[V8] RE: Worthwhile Bimmers.......

Thu Feb 3 07:43:36 EST 2005

A long time ago, a former employer of mine bought an Audi Fox wagon.
His was one of the first ones sold by Hyannis Porsche Audi as I
recall...this was a long time ago.  Anyway, it was a pretty light little
car and was very, very different from anything that he had ever driven
before.  

In those days I had a '73 Beetle which I had bought new, and my wife
(soon to be EX-wife) was driving the "family" car that I had bought when
I got back from Southeast Asia.  That car was a Volvo 145S Wagon, which
led me to believe that Volvo was another one of those car companies that
could talk the talk but couldn't walk the walk.    

Anyway, after the separation, I took the "old" car, which was the Volvo,
and since it had some ailments, and since I was going to be newly
single, I decided to change my image.  It was 1976 and low and behold,
there on the VW lot sat the first ever seen Scirroco...all perfect
metallic silver of it.  I was in LOVE.  That was light, quick,
economical and basically a really good little car.  

So I have no doubt that the Audi Fox that you, Steve, had was quicker
and a whole lot more fun than the '79 BMW.

My '79 BMW was a car that I bought because I was driving a lot in
developing the insurance agency that I had bought as a continuation of
my reconstruction plan necessitated by the divorce referenced above.  

The FIRST car that I bought in the plan was a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass
Supreme coupe. I bought that car because the Agency's largest customer
was the Buick/Olds/GMC/BMW/Subaru dealership, and I wanted to try to
seal out the competition while they got to now me.  (It worked,
actually).

Anyway, the Olds was a nice car to drive down the Interstate from Bangor
to Miami, perhaps, but for making time between calls in rural Maine, it
was sorely outmatched by the environment.  One afternoon my Dad called
to tell me that my mother had been rushed to the hospital with chest
pains and I should come down.  They lived in Belfast which was about 40
miles from Waterville where my office was.

Now those 40 miles were down Maine Route 137, which is a lovely drive
beginning in Winslow, passing through Albion and up over Knox Ridge
through Morrill and into Belfast.  It is a fairly narrow two lane road
that winds and twists through the rural countryside offering pretty
views of a pristine lake and a couple of farms.  

I made the run from my office, across the citys of Waterville and
Winslow and down route 137 in about 40 minutes, and the most remarkable
thing that I learned was that if I did that very much, that Olds would
kill me.  It was willing to run, but the road surface it surely didn't
like and it wanted to pitch me into the gutter most of the way along.
(Mother ended up fine, by the way.).

It was the next week that I traded the Olds for the BMW.  The BMW was a
fine, small touring car.  Not terribly fast, but much like my wife's
100CS Quattro Avant:  once rolling along, it would cruise without
interruption providing great security and comfort.

Oh, yes.  The Olds was a demo leftover.  It was two tone powder blue
with blue padded landau top and blue/silver "pillow" interior...you know
how GM does those things, I am sure.  My friends called it "the
Pimpmobile".  The BMW was cashmere with a dark brown cloth interior.
MUCH more ME.

I am constantly amazed at the desire expressed by a lot of people for
manual transmissions.  Especially so in a car like a 928.  I have had
two 928s now, and although when I searched for my first one, I thought
it should have an automatic, after I got the first car I came to realize
that the car was really designed and intended to have an automatic.  The
Mercedes four speed automatic in that car works exceptionally well, and
although a five speed might give slightly faster acceleration times and
a tad better fuel mileage, I can't imagine why having the liability of a
clutch would be desirable.  

About the only car that I can think of right now that I would want to
drive ONLY with a manual transmission, is a Lotus, but then that may be
just me.  Besides, here in the outback, I doubt that I'll EVER see a
Lotus.  (Oh, maybe in Northeast Harbor next summer...I saw a lovely old
Morgan Plus 4 on the street there last summer, and every summer I see
someone's lovely (and I mean LOVELY) 220S Cabriolet, which  must be
worth fifty grand....)

Roger

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 16:29:52 -0800
From: "Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz at kla-tencor.com>
Subject: RE: [V8] RE: [Worthwhile Bimmers ... ]
To: <v8 at audifans.com>
Message-ID:

<BD316B4584174147B080289F69FC7616012918C9 at CA1EXCLV03.adcorp.kla-tencor.c
om>

Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

It is funny how everyone's experiences color their perceptions ... for
me based on my personal experience I've never been too interested in
BMWs ... I bought a 1978 Audi Fox GTI not too long after I graduated
from college, while my friend, college roommate and coworker at the time
bought a 1979 320i.  While the Fox has a bad rap for many ... I must say
that in 1978 with the fuel injected engine was a very good car.  The BMW
cost almost twice what the Fox did, and my little 1.6 could easily
outsprint my buddy's 2.0 ... needless to say I was and have been pretty
nonplussed ...

You must realize that one of my goals is to buy a T-shirt that reads
"What, BMW makes cars?" ... but there are a couple BMWs that I have been
attracted to.  First and foremost is the M1 ... what a gorgeous car ...
but second is the 850i ... and I think it is because BMW took some cues
from the M1.  A coworker at my current employer saw the AutoWeek I
brought in which had the scoop on the 850i and decided he had to have
one ... got one of the first imported to California.  I've heard some
horror stories on the kinds of failures and poor serviceability of the
12 cylinder ... perhaps an 840 might be more in line with what I might
look for ... 

I must say that a 1988 928 would be another car I'd pick up if the price
were right ... and it had a manual tranny ... 

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)
... my BMW's got only 2 wheels ... 
> 
> So with the advent of the second, "I'll NEVER do that again" Porsche,
> the 12-cylinder BMW receded into the far background.  One of the
> justifications of course, is that in the case of Porsche, as we all
> know, "there is no substitute".  Probably the other justification is
> that with V8's, once bitten by the Porsche bug, you never quite find a
> cure.

------------------------------

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End of V8 Digest, Vol 16, Issue 11
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