[V8] A8 or V8?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I find it interesting that this thread keeps emerging.  Since I sold my
dearly departed '93V8 to allow it to go south and become a pavement burner
in Florida, I have been thinking about buying another one, and how much I
miss that car.  I have also been thinking a lot about why people sell cars
that they love for something else.  

Sometimes there are good and proper reasons for changing cars.  Most of the
time, I think there are not.  Such is the case with the current thread about
the V8 Vs an A8.  

As I understand the thread, the issue is that the V8 needs some mandatory
maintenance, and therefore the question about changing to a newer model.
The correct word is "justification" for one simple thing:  there is an itch
to "buy" another car.  

Now, buying a new car is a very satisfying experience for most people, I
suspect.  The experience of going through the "buy" process, of plunking
down that money, and driving away in something new (or newer), makes one
feel a sort of empowerment.  In 1987 I bought (actually, leased) a new
Mercedes 190D Turbo...the first one that came into Maine.  I was a high
mileage driver, and that was a wonderful car.  Made me feel great.  Of
course, I traded a 1985 190D (non-turbo), that performed the same mission of
the newer, MUCH more expensive car, very, very well.  And at about one half
the cost.  The earlier car was challenged at much more that 55 miles
perhour, and the Turbo car was a true, economy/sports sedan, if you like.
It made me feel good.

That same year, I got the itch again, and we traded whatever we had for a
new Porsche 944 coupe.  That was my wife's car. I can go through all the
"reasons", rationalizations, obfuscations used in pulling that deal
together, but the truth was that we really should not have spent the money
to begin with, even though at the end of the time that we had the car, we
emerged from the experience financially unscathed.  Of course, we also
emerged from the exercise divorced, but that is another story, although does
speak to the whole issue:  people mostly buy cars for the wrong reasons.

I sold my V8 because it was the right car performing the wrong mission.
What I really needed to be in was either a pickup truck or a station wagon.
I bought a 20 Valve Audi wagon on eBay cheap, and wanted to finish putting
it together and drive it, so the V8 went away, and I now have this, ah,
slightly enhanced 20 Valve.  My wagon does everything that the V8 would do,
because of an enhanced ECU and I think, heavy turbo boost spring.  It isn't
a V8, in that my car is older in miles, and looser, but the underpinnings
have all be messaged and replaced where worn, so I think my Avant is about
as good as I can expect to get in an $8500 car:  that's about what the cost
of the car plus the repairs/maintenance items cost, except for the tires and
rear brakes that would need to be replaced on almost any used car, sooner or
later.  

Now, a V8 requires certain things.  And mile accumulation usually equals
elapsed time, or time of ownership.  So, someone buys a V8 that has a new
timing belt, and sixty thousand miles later, it needs another one.  Sixty
thousand miles and now that V8 is three years older.  The question then
emerges, "do I change the timing belt, waterpump, tensioners and front main
seals and who knows what other thingys that should be replaced while the
front of the engine is disassembled, or should I buy a newer car?"

The answer is much simpler than most people make it.  The answer simply
dissolves into one simple question:  "Do you enjoy driving the V8".  Don't
confuse the question with the other one:  Does the V8 require maintenance,
and have you had to have maintenance performed on the car during the time
that you owned it?"  If the ownership experience has involved maintenance
items that are annoying to the owner, and those maintenance experiences
outweigh the simple pleasure of driving the V8, then sell the V8 and buy
something else.  The maintenance of the "newer" car (especially a very used
A8), will be no less and probably more than the V8, but if there is no
satisfaction in owning and driving the V8, get rid of it, and move on.

After forty gazillion cars and forty gazillion excuses for owning or buying
or selling a car that I owned, the simple economics will ALWAYS work out to
keeping the car that you have, and repairing whatever mechanical work needs
to be done, regardless of how much it costs to have it done.  The only
possible alternative to that, if the vehicle can be depreciated as a part of
a business expense.  This was the case with both my '87 Mercedes and my
wife's Porsche, but the tax rules have changed since then, and today in
order for it to work, those two vehicles would have had to be SUVs...which I
wont' give house room to....

My mother used to tell me, "there will always be another car".  Well, yes
and no.  There will never be another V8.  They make them no longer.  But
parts and parts cars are plentiful, and there are quality mechanics around
to work on them.  They are old enough so that insurance and taxes are pretty
reasonable, and I have never had a sedan that provided so much "bang for the
buck".  

My 20 Valve Avant performs on a par with my '93 V8.  I also really enjoy
flopping down the rear seats and hauling five huge contractors trash bags to
the transfer station, or four of five eight foot long items from Home Depot
to the project, without having to take the big dually pickup for such a
light duty job.  But my Avant isn't a V8, doesn't feel the same and no
amount of rationalism of just plain lying will make me think it is the same:
the change that I made was the right change for me at the time, but when I
get the chance, I think I still would like to have another V8.  

The Audi V8 is much like the Highlander:  There really is only one.

Roger