[V8] RE: car shopping

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I have been rethinking the issue of which Audi to buy for the long distance,
samples carrying salesman.  Last night I wrote about my experiences with the
Type 44 as well as the newer 100 wagons, and at that point thoughts were
that a Type 44 Avant with some sort of service history would be the best
bet, and chose the '89 or '90 model years.  My personal thoughts were that
the '87 was an early car, and although the twin differential locks were
nice, those cars had some teething problems that were largely gone by the
'90 model year.  The '91 non-20-valve cars are nearly nonexistent, and I
discounted the 20 valve cars because they will cost a lot more to maintain
and operate.

Many have commented that the 100 is a LOT slower than the Type 44 turbos.
This is pretty much the case as I found out when we took our 100 to Florida
for my granddaughter's birth.  In travelling around Boca Raton, full
throttle take offs were often advisable in order to keep up with the V8
powered SUVs that those folks seemed to have in abundance.  I do not enjoy
driving with my foot to the floor in traffic and although the 100 did fine,
it "felt" slower than I would have liked.  Fuel mileage has never varied
from around 21 overall in this car though. The overall comfort level of the
newer body style, the more "enthusiastic" air conditioning system, and
quieter driving environment make this car a good choice, and a good, two
wheel drive version will offer every one of the strengths, minus Quattro.
If most of my need were interstate or free way driving, I would probably buy
one in a flash.

But is long distance driving comfort is a goal the ultimate choice lies
elsewhere, I believe.  I watch certain cars appear and be sold or not on
eBay on a regular basis.  There are two cars that I really want to add to my
"I had one of those once" list.  They are a late Type 123 Mercedes station
wagon, and a rarest of the rare, '87 Mercedes station wagon.
I have seen both on eBay, most recently an '85 (the last year), with very
low miles in California.  In case you are unfamiliar with these cars,
here're some observations:

Both are diesels.  The 123 Mercedes cars, produced as a series between  '77
and '85 were "real" Mercedes, built to the original Mercedes standards when
it was assumed that their cars would remain in service for a generation.
These diesels and turbodiesels were Mercedes' answer to the turbulent
emissions and fuel cost times of the '80's.  The late cars...'83, '84, '85
were absolutely bullet proof, IF maintenance had been maintained anywhere
near the required interval, and the engine and drive line is easily capable
of half a million miles without overhaul.  Heavy, comfortable, relatively
roomy, the station wagons will get a real 30 miles per gallon over the
highway.  I owned an'83 sedan that I bought pretty right at the time, and
ended up having to have an engine overhauled, which made my purchase merely
"full retail".  I put around 15k on the car before selling it, and it was
cheap, comfortable and reliable transportation, and if I could live with
rear wheel drive and could find one as good as a comparable Type 44 Audi
wagon, or 100 Wagon for that matter, I would buy one in a heartbeat.

But the most remarkable of the diesel Mercedes wagons was the '87 wagon.
Made only in that year, that car had a 3-litre, six cylinder diesel offered
only in '87 in the mid-sized cars.  The engine is amazingly smooth and
quiet, with HUGE power and an equally amazing 30-35 miles per gallon.  The
wagon is typical Mercedes overbuild, with modern Mercedes design concepts in
air conditioning an other stuff.  VERY rare.  I bought an '87 Mercedes in
Florida and brought it back to Maine one year to try to resell.  The car was
near perfect....or so I thought.  Driving up the coast, the car was a pure
joy...NEVER did I think I was in a turbodiesel on the interstate.  BUT when
the car got to the shop here for routine service, we discovered that the
seller had lied, and that the car had been hit HARD in the side.  The body
work had been amazingly good, but it had been really pranged, and I ended up
selling the car at a loss.

This engine was wonderful, but there were serious problems with it.  It was
the first Turbodiesel engine from Mercedes to use a trap oxydizer for
emissions control, and there were some issues with engine heating early on.
Mercedes warrantied these issues, rebuilding a lot of heads and replacing
trap oxydizers.  They still warranty these items, incidentally, so if one
bought one of these cars that had not been "fixed" MErcedes would fix it.

IF I ever decide that I could live without Quattro, I would want one of
these cars, even more than the earlier Type 123 cars, IF I could find one.
They were MUCH more scarce than the '91 Twenty Valve Avants.

Now, I want to mention the 20-Valve Avant, since so many of them appear to
be popping up for sale right now.  Read Audifan's classifieds and usually
there are several.

Last year I bought a 20 valve Avant on eBay.  I flew to Washington DC and
drove the car back.  The specifics of that particular car are that it was
bought by someone who wanted it, wanted to work on it, and was a "hobbyist"
it seems, with perhaps a tad more enthusiasm than knowledge.  Once he found
out what he had it may have proved too much for his pocketbook and the
amount of time he had.  (If he's reading this, I mean no disrespect, but
doubt that you really knew what was underneath that particular car.).

Here's the deal on that car.  First of all, like a lot of Type 44's rear
brakes and especially the emergency brake cables were gone.  No biggie.
After the car was here in the cold for a week, it developed a whiney howl in
the driveline.  It was almost impossible to diagnose, and we feared the
worst....a transmission.  But no, it was a center bearing in the driveshaft,
so, no biggie.  There is an instrument cluster "issue", which is probably a
failed soldering connection and will be fairly easily resolved.

The car had been hit on the left corner, and the body work was pretty poor.
I will have the left front fender removed and repositioned.  More annoying
though, many of the little chrome pieces across the nose are missing, as are
the little plastic gizzies.  Replacement will be disproportiately expensive,
but in the relative scheme of things, possible.

But the good stuff, is that the car's UFO's were replaced by the PO, and are
in near new condition.  They wobbled badly for the first 50 miles driving
north from Virginia on the return trip, but settled down, and are now
perfect, and amazingly powerful.  I believe that some of the high
performance German cars of the early '80's were simply not intended for US,
stop and go driving conditions.  I believe tthat this is the case with the
UFO equipped Audis, and this on the brake and off the brake driving will
warp  those rotors faster than you can turn into McDonalds.  But for over
the road driving and hard braking, they are remarkable.  The later V8's and
the 100's did not have UFOs.  (The '87 Porsche 928, the biggest year for
that car, had a catastrophic failure problem with the crankshaft bearings
that I think was related to the rear mounting of the torque converter.  In
heavy, US stop and go driving conditions a LOT of those automatics suffered
catastrophic engine failures then the crank moved forward.  With a 90 pound
weight mounted relatively high in the rear, it seems likely that this could
cause the forward movement of the driveline.  Happened mostly around 80,000
miles in those cars, and ithappened to mine after I sold it.)

Anyway, my 20-valve is "chipped" with something, and the turbo boost read
out shows 2.4 bar on heavy acceleration, and it feels VERY strong.  A few
other niggling things, and the car can go to the body shop for its facelift.
It is Panther Black, which is a big unusual....a deep, purple cast to the
black paint.

Now, for the long distance driver, this car might be perfect.  But it will
require premium fuel.  I expect to get in the mid twenties with this engine
over the road, and although it will be MUCH more expensive than the I-5
turbos to maintain, this difference will probably be spread over 50,000
miles.

These cars although rare when new, are seemingly plentiful right now, and
they range in price from $5000 to $7500 in pretty good shape.  Not bad, and
the engines and drivelines will easily go to 300,000 with regular
maintanence and a tad of luck.  Not a bad over the road salesman's car, with
good consideration to carrying samples.

My thoughts on the subject for this morning!

Roger

P.S.  I am still musing the thought of replacing the nose on my 20 valve
with a V8 clip....