AutoTrader Find of the Week: The Audi R8 is a Supercar Bargain

You gotta help me, doc. I’m doing it again. I’m encouraging regular, sensible people to spend their hard-earned dollars on used, exotic supercars instead of sensible family SUVs.

All right, all right, calm down. Let’s just think rationally here. Surely nobody on the planet who is thinking of buying a 2026 Kia EV9 GT could actually be convinced to buy a 2008 Audi R8 instead.

Right?

Even though, when you think about it, the R8 is a much better investment because it’s at the very end of its depreciation curve, while the EV9 GT is going to depreciate like a stone. You’ll be lucky if that thing is worth half its MSRP in five years. The R8, on the other hand, is almost 20 years old. It’s about to become a classic. Prices have nowhere to go but up, in my view. Your kids? Make them take the bus or an Uber or whatever.

No? It was worth a shot.

We make this comparison only to illustrate a point. A brand-new, fully loaded 2026 Kia EV6 GT retails for around $88,500, while a low-mileage, well-maintained pre-owned Audi R8 like this 2008 example for sale on AutoTrader through Porsche Centre Vancouver is a steal at just under $81,000.

The real difference? If you buy the EV6 GT, people will say, “You spent $90,000 on a Kia?” Whereas if you buy the R8, people will say, “Wow! It was only $80,000?”

Still not convinced? I get it.

True, this R8 is a pretty low-optioned example, with the base 4.2-litre Audi V8 engine, automatic Tiptronic transmission and Ice Silver Metallic exterior paint with non-contrasting body panels (easily the most iconic and memorable feature of the R8’s design).

But it’s still an Audi R8. So while it might not be optioned with the screaming 5.2-litre Lamborghini V10 and the epic six-speed manual gated shifter — you can expect to pay anywhere from another $40,000 to $100,000 more for one of those — it doesn’t look like it’s aged a day.

Besides this particular example’s low mileage and meticulous maintenance, the R8’s design philosophy — while objectively simplistic (cough boring) next to both modern supercars and even its contemporaries — is also objectively timeless. The earliest models look like they could go on sale for the first time tomorrow and nobody would question it. This car is almost 20 years old. It doesn’t look two years old.

And yes, while the 5.2-litre V10 version of the R8 is the one that earned all the hype, the 4.2-litre V8 version was nothing to sneeze at.

It made 420 horsepower, accelerated to 100 km/h in roughly 4.5 seconds and recorded quarter-mile runs of 13.1 seconds. Which, yes, theoretically means it would get stomped by a Dodge Challenger Hellcat. But in the real world, you’d probably find straight-line performance to be pretty evenly matched — also, honestly, you’d probably spend very similar money to get a Hellcat in similar nick, so it’s not like it’s some kind of comparative performance bargain.

(The Dodge Challenger Hellcat is also a better buy than that Kia EV6 GT, am I right?)

And, of course, the R8 is a mid-engined European supercar, so it has far more tricks up its sleeve than a piggish American muscle car. Audi famously integrated its extensive aerodynamic knowledge from its Le Mans-winning race car program to design the R8’s slippery, all-aluminum body. To increase downforce, air ducts and diffusers under the body channel air to force the tires into the ground.

The result was a car that lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in eight minutes, one second — 22 seconds faster than a Porsche 911 (997) Turbo.

However, comparative performance probably isn’t your most pressing question when buying a used R8. The reality is, while you might not be comparing it against a sensible family SUV, you might be comparing it against a new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray or Mustang Dark Horse, which cost roughly the same money and offer similar, if not superior, performance.

But the real rub is that a new Stingray or Dark Horse come with a warranty. They also have engines based on tried, true, and infamously reliable architectures.

And the big worry with any used European exotic is, of course, reliability and service costs.

However, the R8’s 4.2-litre V8, like GM’s LS or Ford’s Modular, does have something of a history. First introduced in 1991, the engine was applied across the Audi lineup — seen in everything from the A8 executive sedan to the Q7 SUV — until it was discontinued in 2015. It’s very much a known quantity and far less expensive to run than the Lamborghini V10.

Still, do some research within owners’ groups, and you’ll find that while the consensus is that the 4.2-litre R8 is reliable overall, even in high-mileage examples, some of the R8’s bespoke parts and specialized service needs can run up some mighty high bills.

One issue that frequently arises is clogged fuel injectors and intake valve ports — a byproduct of early direct-injection fuel systems. The fix requires the entire intake manifold assembly to be removed and cleaned. Air conditioning compressor units are also known to fail and apparently require an engine-out service to replace them (it sounds preposterous, but believe it or not, this is pretty par for the course for VW/Audi products of the era).

Owners report being quoted $6,000 for injector replacement service and $10,000 for the air conditioning repair.

Early R8s equipped with MagneRide suspension almost universally failed due to a known fault — some reportedly as early as 20,000 km — so it’s always worth checking for leaks, as well as asking any seller whether the issue has been addressed before purchasing.

Finally, owners commonly joke that the R8 “runs on oil” due to the 4.2-litre V8’s aggressive oil consumption, with some recommending oil top-ups of one litre at 3,000-km intervals.

As for regular maintenance, owners report bills of about $500 to $600 for a full service, including oil, engine air filters and the like.

So, maybe the Kia EV6 GT isn’t actually all that much more expensive — at least, probably not in the first two or three years of ownership.

The R8, despite its reputation as an everyday-usable, reliable, “reasonable” supercar, still requires a level of dedication, attentiveness, and care that a cookie-cutter SUV you’re going to roll over in five years just never will.

Not-boring cars always cost more than just money. But they also offer you more than just a form of transportation.

This isn’t about trying to convince you that a supercar can be sensible — only that it is obtainable and not necessarily as reckless a decision as you’re worried it might be.