There are two basic schools of thought when it comes to exotic cars: People who wash them with cashmere animal diapers in pristine hermetically-sealed bubbles, and people who drive them like their hair is on fire more often than not. If you're the latter, this V10 Audi R8 Spyder is for you, regardless of the car's somewhat sordid past.
This 2011 Audi R8 V10 Spyder is the car that you've probably lusted after ever since Robert Downey, Jr. drove one for a few seconds in Iron Man 2 to fulfill the movie's product placement contract with Audi. It's the right color, the right engine, and the convertible is one of the best looking bodies, with top both up and down, of any exotic car driving today. Its Lamborghini-derived V10 produces around 525 horsepower in stock form and sounds like condensed angels. That's right, angels. It's also priced considerably less than any other R8 on the market, almost half the price of any other V10 Spyder. But here's the downside - this car is the scourge of honest used car salesmen everywhere, for it has a salvage title due to a previous accident.
This car is one of the cleanest repairs I've seen (at least in pictures), and the seller assures any potential buyers that the car isn't compromised in any way, providing before and after pictures with details of everything that was changed to make the car road-worthy once again. Here's an excerpt from the description:
On 10/31/14 this car was involved in an accident, and instead of the Insurance Company paying to repair this vehicle, they chose to sell it damaged, and as a result this Audi R8 was given a "SALVAGE TITLE / REBUILT TITLE". The Carfax: 10/31/14 "Accident reported involving left front impact. Airbags did not deploy" I have spared no expense in putting this R8 back to it's original condition. I have included 7 before pictures of the car when I purchased it, at the end of my photos. Car looks and runs absolutely super!
Here are the pics before repair:
And here's one after the necessary repairs were completed:
Here's a car that although has a history of damage, looks to be repaired professionally, with no signs of airbag deployment. The only misgiving I can see is a slight misalignment of the bumper with the hood, which can most likely be fixed in short order by any competent body shop if needed. As an end user, I wouldn't think twice about checking this car out as a potential prospect. As always with these kinds of deals, it pays to be meticulous, but barring any glaring faults, it looks like a solid buy.
It's one of the best looking, best sounding, and most reliable supercars you can buy today, and at an asking price cheaper than most V8 coupe versions, it's a lot of car for the money. Get it, don a nice suit, and tell everyone at Comic Con that you're cosplaying as Tony Stark.
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes about buying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world's cheapest Mercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he's the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn't feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.
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