European impressions; I must vent my frustration

[Steve Kramer]

While the Quattro Quarterly doesn't have much repair info.  I have found
that the commercial magazine Audi Driver always has a good amount of repairs
on older cars.   In terms of my own interest - they have been doing a
multi-part story on repairing a 1992 V8.  Which has been timely for me.


Steve Kramer
1990 V8q

"Blind" Audi Devotee

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jenny Curtis" <jenny at physics.umn.edu>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 5:28 PM
Subject: European impressions; I must vent my frustration


Ed wrote:

"It was easy to see that the 1980s are a
forgotten era in Europe. I don't believe many people
even know or remember this wonderful engine over
there."

Humpf.  I'm not surprised seeing as how they are forgotten over here, at
least if our monthly Quattro Club magazine has anything to say about it.
They did a big puff piece on the upcoming V8 engine which will be in the new
A6 and some other cars.  They didn't mention the older Audi V8s.  Some
context would have been nice, I thought.

Graham and I are subscribers to three Car Club magazines (Saab Nines,
Ricambi, the Fiat Magazine and Quattro Qarterly) and are getting really sick
of the fact that the Quattro Quarterly is pretty much an extended, slick
long form advertisement for new audi dealerships and the expensive shops
that do mods on them. The other two magazines have alot more content than
QQ.  I guess the vast majority of the Q club must own A4s or newer, but to
me the thing I love about my boxy but good Princess, is that it is still a
dependable, fun car to drive at nearly 300,000 miles. I think the fact that
many new Audi owners also own several older Audis, which they maintain
themselves, says more about the marque than the endless line of "look out
BMW, here comes the new Audi blah blah, blah." I frankly don't care about
the newest features on cars that won't be available for two more years that
will cost more than a starter home.  I would love to read about cool mods to
1980s era Audis.  I'd love to see photos and read tech tips on Ur-Qs.

Sorry, but I had to vent this.  Maybe I should go start my own magazine
already and shut up about it.  Actually, I wanted to write an article and am
officially saying now that I'm doing a test drive piece on nice Audi 4000s
in the Minneapolis area that have cool mods and look good on film.  Anyone
willing to help me out on this?  I have a couple in mind already (not mine)
but a few more would round it out.

As to your European impressions Ed, I agree it's a bummer that "classic"
Audis 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.

Jenny
'86 4kQ, The Eurotrash Princess