[V8] Re: v8 detailing

[Michael L. Riebs]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Kramer" <skramer at mac.com>

> Michael, I think it's a very beautiful car.  i've always liked the look of
> my 200 - this one is better.

<snip>> although to the layman most of the car looks like a 200/100 imo
> most people who see this car say - why did you ever buy another 200 turbo
> for. then i pop the hood and the drop their jaws.

Well, Steve, that's one of the many, many things that makes - not only the
V8 - but Audi in general so appealing to me. Here we have a super-luxury
German engineered, long-lasting, fun-to-drive, comfortable car - that pretty
much is unknown in "non-Audi" circles. Let me explain:

I used to own a small construction company, and would come to people's homes
to give quotes on remodeling. My wife at the time (2 years ago), was driving
a '92 Mercedes-Benz we were leasing. The purchase price - had we bought it
instead - would in '98 have been $21.5K, with 72K Mi, and all the creature
comforts.

At the same time I was driving my 1St V8, a black-on-black '90 with 165K.
Showing up in my wife's MB, customers were visibly uncomfortable with the
"expensive luxury car". Comments like "Oh, you must make too much money" and
the likes. Some of my construction acquaintances were driving *brand new*
$35K+ 4X4 P/U trucks. Of course in their case, they were "in possession of
all the right contractor tools", and their vehicle was simply one such.

However, showing up in my '90 V8, nobody seemed to mind - or much less have
any understanding of what it was! Hooray for me! They'd say "nice car", or
some polite gesture like that, but only a handful were ever interested to
know more. Audi is simply *the best kept secret* in the American auto market
today, and that benefits all of us who know and love them.

I don't buy a car for show-and-tell, or to impress my friends. Frankly, I
could give a flying rat's pen!$ about what anyone else thinks of me, or the
things I own or enjoy to do. As long as I enjoy the stuff and my life,
that's all that matters to me. I drive an AWD because it is much safer, and
easier to drive in the winter - and sometimes in the summer, I drive Audi
because it has the world's best AWD system, I drive a V8 because it has
power and looks that I like - ALLOT! Every time I drive my car, I sit back
for a few moments and just soak up the experience, and thank God that he saw
it fit to allow me this luxury.

The Audi, the Quattro, and the V8 are all for me, and for me only! That's
why I don't have the V8 badges on mine. Well - that's one reason. The other
is the European philosophy: It's really none of your business what I have -
including the amount of wealth I may or may not have. Therefore I am not
advertising the luxuryness of my auto! Leave that to the super-tuned 16Y/O
Brian's of the world, with their "Honda CXVGTXP2.0LSX Fuel Injection". I am
sure you - and other listes - know, that if you *truly* have something to
brag about - you don't! That's the beauty in understatement.

What impresses you most? The guy sitting in his little hot souped-up sports
racer at the light, revving the engine, or the guy sitting next to him in
his very understated-looking, huge, black, debadged Bently Mulsanne Turbo,
or Jaguar RS, either of whom take the little super revving nitro without
even thinking about it!

No pin-stripes, no badges, no mud-flaps, no twin-squirrel-tails or full-race
floormats. Just a little discreet window tint to make the windows blend to
the body, since it's black (well, Indigo Blue). NOT LIMO TINT!!!! Just the
light smoke to compliment the beautiful lines of the car itself. On a nice
sunny day, the sun will take care of highlighting those lines just fine!

JMHO (about ¢7 worth), YMMV.

Michael Riebs
Grand Rapids, MI
'90 V8Q
'98 A6QA