questions about buying an All Road

[Roger M. Woodbury]

A year ago, I was mulling over the choices.  My 89 Quattro Avant was going
to have to be replaced by something as my wife can't drive a manual
transmission car.

I have thought the All Road was pretty neat.  Here in rural, eastern Maine,
all sorts of weather variations are possible....from deep snow and ice to
torrential rain.

I live 30 miles from the nearest Audi dealer, and I wouldn't take my car
there.  The next choice is 90 miles, and I am not sure if they have a shop
that is really current in "new" Audi.  But I thought about a totally new
Audi wagon, as it was to be my wife's car.

I also thought a LOT about a 1997 Audi A6 wagon that had about 35,000 miles
on it, and was really at a pretty good price.  That car was advertised on
Ebay, and I spoke with the dealer who had it at length.

Then a little digging more, and I found on Autotrader, a 1994 100CS Avant,
with 39,000 original miles. I spoke with the dealer and after a lot of
pictures, and some details about the first owner, I plunked down the money
and went and got it.  The car was in Kansas City, and I flew out and drove
it back.

So far, the car has been around 15,000 miles, including a trip to Florida
and back.  It performs as it should, having been particularly well
maintained throughout its life.

Now, it took some searching to find this car, and the willingness to fly
half way across the country with no guarantees of anything.  And this car
doesn't go up and down with the flick of a switch, and isn't turbo charged.
Yes, I think it would be nice to have about 25 or 30 more horsepower, but my
wife thinks it is just wonderful.

$14,000.  Now a new All Road will depreciate more in the first 15,000 miles
than my 100 Avant cost.
So when you say, "for a few thousand dollars more, I could get...."   No.
That's not really right, because it will be a few thousand dollars more PLUS
the added depreciation that those few thousand dollars more would get you.

And then you would have to wonder if the dealer REALLY could fix the upsie
and downsie part when it didn't.

Roger