Mother in-law's Audi

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Hi Jim:  I have been there, and done THAT with my father's Audi.  Some time
ago, my Dad was in real need of a new car.  He was in his eighties, and
feeling the typical "pinch" of the elderly, and when he saw what a "new" car
would cost, and what even a used car from "The General" would cost, he was
driven into a fit of depression.  I suggested that he buy a used Audi, and
take advantage of the Audi Advantage Used Car Warranty program.

At the dealer that I have had a relationship with for twenty five (nearly)
years, he found a 1990 100, with 60,XXX miles on it, and the Advantage
warranty.  It was within his budget and the deal was done.  That was six
years and fifty thousand miles or so ago, and the car still works well for
him (90 years old this April).

He has taken the car to the Audi dealer for service some, although it is
forty miles from where he lives, and in earlier times, he and my mother
would make a little party of it, going to the dealer, getting a loaner and
going to a nice luncheon, and then driving home.  As he has gotten older,
that trip has become more and more difficult, and several times I have
picked up the car and taken it for service for him (The trip is 100 miles
each way for me!).

Up until last year, I had an excellent independent mechanic do all of my
work, and I had taken his car there for service, but Steve suffered a
massive heart attack a year and a half ago, and is out of business, so now,
the more or less "faithful" Audi dealer is really the only show in town for
us.

All of which brings me to your in-law's predicament with her car, and thus,
my thoughts.

My first thought that brakes and the turn signal repair for $700 isn't a lot
of money.  It MAY be a lot of money for that car, based on its actual cash
value at this point due to its age, but for the actual work, I don't think
that the bill is  very high at all.

Secondly, if the car is as good as you describe, then the car is worth to
HER far more than she will EVER get for it by selling it, and furthermore,
if the cost of keeping the car running is $1,000 annually in repairs, then
it is MUCH less expensive on any basis that I can think of, to pay that,
rather than the twenty-thousand dollars that would go out in a lump to buy
any sort of new car...let alone the increase in excise taxes and insurance
that goes along with a new, or newer car.

While there are many who will counsel that she should be going to some sort
of mystical "independent" Audi mechanic, it is undoubtedly beyond her to go
out and find one of those.  You might be able to do that if you spent a week
living with her and researching all the "independent Audi" mechanics around,
but she can't and won't be able to do that.  She should be take her car to
the Audi dealer, and depend upon them to service the car properly, according
to the maintenance schedule and documentation that Audi has provided for
that car.  She should trust them to maintain the car, and pay the bill.  The
option is to buy a new car, under warranty, and have the warranty provide
the maintenance.

While any given repair might seem to be expensive, she obviously doesn't
know what the issues are with automobile mechanical maintenance (relatively
few elderly people do, I have found, and fewer women).  So if the car works
for HER, and she still likes and enjoys the car, and also assuming that
keeping a car on the road and driving is something that she can afford to do
to begin with, then she should keep what she has in service.

Properly maintained, her car will outlive her.

Roger