quattro Digest, Vol 8, Issue 56 - car shopping

[l.leung at juno.com]

Kent,

I think you actually know the answer. You've called 
your '89 200Q "bad puppy". And your biggest concern
over the '94 A6 Avant is the autobox. The 4sp autobox,
IF it checks out, is quite reliable, although the cost
of fix or replace IS prohibitive, should it fail. The
2.8 12V V6 is reliable, but potentially leaky. But, it's
leaks aren't show stoppers, just messy and you MAY have
to keep track of oil until you stop the leaks. You WILL
be making a living off of the car, you NEVER want to be
in the situation of saying to your client, "I can't make
it, car trouble". My ex-GF's brother was/is running a 
delivery service, skimped on his delivery vehicle, and
HAD to scramble everytime it let him down, which meant
everyone had to scramble, causing stress in the family. 
You DON'T want to go there (trust me, part of the reason
for the ex-part). As I mentioned before, C4's are MUCH more
trouble free than the type 44 (just go back through the 
archives, how many posts (weighted average) are for type
44's vs C4's?). FWIW, my friend's C4 QAvant is reasonably
fun to drive as a family hauler, has never let him down
(in around 180K miles)except when the hatch window shattered,
and the only "bad" part is it doesn't EVER get over
25 MPG. But his is a Q, I'd imagine the FWD ones do better
on gas, they weigh less (although it sounds like your car
would be loaded). I dunno, if it was a work car for me,
I don't think I'd like to be tinkering with the car 
between clients, looking at my watch, hoping I'll still
make my appointments on time....

LL - NY

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Well, it seems the quattro list is leaning towards
the I-5 turbo quattro car, with suggestions that it
would be better if it were a 200, or an S car. :-)

Thank you all for you input.  If you've read this far,
the outstanding questions are:

1) Are the FWD automatics as bad as the quattro automatics?

2) Are the 5K MC-1 cars that much worse than the 200 MC-2 cars?

Thank you one and all,
Kent
'89 200 TQ, "Bad Puppy"