to buy or not to buy - NOT! :)

[Lee M. Levitt]

WAUFX at aol.com writes:
>
> I have found an 85 4kq for sale. Asking price is $500. 180K with
> a working odo. However, I went to see it today and it was in a sad, sad
state of
> affairs.

> However, this car does have some good points.

Right. You don't own it.

>...this could be a great learning experience in either restoring a beloved
Audi or
> learning how to tear one apart, which is kind of the main point of my
looking
> into this.
>

Too much wrong, especially with things that won't be cheap to fix. If you
really want to tear down an older Audi and rebuild it, find a good clean
tired model without the list of problems you provided. This one's too far
gone.

I ventured down this road twice, once with a Saab 99. Towed in, towed out.
And once with a '62 Volvo P1800, rustfree English built model (mechanicals
and cosmetics shot). Regained my senses after purchasing the carcass for
$500, never did start on that project. For all I know, it's still sitting in
that field where the PO had parked (towed?) it :)

The low acquisition cost can be seductive...but a clean example will cost
you *far* less in the short run, let alone the long run! I did a back of the
envelope calculation on the Volvo and figured that it would cost a minimum
of $12K to get it up to snuff, double to triple what a good clean running
P1800 would cost (but not an early Jensen built model).

Lee
'95.5 S6 avant
'96 A6 quattro avant