[V8] there is one....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

That looks like a good one.  V8 Quattro for sale, that is.  By now I am
certain that everyone on this list has seen or heard about it.  It is dark
green (Ragusa.  Oh, well, one can't have everything.) with Travertine
interior (Oh, well, once can't have everything.).  It is reportedly sitting
at a used car place somewhere in Washington, with 62,000 miles on it.  

Pretty good looking and I spent all weekend thinking about whether or not I
want another V8 right now, whether or not I want a dark green one (maybe),
and whether or not I want to have another V8 with a travertine interior (I
don't.).  

Friday night I sent off an email asking for more pictures and the seller
sent me some on Saturday.  Not very good ones, but the car looks like the
real deal, although I wonder if this is the same car that was for sale a
year and a half ago in somewhere in the northwest.  I didn't save the ad, so
I can't check, but this IS the second Ragusa/travertine that I have seen
from that part of he country with low miles since my Burgundy/travertine '93
went off to become The Gentleman's Express.  

My wife said that if I bought it, it would cost more than it was listed for.
Exactly the price of a new Dyson vacuum cleaner.  I am opposed to another
piece of overrated junk coming into the house, and that's what a Dyson is,
in my opinion, with its hugely expensive filters that no one wants to talk
about....but I digress.  It might be worth it to have another V8, I suppose.

So I went through all the checks, except I stopped short of popping for a
Carfax report.  I stopped because the simple economics argue against buying
this car.

Here are the reasons:

	1.  The asking price is simply too high.  The Kelly Blue Book and
Nada Guide prices are simply wrong.  They are based on sales figures and
with probably fewer than 130 of these cars in existence on the road, I doubt
that any published price works.  My bank's "Banker's Black Book" puts high
retail for this car in the $6500 range, and I think that is a REAL number.  

	2.  The seller claims that the car doesn't need a timing belt
because of mileage.  But the seller can't tell me when the timing belt was
done, and I must assume that the car has the original belt.  The car cannot
be driven until a major timing belt service is performed.  

	3.  Thus the car will have to be transported from Washington to
Maine, and the cost of doing that will be around $1800 according to DAS.
That puts the price of the car sight unseen well above ten grand.  

The bottom line for me is that I won't pay that for one of these cars,
unless, and that is only a "maybe", the car had fewer than 50,000 miles and
the mileage was verifiable.  Doubtful, I think.  Not likely.

So, I'll pass.  Reluctantly, because it is almost too good to be true.  Yes,
I CAN live with travertine but I don't want to.  

Although I really want another V8, I have been watching the auctions and the
used car ads carefully.  It's pretty tough, but it is possible to buy an '02
S6 Avant with around 50k on the clock for the low twenties now.  

The Washington V8 will represent fourteen grand once it is here and in
service.  I would rather borrow ten grand and buy an S6....at least today.

Now, around the first of March, when the snow is gone, and it looks like it
might get warm again...knows?

Roger

P.S.  If anyone is going through Poulus, Washington, or whatever it is, and
you really, truly WANT to check out.....well,  you know!