[V8] Type 44 or something else....

[Roger Woodbury]

Well, of course I can't let this one alone, now can I?

I am sure that you are painfully aware that I have been V8-less once, and
whined and whined until I found another one that met my specific
requirements, ie:  low miles and tight seat back nets....it took a year and
I went out to Pittsburg with a Uhaul trailer to bring it back.  The car is
the real deal, and really did have 62,000 miles on it when I picked it up:
original timing belt, etc.

I paid the princely price of $5400 if memory serves, two years ago in May.
My third V8, and my seventh Type 44 Audi.  We also have a C4 Avant with
150,000 miles. Both cars are professionally maintained and the older of the
two, the 1994, is in as near perfect as I can keep it.  Our intent is to
have the body refinished and to keep it inservice indefinitely, as I also
intend on keeping the V8. 

My '87 was a 5000 CS Avant Quattro. Turbocharged the car ran very well,
especially considering that it had more than 105,000 miles on it when I
bought it.  It cost quite a lot to bring it up to snuff since the car had
perfect service only through the first 60,000 miles by the documentation
that came with the car, but once it was right, it ran nearly flawlessly
until at around 215,000 it was showing signs of terminal engine syndrome.

So you have two '87's and I wonder how many miles they have and what their
overall condition they're in?  The biggest reason to keep them in service is
that with a new car budget of ten grand, you aren't going to get much that
won't need about another two to five grand to make right.  I am not sure
what sort of S8 or S6 you can buy for ten to fifteen grand, but I am sure
that whatever you end up doing to the car will cost a great deal more by the
part, than the same sort of work will cost with the '87 Type 44s.  

When we first start my wife's Avant on cold mornings and first shift it into
drive, there is a tiny suggestion of hesitation before the car moves off.
It only happens when stone cold, and only happens once. The hesitation isn't
even a second in duration, but I KNOW it is doing it.  So, the question I
have asked is, should we be looking at something newer at this point,
knowing that I will have to spend something on the order of $3000 to redo
the body?  

What I have decided is, "no".  We bought that car in 2001 with 39,000
original miles.  IF we could find a seven year old A6 that had only 39,000
miles today, it would cost most of $20,000.  My wife's car uses about a
quart of oil every thousand miles or so, and aside from this little glimmer
in gear engagement, the car runs perfectly.  If I sold her car right now, I
might get $3500 for it, so that newer A6 would cost an additional $16,500,
plus five percent sales tax, another three or four hundred dollars in excise
tax.  I can have John do a LOT of work on Michele's station wagon for that
kind of money, and the new Avant won't do one single thing better for our
purposes than Michele's car does now.

If I was in your shoes, I would be tempted to go out and look for a nice '95
S6 Avant.  They are around from time to time without a horrendous number of
miles, but they also seem to fetch crazy money...$11,000 to $12,000 it seems
from what I have seen.  But that is about the only Avant that I would try to
buy, unless I found that most elusive '97 A6 Avant with 31,000 miles on it
that was the fifth car in an eight car garage that just never got driven.
Right.  I'm not holding my breath.

So, unless there are holes appearing the floors of your cars now, I can only
say that one half of your new car budget of $10,000 will do an awful lot of
sprucing up and mechanical overhaul on the cars you have, and even spending
twice or three times that much won't get you much more than you have
already.

Of course, if you just want to buy a new car, then that is something else.

FWIW

Roger