European impressions; I must vent my frustration

[Tom Nas]

Jenny Curtis <jenny at physics.umn.edu> wrote:

>As to your European impressions Ed, I agree it's a bummer that "classic" Au=
>dis aren't appreciated in their homeland.  I think part of it is that it's =
>rare to see older cars on the road in Europe, period.  I don't know why.

It's a combination of factors. Older cars are more expensive to run, but
the German government has introduced a higher road tax for non-catalysed
vehicles- remember, in Europe the cat came into general use in the late '80s!
I've been speaking to Germans about this tax, and they seem to pay as much
road tax for a non-catalysed car as we do for any car in Holland (our road
tax goed by the weight of the car, with multiplication factors for diesel
and LPG-powered cars) so we consider this normal. The Germans don't however
and it's been the reason for lots of used-car exports and scrappings.

The cars are out there however- there was a strong German contingent of
UrQs at the '20 years of quattro' fest in Ingolstadt. And if you look at
German used-car sites like www.mobile.de you notice quite a few interesting
cars for sale.
Ingolstadt itself yielded a couple of interesting older Audis in daily use,
but it seems to be an exception to the rule.

Also, the growing number of parts becoming NLA for our cars and the
extensive use of road salt in the winter are two factors which help in
diminishing the number of older cars on the roads. In Holland, the majority
of the cars are post-1990, and you hardly see any early-'80s car on the roads.

Regards, Tom