4-Matic v. Quattro

[Roger M. Woodbury]

About seven years ago, I drove a 1990 4-Matic wagon that was available to
me.  The previous owner was a retired principal in a Mercedes (etc)
dealership, and the car had impeccable service history.  I drove the car for
about two days, and decided not to buy it because when being pushed a bit,
it seemed to suddenly lurch into a corner...a transient
understeer...something that I "felt" more than anything else, but I was
concerned enough to pass on this otherwise lovely automobile.  I spoke with
my former dealer in Portland, who told me that there had been "quite a lot"
of trouble with the earlier, VERY complex 4-Matic systems.

Knowing Mercedes as well as I do (2 new and four used since 1985), I am
absolutely certain that the newest 4-Matic system will work impeccably.  So
the question of whether to buy an A6 or a Mercedes will come down to the
specifics of the two vehicles, and most importantly of all, the two
dealerships.

I personally absolutely LOVE the new C-class sport wagons.  My wife has a
100CS Avant, which we both like a lot....(SHE LOVES the car; I appreciate
the car:  it is VERY, very nice...and does what Audi Quattros do well.
Certainly works for my wife, but I would prefer something with a bit more
poke).  But the truth is that I don't think I would buy an A6 as it doesn't
offer me as much, in my opinion, as I already have in the 100CS.  I also
don't know what level of service competance the dealerships in this state
(3) have in servicing the newest vehicles.

Which is, at the end of the day, what I think the decision is going to come
down to.  Mercedes seems to have a mixed bag of maintenance and reliability
issues with their latest cars.  Recently Autoweek published an interim
report on their long term C230 Sport Wagon.  Overall, I guess the car is
working pretty well, but there were some rather big issues, that in a
$45,000 station wagon shouldn't be there at all.  Things like the glove box
falling off, clunk ! on the floor.

In Bangor, Maine, which is 30 miles from here, there is an Audi dealer.
There it is, a huge dealership featuring 47 Ford Focusses (Focussi?), 146
Ford F150 pickups, a smattering of Ford somethingorothers, four A6s, 9 A4s
and two All Roads.  Now, do you think I am going to spent $45000 on a new A6
Avant, and then take it to someone who just might confuse it with a Focus?

In Portland, Maine is another dealer that is Porsche, Audi, VW, Mazda.
Portland is the largest city in Maine, and they also sell A8s there, which
is not the case with the other two dealers.  Obviously, the biggest market
has the biggest dealership. The last time that I was there, was for a recall
on my Porsche 944.  While there, I asked them to replace a bulb in one of
the turn signals which had burned out.  They had the car all day.  When I
returned to pick up the car, the parking light was hanging down in front of
the car out of its socket.  That dealership is 150 miles from my door.  I
will not go back.

In between here and Portland is a small Audi/VW/Mazda dealer where I have
all my work done now.  They had the 100CS for seven days in December for the
"Timing Belt and a Couple of Small Things" marathon.  It was complicated a
bit by a weekend, but they had two weeks' warning to order the belts, cam
rollers, water pump etc, for which the car was held up.  I had a loaner the
entire time, so it wasn't that I was without transportation, but the point
is that that dealership doesn't inventory ANYTHING apparently, until they
know exactly what to order, and if the Audi parts connection screws
something up...which was the case...a two day job turnes into a week.  It
cost a thousand dollars to do the timing belt, waterpump, etc, plus alarm
system trouble shooting, and a vacuum leak problem that was causing the
"check engine" light to come on periodically.  While I will go to that
dealership again, I am uncertain about the overall quality of the service
systems available for either of these vehicles, and I suggest that that is
what a buying decision regarding EITHER the Quattro or 4-Matic vehicle will
come down to.

Roger