[s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's

[R. Mair]

I most certainly can substantiate my claims Taka. As you may have missed in an earlier posting, I work on cars for a living, mainly German cars. I'm all too aware of the glitches Audi's have had in recent years. These glitches however are typically a result of the suppliers of parts to Audis, namely Bosch and Valeo, among a few others. But you cannot question the quality of workmanship of an Audi. I also work on about 1/2 dozen Subarus on a regular basis, 2 WRX's, one older legacy wagon, on newer lagacy wagon (2003 if i recall) and on occ. an 05 STI. I can see primer coming through on the 03 WRX, the guy polishes his car too much. He also dented the hood quite nicely when he dropped a golf ball on it by accident... thin metal and paint. The other WRX has a series of engine issues early on, mostly head gasket failures. The older legacy was bought new by a friend who brought it down to show me  a week after he got it. I opened the door, peeked inside and closed the door with normal force. The door bounced back at me. The door hinge was already loose. 
Now Taka, have you realy seen a late audi that rattles? Please. I seriously doubt. As i also said in a previous post, all car manuf. have a few dud cars out there, a lemon if you will. Perhaps the head gasket issues or the loose door hinge was just that lemon. I work on 6 subbies and hundreds of Audi's. Half those subbies are problematic from a workmanship standpoint. The bulk of audi issues are from a parts supplier standpoint. I'll take the Audi any day. Oh, and by the way, you can chip your 2.5gt, put injectors in and all the silliness you wish. You'll then have a miniature time bomb under the hood. Simply chip a 2.7t and keep the dependability, but we're back to even on the strip. And the AR still weighs allot more. BTW, i'd like to see you drive your 2.5gt to the top of a ski area, 1000 verticle feet. I did it, i have pix to prove it. :-)

Rolf

PS. I'm not as biased against subaru as i lead on to be, I appreciate their cars for where they stand in the market place. But i do not ever intend to replace any of my Audi's with one, based largely on my hands-on experiences with them.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Taka Mizutani 
  To: R. Mair 
  Cc: S-CAR-List at audifans.com 
  Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 8:16 PM
  Subject: Re: [s-cars] WAS gas prices, now racist subaru's


  Rolf-
  I guess you've seen a high-mileage '05 Legacy so you can substantiate your statement that the car
  is a rattletrap?

  I've seen so many VWs and Audis that rattle that your contention that the Audi is so much better
  just makes me wonder if you're so biased that you simply will not even evaluate one with an open
  mind.

  You can't really compare the Legacy to the allroad because the Legacy is a $32k car fully loaded
  versus a $48k car loaded for the allroad 2.7T. IMO, the 2.5GT is a better car- in terms of fun-to-drive
  factor, handling, value for your money, reliability- than the A4 2.0T, for about $4k less money.

  That extra $16k difference versus an allroad would allow me to put in a FMIC, FP Green, injectors,
  turboback exhaust, coilover suspension, STI Brembos, improve the soundproofing of the entire interior,
  nice set of wheels/tires, dyno tuning, etc. that would blow the allroad out of the water in every aspect
  of performance. Of course, you can be content in knowing that your allroad is "superior" just because
  it is made in Neckarsulm, Germany and has the 4 rings on the grille.

  Audi has been going downhill since they axed the C4 chassis S6. The D3 chassis cars and the A5 chassis
  A3 quattro are the only cars that are really interesting to me (although the A3q is going to be way too
  expensive to sell well- 3.2 DSG as the only configuration really limits the appeal, as well as the 100/0
  Haldex system).

  If I had the money for the upkeep, I'm much rather have something like Phil Ackley's 20v UrQ. That car was
  f'ing sweet.

  Taka


  On 9/3/05, R. Mair <waves at comcast.net> wrote: 
    "You can't compare a '05 Subaru to a '72 Firebird. :rolleyes:"
    Sure you can, they are both rattle-traps!  ;-) However, you can't compare
    an A6 to the 2.5GT. Two totally different cars. Further from the comparo would
    be my wifes Allroad against any legacy wagon. I've been in both, again, no comparison.

    Rolf