What do I look for on a 5000CS quattro?

[Motor Sport Visions Photography]

While I agree in principle with what Dewitt and others are saying here I
think the type$$ quattro is unfairly slammed for poor reliability. They
are no worse than most 80s vintage high line European luxury cars and
better than many. I had this reminder just recently in my repair or
replace dilema over my wife's 1985 Ovlov 240 DL "mommiewagon" which by
the way has been worse for maintenance issues than any Audi I have owned
(I have owned 7 to date) including my 1987 5ktq with ~180k miles. We are
a family of 5 and take at least a couple road trips per year as a family
and many more to go photograph races all over California. The 5ktq is
the road trip car and I trust it more than I trust the Ovlov (which at
face value should be a simpler and more economical car...but isn't). In
our quest (which, BTW has resulted in our dumping tons of dough into her
Ovlov and my buying "project ovlov" as a third car) I looked at many
Ovlov 740s from the late 80s and early 90s. These things may hold their
value better than a type$$ but that is about it. They do not hold up as
functional vehicles anywhere near as well as Audis IMO. All the stuff we
bitch about in the type$$ these things do, plus they have interior bits
that fall apart *much* sooner than a type$$. I have heard horror stories
about WMB 6 series cars (never mind a 750i) as well.

They real key you have to ask yourself, and this applies to *any* high
end European car with 100k+ miles from the 80s/early 90s), is are you
willing to take on the "issues" as they crop up or not? If you are
resourceful, good with tools, have a place to work on your car, and are
used to doing as much of your own maintenance as possible, the type 44
turbo quattro (I personally would not waste my time and energy on a type
44 that is not a turbo quattro, or V8) is a very nice car that will
reward you with excellent performance and driving experience. Do buy the
best possible condition you can afford, try and get the car with
verifiable maintenance history (buying from list members is often a best
bet), and hope that many of the big ticket issues have recently been
addressed or plan accordingly in your savings account.

BTW, "project ovlov" is a 1983 240 turbo wagon with 125k miles I bought
for $300.00 not running well at all due to a seriously plugged kitty. It
also has other issues as well but the upside is it has great potential
to become an alternate road trip car (for the family anyway) to my 5ktq.
If nothing else it was a nice set of alloy turbo wheels and ADS speakers
for 300 bux ;-)

Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com