[200q20v] Another 200TQ 'For Sale'

[Phil Rose]

>Sold to a nice fellow from the Rochester area. pk
>

No, Paul, that was sold to me. Whoops, I mean yes: _I_ am that "nice
fellow" from Rochester ;-)

Yesterday I registered it, and this afternoon the car went for its
first joyride around town--with my wife aboard--on a shopping spree.
Then she drove it home (smiling all the way). This car will be hers
(and replace her '96 Exploder.)

As the ad said, the car is very low-mileage (but driven winters in
our very heavily salted region). Hence it has at least as much
underbody rust as my 100+ kmile car, which lived most of its years in
Maine. However the interior gives a good impression of what this car
must've looked like on the showroom floor in Nov. 1990 (date
purchased by the previous owner). Too bad the exterior isn't just as
nice; the interior I'd rate a 99 and exterior just 85/100 but with no
major dings, very straight, and good paint. In fact, the clearcoat on
this car is quite impressive--with much deeper gloss than on my Lago
car. The BBS wheels seem straight and quite free of corrosion but
there are lots of curb gouges, so I'll be looking to upgrade. Brakes
are G60s.

So far I have installed (spliced in) an oxy sensor, which cured the
surging during steady throttle, and I replaced the el-cheapo Pep Boys
oil filter with a Mann--mainly because it gave me opportunity to
reduce the level of the slightly overfilled crankcase. A new fuel
filter gets put in tomorrow, and we're scheduled to have a timing
belt service in a couple of weeks (even though mileage is OK, I
consider it on "borrowed time" after 11 years). A recent Bosch
factory-rebuilt alternator and starter had already been installed,
which is a little surprising considering the low mileage. Of course I
regret the absence of Euro headlights, although at least the DOT
lights aren't badly pitted (yet). I think I'll start rebuilding the
rear calipers that I took off my other car this summer and use them
on this one--its rear calipers look (and work) like artifacts
retrieved from a sunken Spanish galleon.

The instrument panel will need to be pulled out to do whatever
re-soldering and contact cleaning is needed to cure the erratic
"lightshow" it gives. A hard rap with my knuckles sets things right
for a while, but my knuckles are getting sore. I want replace both of
the _outer_ taillight units (any offers???), which have a slight
crack on left side and big hole in the right (I wonder how that
happened).

There are some interesting differences seen/heard upon comparison
with my other car. I thought that this red car was the female of the
pair, but its security arming-signal is a hearty "Whoof", whereas the
(presumed) male emits a wimpy "meep". However--for those keeping
score--the new car does also have a pronounced wrinkle in edge of the
rear fenderliner (driver's side). Seems that our new "Big Red" is one
of those that activates its afterrun cooling quite reliably even in
60 degree weather, whereas its stablemate requires summertime ambient
temps (of near 80 degF) before ever activating the afterrun. The red
car has a fairly early production number (008180) which may account
for some of these things--for example I'll bet it has grease fittings
on the drive-shaft u-joint, whereas the Lago car does not. Oh, the
new car turns quite easily/smoothly in tight, slow-speed (parking
lot) maneuvers, whereas it's older brother lets you know it's got an
all-wheel system (shudders slightly). Why would this be?

Well, enough rambling on about our new family member.  One last
thing: Why are these cars not holding on to value a bit better? I
bought this one for significantly less than the $7500 asked by the
original-owner seller. This translates to about 50% of what I paid
about 3 1/2 years ago for a nice 100 Kmile car.  I seem to recall
many Audiphiles talking about wanting and searching in vain for a '91
200q. Has the supply really become so ample? Seems so.

Phil
--

Phil Rose				Rochester, NY
'91 200q	(130 kmiles, Lago blue)
'91 200q   (57 kmiles, Tornado red)
	mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net