[V8] The $400 '90V8

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Is an absolutely GREAT price to pay!  Congratulations, and you will be so
awfully glad that you have found your way to an Audi V8.

Despite the amount of enthusiasm on this list for these wonderful
automobiles, there is an awful lot of wailing and moaning about how
difficult, complicated, expensive, yada yada yada they are.  All of which is
not really true.

While the Audi V8 is complicated beyond, say, a 1959 Chevy small block, it
is now old technology, and therefore, relatively straight forward.  There
are issues that develop with the cars over time and miles that need to be
attended to, but they can be made to be like new, and once they are, they
will be dependable, and extremely pleasant cars to own and operate.

Expensive?  Well, it all depends on how that term is defined.  If the owner
of one of these cars has the time and skills and desire to consider the car
a hobby, then they can be very inexpensive.  But if the car needs to perform
as it was intended, and the owner isn't a quintessential hobbiest, then a
good independent Audi mechanic will have to be located and hired to do the
necessary work.  More expensive, but not as expensive as the alternative.

What's the alternative?  Well, a comparable Audi if used, might be a 4.2
litre A6.  Certainly the performance would be comparable, and the size is
about the same.  And the entry level for one is in the low $30,000 range.

Now that car is pretty current in terms of engine management systems and
other stuff, but that engine is NOT just an old Audi V8 reworked, but an
entirely different motor, and will probably require some pretty specialized
and expensive mechanical work to keep the engine and the entire car in
operation.  It's a long, long way from the $400 V8.  And of course, the cost
of insurance, the cost of licensing, the cost of tires...are all much more
than the V8.

The A8?  First generation A8s are selling for twelve grand now. And with
good reason.  Let's not even go there.  They are not comparable, in my
opinion, and many of the same strictures that went along with the 4.2 A6
apply to the A8.

The S8?  Lovely automobile.  But at around $1000 for a set of tires, hardly
comparable.

I bought my last V8, a '93 4.2 when the book value was still high. I paid
$13,500 I think it was, and drove it for about a year before needing to do
anything much to it.  Once the leaks started, it got expensive, but now I
know what to look for, and where, and what to do in the beginning.  And more
importantly, I can put an approximate dollar figure against owning one of
these cars and enjoying it as the "secret automotive weapon" that it is.  

Basically, I can see spending between four and ten thousand dollars on one
of these cars after buying it.  It probably will make little difference if
you spend $400 for one, or $6,000 for one, if the car has more than 75,000
miles on it, the numbers will probably not change a whole lot, unless you do
extensive modifications to the car, such as five speed conversions or big
brake up grades for the front brakes.

When and if I ever find my "next" V8, I will plan on spending under six
grand for the car, and then plan to spend ten to fifteen thousand over the
next few years.  At the end of that time, I will have driven the car most of
that time, and have a near perfect V8 that will be able to be driven for
another hundred thousand miles, all for less than the cost of an entry level
econobox.  

The only real question that exists as far as I am concerned, is after a
relatively short run, and relatively few vehicles produced, how long will
Audi actually support these cars with parts?  After that, how long will the
after market produce parts for these cars.  At some point there may be a
pivotal left gizzie that is no longer made, and no longer available.  What
then if local fabrication can't duplicate the part?

But in the short run, you should really enjoy the marvelous vehicle that it
is, knowing that there really isn't anything else like it anywhere!

Roger