyhater says:
12:39 PM, 12/ 4/08
"Interesting. I wasn't aware of that. Doesn't sound very Italian at all! I thought Lamborghini's were hand made in Italy by Italian virgin women? Oh well, so much for that idea! Chalk up another reason I would pick a Ferrari F430 over a Gallardo. If I'm paying for an Italian exotic, I want an Italian exotic, not a German trying to pretend to be Italian."3
Yeah modern Lambo is pretty much engineered and all the parts are manufacturered by the Germans. Then everything is assemble in Italy to fool people that it is still an Italian car.
I agreed 100%, I'll take a F430 over the Gallardo as an Italian exotic.
There is one benefit with the German though, Lambo is A LOT more reliable today, since it is basically a fancy Audi.