[V8] (V8) Running the numbers

[Roger Woodbury]

Well, this is my mantra for many years now, and I am still contemplating it
as I approach a time when I will NOT be driving much on a daily basis
whatsoever.  Last summer when I had to realize that I simply couldn't
justify putting more dollars into the 20Valve Avant, I took the easy way out
and bought my father's 100 front wheel drive, The Old Gray Mare.  

I paid $2000, which is likely more than anyone on the general market would
have paid for the car, but I knew the complete service history, especially
the part that took place for the previous ten years.  $700 for a timing
belt, water pump service, new E-code headlights and some minor heater
controller repair (done by me), and ten thousand miles later, the car is an
absolute winner.  No, it isn't sexy in terms of its ability to sprint to 100
from zero, and it doesn’t impact me viscerally the way a V8 does, but it
runs exceedingly well, gets decent fuel mileage on regular gas, and while
not Quattro, is fully capable of "doing winter" the way we do it in far
eastern Maine.  

137,000 miles right now, and I am projecting 160,000 by fall.  It is going
to need a few things...I have an oil leak that I think may be valve cover
and I also think that the right front half shaft is going.  The exhaust
system is giving up, and it will need to be replaced at some point, and I
would love to paw around in the instrument cluster to find the grounds that
are not grounding...but for the next two or three months, it is just
running.

I do not carry physical damage on the car.  My insurance is something on the
order of $100 every six months, and the excise tax is as low as it will ever
be on this car until it is 20 years old.  I think excise becomes a flat $5
at that point.  

Tires?  I dunno. But I would think that those skinny tires are pretty cheap.
I will need tires before next fall.

I have thought that at 200,000 miles I will think about retiring the car.
At that point, what will it be worth?  Zero?  Will it be a junker?  Will it
be something that I have to pay a junk yard to take?  

Meanwhile, I am getting around 24 miles per gallon of regular, and all costs
considered, it doesn't get any cheaper than The Old Gray Mare, unless I had
managed to find a Rabbit/Jetta diesel that had no rust, and the owner of
which was the widow of the guy who bought it new and just wanted to get it
out of the barn.  

Oh, yeah. And speaking of which, I AM on the hunt for one of those.  What I
really want is a 1982 Rabbit...one of the very few turbodiesel Rabbits that
Wolfsburg ever made.  I am sure I will find one, too.  It is probably
sitting in a barn way up in Aroostook County.

Right next to that Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing that the same guy put away many
years ago....

Roger

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