First long tirp: '94 Avant Quattro: Long narrative

[Roger M. Woodbury]

My wife and I just returned from a trip to south Florida to attend the birth
of my daughter's second child.  We left  Tuesday before Thanksgiving,
arriving in Boca Raton late Thanksgiving evening.  We left there on Friday
morning,and went up the west coast of Florida, arriving back here this late
afternoon.  This was a vacation trip and we completed many "agenda" items
along the way.  Speed was irrelevant, although we wanted to be here (near
Bar Harbor, Maine) this afternoon.

Here are the specifics:

4334 miles.  21.47 miles per gallon overall.  1.5 quarts of oil consumed.

Basically, we covered a lot of interstate miles, with not an insignificant
amount of Florida traffic, and on the return, a LOT of New Jersey/New York
Sunday evening traffic, as well.  We will avoid I-95 completely in the
future, event though it might add a full days' travel to the agenda.

My '94 100 Avant is a Quattro, purchased last July with 39,000 miles from
one owner.  It had been meticulously maintained, and is in nearly
outstanding overall condition.

My previous experience in this car was driving it to Maine from the Kansas
City dealership that sold it to me. This time was more interesting, as I had
my wife along, and that made me concentrate on things that I otherwise might
not pay attention to.

First of all, the engine has wonderful performance for long distance touring
in this country.  Once at speed...oh, say, 60 to 80 miles perhour, the car
pulls without effort on our Interstate highways. It will do that cheerfully,
and without muss of fuss for four hundred miles.  My car does not have a
computer, so when the light comes on announcing that  I have "low fuel"...I
find a gas station and fuel up.  But in "steady state" driving the car is
fully capable of traveling as much as 500 miles between fillings, based on
what the tank accepted when I filled it.  The car's longevity on the road is
really greater than most owner's kidneys....

Now the negatives,a ndt here are some.

First of all this Audi is absolutley perfect for its assigned task:  taking
my wife to work and back most days, and being a general utililty vehicle for
most of the rest of the time.  Perfect.  Comfortable, powerful enough for
Maine's rural and semi-rural conditions.  While around town fuel mileage
isn't great, it is ok, for a heavy, all wheel drive vehicle that is as
capable a vehicle as this one is.

On the downside, it is really down on power when asked to "mix it up" in
south Florida traffic, or on the New Jersey Turnpike during a heavy Sunday
flow.  One learns to keep the throttle floored to make the car go, and it
will NEVER disappoint or surprise you by being nimble.. Probably the best
adjective to describe the acceleration curve of this car is "relentless to
red-line"...but not quick.  In Boca Raton traffic fuel mileage dipped to a
rather miserably dissapointing 15.4.

I grew impatient with the Bose system while in Florida, and took the car to
a shop that sold (amoung other systems) Nakamichi stereos.  The left front
speakr in my Bose system was dead, so I replaced the head unit and the front
speakers.  My head unit had stopped responding to the off/on/volume control
and I simply lost patience.  The Nakamichi headunit (the BAS:IC model!!)
looks pretty close to the dash configuiration and color...except for the
yellowish glow of the face panel, which largely disappears after a few hours
in the car.

Anyway, so far the head unit works well, and I am pleased with the FM
sensitivity, as that is an issue here in eastern Maine.  For two hundred and
fifty bucks installed:  not bad.

The way the thing is wired, the pre-amp out puts go to the Bose powered
speakers in the rear.  Works FINE.

The front speakers are drivien by the amplifier int eh head unit, and that
is not sufficient.  I had one dead front amplifier, so something needed to
happen. I had two days to research and sort out this stuff, although I
assumed that Nakamichi had the deck that would work.

Eventually, I will add a new front amplifier that will provide more balance
to the system...right now, no mater what I do, the bias with really good
strong sound, is to the rear.

What is interesting to me though, is how this radio works, as my rear
speakers in my V8 are dead, and I suspect that one of my front amplifiers is
dead also.  Now, I have two head units, and I might just have one rebuilt,
and new speakers installed front and rear, and make a real concert hall out
of the dear V8....cool!

So, to summarize.  This was an interestng trip, considering my wife
wasalong, and I haven't been married for ten years before September 21st of
THIS year.  We both agree:  The Audi 100 CS Quattro Avant is a WONDERFUL
car.

Certainly, THIS car, a '94, with 48.000 miles right now, will be around in
this house for quite a long time.

But from this trip, I did learn one thing.  That is simply that I would NOT
consider buying an A6 wagon of ANY vintage to replace this 100CS.....

.....but if you show me a nice, NEW S-6 Avant (V8), in a couple of
years....Now, well, there!  We'll talk!

Roger

'94 100CS Avant Quattro
'93 V8 Quattro
'97 GMC 2500 4X4  (454 V8!)