[V8] A6 4.2L...

[Roger Woodbury]

Ah, yes.  The six cylinder turbo diesel.  Offered only in 1987 in the
smaller body cars.  

I bought mine in Florida.  I fell in love with it. It was gold and tan, and
although it didn't have the classic interior of the W123 car, it "spoke to
me".  It was cheap and with pretty low miles as I recall.  

When it spoke to me its siren song, it lied, and I was deluded.

Bought it on a Friday, and immediately headed back to Maine.  In truth, my
intent was to bring it back and drive it forever.  Nice drive back. The car
was cool as I left Florida in the heat and sunshine of winter.  That diesel
was all the things that the W123 cars' diesels were not...smooth, quiet,
powerful.  Economical too, as I recall averaging better than 30 miles per
gallon over the entire trip.

I arrived at my parents house after a fast trip of one and one half days
around two in the afternoon. Chatted and had coffee and cake before leaving
for the last 45 miles to home.  As I left the driveway, it started to snow.
Not "serious" snow, just snow shower.

Three miles later, the snow shower was indeed very heavy and I switched on
the windshield wipers to get....NOTHING.  Getting dark. Full defrost.  Wet
windshield.  Heavy snow melting but no wiper.  

I took the car to the shop to get this little quirk fixed.  "Why did you buy
this car, Roger.  You know better than this. This car has been hit HARD in
the left side and the middle pillar and both doors have been replaced."  

"Oh," I thought. "That's why the car door sounds so un-Mercedes-ish when I
close it."

Sold the car a couple of months later.  I had bought it for a song in
Florida, and sold it for a better song here.  Lost more on that car than I
lost on "The Rommel Projekt", which was the antique 220S sunroof sedan that
had the Hydrak clutch system.  (Don't ask:  I knew better than THAT, too!)

I think that was the last Mercedes.  Audi Quattros came along pretty soon
after that one.

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: cobram at juno.com [mailto:cobram at juno.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:44 AM
To: rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
Cc: v8 at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V8] A6 4.2L...

 "Roger Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com> writes:

> Not my style, but then it has occurred to 
> me that I
> am just getting old, too.  I also like the W123 Mercedes...

The 123 is OK till you get a 124.  I bought my current '87 300TDT for a
client overseas, after a few weeks of trying to find any demons to
exorcise, found I couldn't part with it.  Truly the last of the
"engineering  first, marketing last" Mer-say-dees."  Evidently I'm not
the only one, every other day it seems someone puts a note under the
wiper with a phone number asking for first dibs should she go on the
market.  In my wildest dreams I couldn't see that happening with my
V8Q's.
 
BCNU,
http://www.geocities.com/cobramsri/
"God's a kid with an ant farm. He's not planning anything."