'New' Audi

[Lawrence C Leung]

Congrats Tom! I should be so lucky (looking for an equivalent level
"beater" to take to New York City. Too scared to bring the 200Q there, as
I'd be afraid it wouldn't be there (or wouldn't ALL be there!) when I got
back to it. 

LL - NY

On Sun, 29 Oct 2000 17:11:17 +0200 Tom Nas <tnas at euronet.nl> writes:
>Hi all,
>
>Got my 'new' Audi Saturday, it's a 1987 (type 89) 80 1.8N FWD 5-speed. 
>I 
>paid Dfl 150, which is something like $60 at current exchange rates. 
>It's a 
>blue-greyish metallic colour, really don't know the code. Paper 
>sticker in 
>the trunklid's missing. The only luxury feature on this car is an OE 
>steel 
>sunroof. It was imported as a used car from Germany in '96.
>Now it may not be a thing of great beauty, and with 252k km (158k 
>miles) 
>it's not exactly showroom fresh. But $60 is kinda low- these cars 
>fetch 
>about $1400 here in good shape. The reason for this asking price is 
>that it 
>needs some repairs which the owner was not prepared to pay for, and 
>couldn't do himself. He wanted to get rid of it quickly, and this was 
>his 
>solution.
>The first sign of problems was a flashing 'brake' light and the engine 
>
>canted over to the passenger side a little too far. A closer 
>inspection 
>revealed that the bolts holding the engine mount to the engine were 
>missing, allowing the engine to hit the subframe and probably damaging 
>the 
>front brake line. The severe tilting of the engine also loosened the 
>joint 
>between downpipe and exhaust.
>This meant that I drove the short trip home in a car that would only 
>brake 
>properly by pulling the handbrake and that sounded like a farm 
>tractor, 
>which made for an interesting drive. It also leaks a lot of oil as the 
>
>valve cover gasket has disintegrated. That's the bad news so far. The 
>good 
>news is that apart from one small ding in the passenger front door 
>it's 
>undamaged and that so far it seems to run fine (starts great!), 
>everything 
>works and clutch, transmission, steering and struts all appear to be 
>in 
>excellent shape.
>
>The previous owner was a pig, using the car as his private skip. So 
>far, 
>I've cleaned out several decaying food remains (French bread, anyone?) 
>and 
>the very full ashtray. In the past, something very furry seems to have 
>shed 
>its coat all over the interior and the otherwise undamaged(!) blue 
>'crayon' 
>upholstery is pretty dirty. Tomorrow I'll put my vacuum cleaner to 
>good use 
>to find out what's under the fur, and I'll give it a badly-needed 
>wash.
>
>It's intended to serve as a daily driver while the 90q is under the 
>knife- 
>kinda takes the stress out of the repairs when you have at least one 
>car to 
>use. It'll also donate some of its parts to the 90, to replace those 
>getting a little less than fresh. When I'm done fixing the 90, the 
>80'll be 
>up for sale. Looks like I've got quite a bargain.
>
>That is- when the inspection session next Tuesday doesn't turn up more 
>
>horrors. Looks like the current crop is easily repairable (let's hope 
>the 
>engine mount bolts have just gone missing, not broken off inside the 
>block...). Anyway, it's a pretty good deal- even if I drive it to the 
>
>scrapyard next week, I'll get more for it than I paid. If it's deemed 
>
>repairable, I'll start looking for a cheap stereo (OE stuff? Naaah, 
>I'll 
>never find one here...) and spruce it up.
>
>Sorry for the long post, but it's not easy to find a cheap Audi here- 
>I'm 
>pretty pleased with it.
>
>Regards, Tom
>87 90 quattro, NG engine Titian red metallic, 172k km (it's not dead, 
>it's 
>resting)
>87 80 fwd, RU engine, unknown greyish metallic, 252k km
>88 80 fwd, SF engine, Titian red metallic, 348k km (gone, but not 
>forgotten)
>Zeist, The Netherlands
>