• High overall running costs
• Not too bad on fuel
• Average residual values for market

Let’s not beat around the bush here: the Audi R8 Spyder wasn’t built to be cheap to run. Its six-figure list price assumes that buyers will be able to afford the ultra-high monthly bills associated with cars like this. It’ll lose significant cash from the moment you drive it away from the dealership for the first time, culminating in the R8 Spyder losing 57% of its value after three years and 30,000 miles according to our accurate pricing data.

However, a Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet loses 61% of its value over the same timeframe, and the Ferrari California T loses 56%, so the Audi doesn’t do as badly as it initially appears in this respect.

Annual check-ups for your Audi R8 V10 Spyder

While services can be carried out at anything up to two years apart, we strongly recommend you take yours to an Audi dealer once a year if only for a simple oil change. This will mean the car is in as fine fettle as it can be, but it won’t be cheap. You’re able to have your R8 service at any of the 114 Audi Centres (dealers) nationwide. 

Insurance costs will be high relative to most other Audi cars but not too unreasonable if you’re comparing cars of similar performance. The only silver lining here really is that considering the accelerative performance on hand, the fuel economy isn’t actually that bad. We saw more than 20mpg during a weekend with the R8 Spyder.

The Audi R8 V10 Spyder isn’t the car to choose if you’re looking for reasonable CO2 emissions. In fairness, there aren’t any cars powered with a V10 engine that do well in this regard. The official CO2 output starts at 297g/km (302g/km for the V10 Performance) with 20-inch wheels and rises proportionally with diameter.

All of that, despite the R8 featuring a stop/start system and cylinder deactivation, which switches half of the motor’s cylinders off when they’re not required. And fuel consumption of 20mpg+ isn’t disastrous for a car with this amount of performance and drama.

• A reliable sports car
• Very few reported issues
• No major recalls to worry about

Considering its high-horsepower performance, the Audi R8 Spyder doesn’t appear to have many reliability woes. There has been a single recall during the entire time the R8 has been on sale, and even that wasn’t anything serious, yet has been fixed.

While we haven’t heard about any ‘known issues’ with the car itself, you do read the odd story about Audi’s MMI system crashing – or not switching on in the first place – and we’ve experienced issues with the carmaker’s headlights on occasion too. Your local main dealer can and should fix these niggles promptly, though.

Tellingly, the biggest proportion of MoT failures for the previous-generation R8 were for tyres, which is something fully under the owner’s control and no fault of the car whatsoever.