The Last V8s You Can Still Buy in Australia

Cars
June 1, 2026

The Last V8s You Can Still Buy in Australia

By Tony Mantos

There’s something happening in Australian showrooms that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago. The V8 is becoming a rarity. Not a legend, not yet a ghost — but something rarer and more precious than it’s been since the engine format first started showing up under local bonnets.

Emissions requirements have been tightening for years, and they’ve already claimed some beloved engines, including the 4.5-litre twin-turbo diesel that used to live under the Toyota LandCruiser’s bonnet. Now the Patrol is headed the same way. The final Y62 shipments are landing in Australia ahead of the V6-powered Y63. An era is ending in real time.

If you want a new V8, the window is closing. Here’s what’s still on the table.

Ford Mustang GT

This is the entry point. The one that’s actually within reach for normal humans.

The current Mustang GT packs a 5.0-litre naturally aspirated V8 producing 345kW, offered with a six-speed manual or automatic. It’s loud, it’s rear-wheel drive, it smells like petrol, and it goes sideways if you ask it to.

The GT fastback with manual is priced at $84,990 before on-road costs. For a brand new V8 sports car with a proper manual gearbox, that’s still a deal. It’s also Australia’s best-selling sports car, which tells you everything about how much Australians still want this kind of thing.

Nissan Patrol (Buy One Now, Seriously)

The current Patrol runs a 5.6-litre V8 producing 298kW and 560Nm, and it’s one of the last big-displacement V8 4WDs you can buy new anywhere at a sane price. The Y62 has been a workhorse, a tow vehicle, a family car, and a proper off-road weapon for over a decade. It does all of it without drama.

Nissan dealers are contacting customers now, warning that the limited final allocation arrives in the next few months before V6 models take over. The replacement Y63 gets a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, with more power on paper but decidedly not a V8.

Current pricing starts at $102,750 drive-away for the Ti, up to $119,550 for the Warrior. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about a Patrol, the fence is about to be pulled out from under you.

BMW M5 and M8

BMW’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 features in five models on sale here. The M5 pairs it with a plug-in hybrid setup for 535kW and 1000Nm. The M8 runs the same engine without electrification, producing 460kW and 750Nm.

The M5 is genuinely mental. A full-size sedan that’ll embarrass supercars and still carry the family to the snow. The fact that the V8 now has hybrid assistance is either a concession to the times or a reason to celebrate more torque, depending on how you look at it.

Aston Martin (Vantage, DB12, DBX)

Aston Martin’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo is the Mercedes-AMG unit, tuned for the Vantage (489kW/800Nm), DB12 (500kW/800Nm), DBX (405kW/700Nm), and the wilder DBX 707 (520kW/700Nm).

These aren’t practical choices. They’re not meant to be. But they do prove the V8 still has a future in cars where character matters more than the compliance department’s feelings.

Ferrari (Roma, SF90 Stradale)

Ferrari’s twin-turbo V8 in the Roma and Roma Spider displaces 3.9 litres and produces 456kW and 760Nm. The SF90 Stradale steps up to a 4.0-litre unit with plug-in hybrid assistance, producing 574kW and 800Nm.

A Ferrari V8 sounds like nothing else on earth. If you can afford one, you already know that.

Lamborghini Urus and Temerario

Lamborghini’s 4.0-litre V8 is shared across the Urus SUV and Temerario coupe, producing up to 588kW and 950Nm. The Urus is the practical choice, in the same way that a leopard is a practical pet. It’ll fit school bags. It will also terrorise everything else at the lights.

Bentley (Continental GT, Flying Spur, Bentayga)

Bentley’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 runs across the Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga. In the top Continental GT variant it gets hybrid assistance for 575kW and 1000Nm. The Bentayga runs it in naturally aspirated form, making 478kW and 850Nm.

Buying a Bentley V8 is buying something hand-built and increasingly rare. The irony is that Bentley’s version of downsizing from a W12 to a V8 still produces numbers that would have seemed absurd in a racing car a generation ago.

Land Rover (Defender V8, Range Rover)

Land Rover runs two V8s across its Defender and Range Rover ranges. The Defender gets a 5.0-litre unit producing up to 368kW and 610Nm. The Range Rover P-Series variants run a 4.4-litre hybrid good for 467kW and 750Nm.

The Defender V8 makes the least logical sense and the most emotional sense. A Defender was never supposed to be this fast. That’s exactly what makes it interesting.

Audi RS6 Avant GT and RS Q8

Audi’s V8 spans four models, the headline being the limited edition RS6 Avant GT, Australia’s most expensive Audi at nearly $400,000. It’s also one of the best cars money can buy. A wagon that dispatches 0-100 in under four seconds and swallows surfboards on the weekend.

The Bottom Line

The list looks long, but look closer. Most of these are six-figure exotics. The genuinely accessible V8 choices in Australia — cars you could actually save up for — are down to basically one: the Mustang GT.

V8 options keep fading as emissions rules tighten and demand shifts. The next-gen Patrol brings a V6. LandCruiser lost its diesel V8 years ago. Holden is gone. The local V8 saloon is a museum piece.

None of this means V8s are finished overnight. But the window is genuinely narrowing, and the cars left in it are either entry-level muscle or stratospheric exotica. The middle ground — the attainable, everyday V8 — is disappearing faster than anyone predicted.

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy one, it’s probably right now.