[V8] RE: confessions of a V8.....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Me, too.  Since I have sold my '93 V8, I have been in withdrawal, and it
isn't pleasant.  I find that I am spending late night hours haunting
Autotrader and eBay looking for the next car.  Sunday evening my wife
and I were out to dinner and I confessed that I was looking for another
car...one for myself that would be as satisfying as was the V8.  (She
LOVED the V8 and was pretty sorry when it got sold...).  So, I am
looking.

I have "on the shelf" a very nice '91 200 20valve that I bought as a
restoration project, and is almost done.  It's a pretty neat example
with its chipped ECU and new UFO's, and the remaining work is
slight...in fact the amount of work that I have done so far isn't great,
and I drove it 1500 miles on its maiden voyage, so it was fully
functioning when I got it.

But I am going to have to have some surgery on my knees, and I am not
sure how able to manage a clutch I will be over the long haul, so I am
ready to go a different route.

And I miss my V8.

So, I am contemplating three vehicles right now.  First up is a V8
allroad.  There are some compelling reasons for the allroad with V8.
First of all, there is the V8.  Secondly, it has an eight cylinder
engine, and thirdly it has a 4.2 litre V8 engine.  The capacity of the
wagon body is really very, very good, and the trick suspension might be
very useful for me in my various ventures which do involve some mild off
road stuff, and some rough road stuff...places the '93 V8 would NOT go.
The down side is to me that trick suspension is an unknown as the car
accumulates miles, and I wonder how difficult and expensive the thing
will be to keep running over the longer term.  Will an allroad reliably
see 150,000 miles?

Then there is the '02-'03 S6.  A definite maybe.  The final decision to
sell my V8 was because it was a sedan, and I really need greater
usefulness in my vehicles than a sedan can offer, unless the entire rear
opens in a hatch.  The biggest problem with the S6 is that it was
produced in such limited numbers that finding a used one that is in
decent condition for a price that is at all attainable for mere mortals
is problematic.  I also don't know what the road clearance is on those
beasts, and some of our rural paved roads are pretty rough, especially
in the spring when frost heaves rear their ugly heads.  The '93 V8 was
fine, but it was about as low a car as practical to drive.  Example:  my
'88 Porsche 928S4 will NOT clear all frost heaves in the spring with
stock spring heights:  the front end engine panel will hit, so on
extremely rough roads the car ends up getting "walked" over the worst of
the bumps.  I wonder if the S6 might be this low anywhere underneath.

Last night I found a very interesting looking S8 on eBay.  Oh, yeah, I
kNOW it is a sedan.  But it really was yummy looking, so I am following
the auction.  The car is at a franchised dealer and will be Audi
Advantage certified.  I am not sure that I would buy another sedan, but
in doing my "market research" I might as well learn what stuff goes for,
right?  And there is that great big V8 engine.....

Then there is the obvious option of getting another '93 or unobtanium
'94 V8.  The possible plan is to buy the car, ok, ok....it might go like
this:  Car gets bought for, say, six grand.  And lets say that the
interior of the car is really, really good.  Let's say it already has
sport seats, ok?  And then the headlights will need to be changed, and
lets say I find a set on the web for, say, $300, so I will have, oh,
$500 in the headlights and the installation when the wrench gets it
done.  New tires...gotta have tires on ANYTHING, right, so that is a no
brainer.  (Here's a hint:  215/60 Bridgestone somethingorothers are
cheaper than 245whatevers that they put on those other cars, by quite a
lot).  And lets say that this V8 has some obvious issues under the hood
at its near 100,000 miles....leaks, timing belt, tensioners, rubber
gizzies and all that jazz.  Oh, yeah, and lets say that the hvac need
attention and the stereo is fershitzky, and, oh, well, what the hell,
the steering rack is gone and most of the light bulbs are dim inside the
dashboard.  And we'll throw in rubber rear suspension bushings and, oh,
why not, shock absorbers.

What is the magic number?  Well, easily it is $4-5,000.  For the purpose
of this little fantasy, the transmission is OK...needs to have a flush
and then go chortling down the road.  So the total investment is now in
the $11,000 range.  It is an eleven year old vehicle, and here in Maine,
my annual vehicle excise tax is around $170, and it will cost about six
hundred a year to insure with physical damage coverage, although I will
more than likely just self insure the carcass.  

So, next year when and if I decide to buy the allroad/S6/S8 or whatever,
the tab will easily be in the twenty five grand range.  

Which is better?  The bottom line for me is that despite the neat
looking interiors, the airbags that deploy from every nook and cranny,
and the fact that the new V8's have a gazillion valves, I am not sure
that, aside from the allroad/S6 wagon bodies' utility, that there has
been any meaningful improvement made over the 4.2litre V8...by Audi or
anyone else.

I think I will go and lie down now, because I am becoming morose over
selling my V8....

Roger

P.S. Oh, yes.  And I have never given any thought to an S4.  My wife and
I sat in one two years ago when we were contemplating an allroad.  The
S4 is simply too small for us.  But the allroad really did fit....