[V8] replacing the V8

[Carter Johnson]

Well, to add to the tread from poor Robert:

My V8 has now been in the shop for nearly a month. 
That's 1/3 of my ownership.  Yes, still love it.  Miss
it, too.  I found my 93' for 2000$.  Yes, lots of
miles, but a decent find.  Even with the dreaded
timing belt replacement, it's going to be less than
most downpayments on new cars.  And, even doing all of
the things I originally didn't plan on doing (fixing
the rust, radio, misc. broken things, S4 wheels and
snow tires) it'll be less than half of the price of
the Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V that I was originally
looking at.  Good deal.  On the other hand, I've now
been sans car for a month.  Bad deal.  The Nissan
would still be running.

Such is the life.  Having driven a S4 and an Allroad
on track (albeit neither with the V8), the Allroad was
a surprisingly good performance car.  People made fun
of it, but I went out and passed a bunch of MUCH
faster cars in a borrowed 2.7T allroad at Walkins
Glen.  Same car recently turned up at a Winter Driving
School, and did remarkably well there, as well -
although I have to say that the self-adjusting
suspension is a bit odd.  Reminds me of the old E28
self-adjusting rear suspension when it malfunctioned -
pull up to a light, normal nose dive, and then
suddenly it would "sit down" as the rear adjusted.  

Now, to play devil's advocate.  If you're willing to
buy a V8 audi and are looking at wagons - why wouldn't
you consider the E39 540i wagon?  At 20 large, it's as
fast as the S6 and corners better, with arguably much
better styling.  Yes, no quattro, but with a good set
of snows and the traction on, you'll live.

Carter

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