86 Coupe GT

[Fisher, Scott]

Marty Alpert asks:

> Is a mechanically perfect( for a 15 yr old car) Audi Coupe GT 
> worth spending $5,000 on. 

No, unless you KNEW, with 100% accuracy, that you wouldn't have to spend
anything except gas and oil on it for the next five or six years.  And if
you can predict the future with that much accuracy, there are some folks in
our stock-market analysis department who would LOVE to talk to you... :-)

Seriously: I have a fairly nice '83 CGT, have owned it for three and a half
years, and have not come close to sinking $5000 into it yet.  If you have
$5000 to spend on a car right now, start with another car -- for example,
look for a really sharp '87.5 CGT for under $3000 and put the rest of the
money in the bank.  

Looking ahead, I see that Huw has also answered, so in addition to simply
saying "what he said," I would advise you to pass on this car.  This one
simply has way too much wrong with it for the money; I expect the world's
nicest, newest Audi Coupe GT would probably sell for $2500 tops and need a
LOT less repair work than this one does.  

> Thanks for your opinions,
>
> Marty Alpert
> '74 MGB-GT ( proves I'm a masicist)

Ah, common ground (if you don't already know who I am, go to the team.net
Web site and download my collected postings from the Britcar list, if mjb
hasn't pulled them yet :-).  The CGT is a wonderful car in a lot of the ways
that an MGB is a wonderful car.  Part of the ways they are similarly
wonderful is that they're "cheap and cheerful" -- not the fastest of the
bunch, but with a really superb blend of long-legged comfort and sparkling
handling that makes them a joy to drive in the day-to-day slog as well as
the blast up a twisty road.  And -- or at least as MGBs were ten or twelve
years ago, when I last bought one -- they're really inexpensive to own and
operate, which is good and bad.  It's good because it means you can
experience them without having to fork over serious dough, but it's bad
because it often means people have bought them who don't have the means to
maintain them.  

(Oh, and as near as we can tell, when British Phlegmsucking Leyland was
laying off workers in the late Seventies prior to tearing down the Abingdon
factory and Sir Michael Edwardes was in the process of giving the British
auto industry a right proper sodding, I've always suspected that a bunch of
blokes from the electrical engineering department got together, bought a
"Teach Yourself German" book, and moved to Ingolstadt en masse -- it's the
only logical explanation.  On the plus side, when the electrical connectors
in the Audi come loose and the taillights stop working, they're a nice
quick-connect plastic multiconnector instead of those damned Lucas bullet
connectors, and they only go together one way.)

The last MGB (tourer) I looked at, in May 1999, had a $6000 price tag and
was stunning, an almost immaculate vehicle (on the show floor next to a
couple of $10k MGAs which were what I was looking at at the time).  So that
explains your reasoning about the CGT's overall cost -- buy a $2000 MGB (if
you can still find one), sink $3000 in it, and you could in theory still get
your money back, or at least the cars are appreciating to the point where
you might have some hope of at least justifying the expense. 

I don't think the CGT is there, and I don't think it ever will be,
financially speaking.  However, what it offers in long-term, down-the-line
driving pleasure is not to be denied.

Look for a better example, don't give up, but don't be afraid to let this
one go...

Best,

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon