well, guess i'm not going Audi.....

[cobram at juno.com]

 "John Larson" <j.d.larson at verizon.net> writes:

> John, calling the big MB boneyard in LA:  "Hi Daniel, this is John 
> at West Coast Garage!"
> "What can I do for you, John?"  "I need a price on a 300D non-turbo 
> engine."
> "Lemme guess.  A rod through the block...................  I don't 
> have any, they're all that way when we get 'em."  
>Makes door handles seem a minor irritant, doesn't it?

WHY is a valid question, I've seen MB diesels throw rods because they
were oil starved or overheated, sometimes both.  Also, how many miles on
a CA car by the time it hits the boneyard?  One issue (and Mercedes has
addressed it) is the problem with the diesels equipped with the trap
converters, the '87 300TD had the turbo, converter and a bunch of other
parts changed on Mercedes dime when the trap converter took them
out.....the car had over 160K miles at the time....lets see Audi do
something like that for a known problem....better wait sitting down for
that one.

I'll also take an MB automatic transmission over any of the Audi
automatics.  
 
> Another fun thing is the 10 miles of vacuum lines for the doors, the 
> climate controls, and the ignition switch cut-off.

Audi has the same thing, the major difference being the vacuum source and
ignition switch.  I'd rather do dozen MB diesel ignition switches instead
of 1 V8Q ignition switch any day.  Half dozen MB switches for 1 200TQ
switch.  Most of the time the MB's just need a new vacuum connector at
the switch.   
 
> Count me on the wouldn't really want to own a Mercedes side 

Removing the rust factor and quattro from the equation, I'd be hard
pressed to honestly come up with a reason to own an Audi over a
comparable Mercyless Benz.  Take a spin in an SL55 and we'll see if you
can honestly restate the above sentence. ;-)

BCNU,
http://www.geocities.com/cobramsri/