[V8] 200 20Valve Avant: to what lengths?

[Ed Kellock]

Roger,

You won't rest until you know.  Go find out what's up with that car.  It
doesn't mean you _have_ to buy it.  ;-)  If nothing else, you might be able
to facilitate its rescue.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: v8-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v8-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of
Roger Woodbury
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 4:01 AM
To: v8 at audifans.com
Subject: [V8] 200 20Valve Avant: to what lengths?


I wonder how many of these cars they really were originally?  I have heard
all sorts of wild numbers, but the most consistent was between 1500 and 2000
actually imported to North America.  

The reason why I am pondering this is that I have had one 20Valve Avant, one
200 10 Valve Avant, one 5000CS Avant Quattro, and one 5000S Avant
non-quattro.  Of them all, the ones that got the most actual driving time
were the 200 and the 5000CS which was my first Quattro.

I am not sure what it is about these cars, but there is a sort of siren's
song from them for me.  They ARE handy:  they'll carry a lot of stuff,
seemingly more than you can get in to my wife's '94 Avant, but I know that
isn't true.  

They will go nearly anywhere that their low ground clearance won't stop, and
considering that they have five speed manual gearboxes, they are unstuckable
in bad weather.  The later cars are more comfortable, but the five cylinder
engine is arguably one of the more robust engines ever produced for a
passenger car, and will run forever, or take an enormous amount of tweaking
and power-upping and still run forever.

And in stock form, they get really decent gas mileage.  All those are good
things, but they are also very old now, and few are around without a LOT of
mileage.  

To make matters worse...MUCH worse:  it is now possible to buy an early S6
Avant V8 with not terrible miles for the low teens!

So I wonder why I am still attracted to the 200 20Valve Avant?

This particular rant is my daughter's fault.  She has a house in Morrill, a
town about ten miles above Belfast and about 50 miles from here.  The house
is once again vacant and this past weekend she traveled here from her home
in Virginia to see how much carnage the now departed tenant had left her.
Naturally, like a good Daddy, I went over to help her pick up and to haul
away trash.

For as long as I can remember going over there, both when she was living
there and after she had moved, I remember seeing what looked to be a fairly
nice 200 20Valve Avant sitting out side a house about a mile from where
Jen's house is.  I always wanted to stop and have a chat with the owner, but
really and truly, this is NOT the time for me to acquire another one of
these cars.  And besides, the car had plates on it, and was obviously a
driver.

Friday afternoon when I went past that house for the first time in two
years, I saw the 200 20V Avant had been moved to a different position to the
rear of the house in a row with two or three other vehicles.

It had NO plate on the front bumper and something about the way it was
sitting there said:  forlorn.  And I have been thinking about it ever since.

Why would it be pushed way out in the back yard and seemingly abandoned?  If
the owner was through with it, why wouldn't it have been sold to someone
else? Even in Maine, there are people who will buy these cars to use as a
beater, or perhaps just for parts?  Could that have been too much for these
folks to do?  Was it a tradition in the household to drive cars for as long
as possible and just park them?  

OR, could it be that the car needed new front brakes and the people were
told that the old UFO brakes were no good, and not replaceable?  Or perhaps
that they couldn't buy calipers from Audi any more and the car was now
worthless?  Or perhaps the timing belt had failed and the engine was toast?
Or the car needed all brake lines and other things underneath due to road
salt induced corrosion?

I went by the car four times over the weekend.  It IS parked for an unknown
cause and an unknown duration, and since it is a '91 Audi, I would have to
guess that it is permanent.

I can not afford to buy another vehicle now, and absolutely I cannot afford
to buy another PROJECT.  I have HAD these cars.  I don't NEED another one.
But I also know almost all of the things that can go wrong on these cars and
what the fixes for the most part are.  I also know that the UFO brakes
aren't necessarily done, when they are done:  rotors are available, and used
calipers can go thundering on for quite a while.  There are also
alternatives to UFOs.

I don't seem to remember if these are impact motors, so if the timing belt
breaks I don't know if that is fini for the motor, but there ARE other
motors.  Yes, the underpinnings are made of good old German rubber and
sooner or later it is pretty expensive to replace all the little rubber
gizzied in the suspension, front and rear.

But it isn't rocket science.  Almost all of the parts are still readily
available except for a couple of small hoses in the engine compartment that
need to be custom fitted now, I guess.

I wonder if they would take a couple of hundred bucks for it to be hauled
away?

I wonder if it is salvageable?

I wonder if it is worth a trip to Morrill to check?

I wonder if my wife would shoot me if I even mentioned it?

Roger 

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