[V8] W8

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I have wondered about these wagons over the years and have read a fair
amount about them.  In its rush to out-Toyota Toyota VW has tried to do an
awful lot of things, some good, some bad, and some just plain ugly.  I
happen to think the W8 and W12 are among the uglier group.  I also find VW's
styling to be boring and in general can't some up with more than one or two
reasons why anyone with half an automotive brain would buy a VW at all.  Now
VW is going to introduce another "new" Beetle, and I think I will cease
watching.

 

Eight or so years ago when we were having so much trouble with the 100CS
Quattro Avant and had lost our regular mechanic to a massive heart attack,
we spent an afternoon as the only VW/Audi dealer in Maine worth visiting.
We sat in Passat and A4 wagons and found the ONLY car on the lot that really
seemed to fit us and appealed to us at all was a lovely burgundy Audi
allroad which we couldn't and didn't want to afford.  

 

In the end the dealer replaced the cam timing sensor, we found a new
mechanic locally, and the 100CS, now passing 166,000 miles and going strong
will likely be with us for a long time yet.

 

We are in the process of moving to a new home that is about fifty miles from
here.  The Audi is going back and forth nearly daily, and is averaging
around 25 miles per gallon of regular, and using a quart of oil every 700
miles or so.  That's about what it was doing when we first bought the car in
2001 when it had 39,000 miles on it from new. 

 

I have given up the idea of replacing it. When comparing it with any other
kind of utility/general purpose vehicle on the road, everything else, and I
mean EVERYTHING comes up short.  Three thousand dollars of exterior
refurbishing will make the car look like new.  There are NO major mechanical
issues waiting to pounce suddenly, and even if there are, for what a 39,000
mile replacement vehicle with the same capabilities at the 100CS has will
cost more than completely rebuilding the 100CS.  

 

So in looking at the W8 wagon, EVEN IF you know exactly what the problem is
with this car, and can fix it and maintain it fixed inexpensively, you will
still have a car with an engine that is at the age when it will likely cause
even more angst.  No matter how sparkling the performance, it will still be
an issue.

 

Someone earlier mentioned the S6 Avant, a car that I have lusted after in
previous years, but which is no longer of any interest to me.  The reasons
that the S6 is no longer on any of my lists are as follows:

 

1.	Big V8.  at $5 per gallon of gasoline does anyone seriously want to
think about a big engined car for daily driving?
2.	BIG fat tires.  On Maine's rural roads big fat tires mean only big
fat tire replacement bills.  Maine does not have the money to maintain its
roads as well as it did just five years ago.  Most roads that should be
resurfaced are now allowed to deteriorate to a barely passable level, and in
fact there has been some discussion in the capital of allowing certain very
seldom used roads to revert to gravel.  
3.	The S6 sits lower than the A6 Avant.  In late February and early
March I traveled over some of the worst frost heaves that I have seen on
pretty major state roads in my thirty five years of living here.  When the
first of the new generation VWs came out, they were so low in the nose that
more than a few lost oil pans on frost heaves.  I think some of the humps
that I saw this spring could have taken the belly pans of an S6 Avant clean
off and maybe worse.  Even my V8 is better than that.

 

But I suspect a larger issue for most people will not be whether any new car
is desirable or appropriate.  If gasoline prices do rise above $5 per
gallon, I personally think that will be a major tipping point in almost
everyone's decision making process about what car they should or want to
have.  Certainly the W8 is cheap enough if it could become reliable, and be
fixed easily, but I don't think VW had reliability or ease of maintenance in
mind when it marketed this car, or for that matter, almost anything VW has
produced in the last ten years.  

 

I recently watched a '91 Mercedes 300SD sell on eBay.  The car had just over
100,000 miles from new and went for under $7100.  Despite the fact that the
six cylinder diesel in that car experienced some "issues", the car was the
final development of the big body diesel from Mercedes and for long distance
travel in a car that would easily be a "forever" car, I was tempted.
Mercedes still fully supports its vehicles.  

 

I was tempted.  The W8 VW engine is gone, and I haven't heard anyone say a
lot of good things about the W12 Phaeton, or ANY Phaeton, for that matter.
So I'll keep my old cars because I firmly believe that all the best cars
have been built, and the W8 isn't one of them.

 

Roger