New Member no car, but might tomorrow?

Hi Guy's

For the last 10 years I’ve been bombing about in a beat up old 90’s Transit which has served me well. The time now however has come to send her to the great junk yard in the sky due to the ever mounting welding costs! The thing I loved about it was the ability to hit it with a hammer should anything go wrong, and her love for both diesel AND £0.98 vegetable oil!

I don’t dislike technology, but I’m extremely wary of it and loathe the thought of having to buy anything new for fear of having some of the horrendous experiences I’ve heard online with people who have ‘’modern’’ vehicles. I’ve heard of some awful stories about the Mk6 Transits with their dual mass fly wheels and of course the horrendous corrosion problems, so I’ve decided to give vans a miss for a while to see if the Mk7’s fare any better in their lives so I can possibly acquire one later on when they come within my price range.

Anyway, I’ve searched round and decided I’d like a large car for a change before fuel etc becomes too expensive for me to afford. Japanese cars are very much of a muchness, and so I settled on late 90’s early 2000 BMW 728i and the Audi A8, as they both have the musical six cylinder engine and the looks to match. I figured even at that age I can’t avoid ECU’s, DSC’s and ABS so what the hell lets go German!
Too many con’s killed off my thoughts about the BMW E38’s because of all the problems with the suspension and cooling, not to mention the missing pixels on the OBC that lots of owners have complained about. Also, when it comes down to it the Beemer is still made of steel, an element I’m not friends with at the moment.

So I’m left with Audi’s all alloy A8!

Interestingly enough, I’ve not heard any real common complaints about the Audi apart from the expense garages charge to complete timing belt changes.
So I’ve been looking at A8’s for sale and have found a 1999 one owner car that has 100,000 on the clock and has a full dealer (Audi for 7 years) service record. I called the present used car dealer to find out if the car has had this service done but he can’t confirm that it has.

My question(s) (finally!) is there any way to find out if the car has had this service done, or does the fact that it’s been serviced at an Audi dealer for longer than 5 years mean it will have already had it done anyway? I’m going down south tomorrow to go look at the car, so I’m going to phone the dealer that it was serviced at on the way to see if they have a record of it.
Also, do any of you guys have any hints or tips for this newbie that I need to look out for whilst I’m checking this car over? I’ve looked everywhere to see if I can find some sort of buyers guide to the D2? A8 but can’t seem to find anything.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated,

Speed.