Investing in a 200TQW

[Brett Dikeman]

At 10:16 AM -0400 9/5/00, George Tur wrote:

>Based on personal experience it comes down to when the repair cash 
>flow gets to be greater than paying for a new car loan and the 
>driving pleasure has degenerated to that of a toyota corolla or 
>whatever other econo box you like. This is a very subjective 
>judgment. I think what pushes you over the edge is the 
>unpredictability of the repairs. The break downs
>always occur at the worst moments. Like hard starting when trying to 
>make that fast getaway after the bank heist. (Forced to do the bank 
>heist because of the car repair bills)

    My car, around the IT department here at work, has become a joke; 
one person flat out told me, when I mentioned something about my 
mother's Volvo, that it(the Volvo) was a "REAL car."  Despite the 
fact that it will dust all their cars, I keep getting jokes and 
comments.  Not like it isn't deserved:

    First, the starter stops working at a gas station half-way from 
MA->NY.  After calling about half a dozen people, AAA, and Neil 
@Continental(nearby, but not nearby enough), the car magically 
starts.  Get home, starter is fried.  Find a replacement, install 
Sunday afternoon.
   Then, the shifter linkage pops off the tranny, stranding me in the 
middle of a road in Framingham, MA...I manage to get the car into 2nd 
gear and that's it.
    Then a caliper seizes and leaves me stuck in MA for 3 week-days 
while I hunt around for a caliper, then install it until about 10pm 
and drive 3.5 hours back down to NY.
    Then, the driver's side speaker starts dropping out.  This 
weekend, the right rear drops out, leaving me with -one- working 
speaker.
    Progressively worsening is a problem with the A/C compressor. 
Despite tension adjustment, above 3-3.5k rpms, the belt -massively- 
slips; I was right in my prediction that the compressor was on the 
way out.

Now, the replacement caliper is acting up; half the rotor is worn, 
half isn't...or the rotor was unevenly worn.  That and the bearing is 
probably toast from the intense heat of the seized caliper.  Oh, and 
the shift linkage is loose again.

Most of the above listed items have occurred in the past 2 months.

Oh, and a recent $2k bill,half of the stuff worked on didn't do 
anything(the tranny still leaks, the rear caliper problem had nothing 
to do with the brake cables, and the O2 sensor didn't fix the bad 
running, among the many things the mechanic worked on.)  Dan and I 
have had similar problems...he's the only mechanic we trust for miles 
around, but getting up to him takes almost 2 hours and for me, 
requires renting a car.

I can't do work on the car except for very minor items; I have little 
in the way of tools.  Various 200q20v listers assured me, "oh, you're 
getting into the stage where the the car will start to quiet 
down"(ie, the "gauntlet" theory.)  So far, nothing of the sort; the 
car is continuing to thrown curve balls faster than Pedro Martinez.

I paid $13.2k for my car 3 years ago, and it's been nothing but 
repair bills, several in the $2k range.  I sat down once and figured 
out that, monthly, between parts, mechanics bills, etc I was paying 
more than the payments on a -new- S4.

Showing up at an Audi dealership with an older Audi(mostly 
functioning) should be enough of a credit check in and of itself, 
proof that you can afford the payments on a new one...

Brett
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Brett Dikeman				Systems Engineer
CFN(formerly iClick, Inc)			914-872-8043
120 Bloomingdale Rd.			914-872-8100(fax)
White Plains, NY 10605			http://www.iclick.com
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