[s-cars] Dirt cheap allroads

[Bill Noland]

Shop dirt cheap examples of most any model and you'll most likely get what 
you pay for. The allroad wasn't especially cheap to start with. Better to 
pay mid-$20's to $30's and get a lower mileage example.

Audi claims that the allroad has over 1100 unique parts from the A6 Avant. 
The chassis is seriously strengthened and it is available with the 
highly-tunable 2.7T motor and manual tranny.

The air suspension is either a future maintenence nightmare or a great 
utilitarian piece of work, depending upon your point of view (and whether 
the car is in the shop or not). I like the ability to raise the car for more 
ground clearance than about 1/2 the SUV's on the road, or to settle it down 
for autobahn cruise mode. Suspension is VAG tunable, should one desire even 
more clearance, or the slammed look. Some have tossed the air suspension for 
coilovers all around.

The brakes suck and need to be replaced. This guy went the RS6 route:
http://www.fourtitude.com/news/publish/Features/article_2447.shtml

So you have a manual tranny car that can be transformed into something quite 
excellent with chip/turbo upgrade and aftermarket suspension and brakes. 
Hmmmm, sounds vaguely familiar.

Bill N