[V8] retirement

[diemarthadie at aol.com]

You know Roger, you might actually be better off investing in a spare 
transmission and other major parts and just keeping your current cars 
running for another decade or more.  You know the cars, you know the 
foibles and failure areas, you know you like them... What you really 
seem to want is a diesel V8Q Avant :)

Yes, for the moment, M-B still supports their 20+ year old cars, but 
for how long?  As markets tighten, the philosophy has been changing to 
'encourage' people into newer models.  Cutting costs by ending service 
for models 20+ years old is a simple step for bean-counters.  Your '80s 
M-B could very easily find itself as abandoned as the V8Q in a 
relatively short period of time.

Why not stick with what you know and enjoy that is already in your 
garage?  A good spare V8Q (or 100) for parts will cost you much less 
than a good 300D.

While I also like the old diesel M-B cars, and was admiring a black '87 
300D last night(!), I know you won't be saving any money going down 
that path either.  Have you looked at current factory parts costs for 
those cars?  Assuming the parts are available, they will be factory 
parts with factory parts prices, right?

Good luck making the decision - it's always fun to read the pondering 
process :)

John

PS - there's always the late Volvo 240 models - they run forever :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com>
To: v8 <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Mon, Feb 21, 2011 9:09 am
Subject: [V8] retirement


For want of a better term.  2011 will mark major changes here.  We are
selling this house and moving to another building we own in preparation 
for
building a new home.maybe.  The moving part is guaranteed, the building 
part
is not:  I am not sure I want to do another house, and the land we own 
is
not located anywhere near high speed Internet except possibly for DSL 
and
since the house site will require dragging telephone lines 1800 feet, I 
am
not sure it is workable.  Anyway.



We currently have two elderly Audis and an elderly GMC pickup.  The GMC 
is a
3.4 ton, do anything/go anywhere truck with fewer than 100,000 miles 
total.
With reasonable maintenance it will last forever and at 3-5,000 miles 
per
year, even at eight dollars a gallon for gasoline, it is cheap to own.



The Audis are elderly.  My wife's car will pass 165,000 during this year
most likely.  It's needs are few, but I know that sooner or later the
transmission will fail, and the body needs exterior restoration if it 
is to
last another 10 years, or 100,000 miles.  I know it will last that long
because we have done the work necessary to maintain it properly over the
first 155,000 miles. But a big time repair like a transmission dampens 
my
enthusiasm.



My V8 has fewer than 80,000 miles so is no where near any sort of "time
out".  The real issue with the V8 is total operating cost, and more
severely, availability of parts for a model that has been out of 
production
for seventeen years.



So I have decided to begin the annual spring car replacement process 
since
it is snowing here, is cloudy and foggy and just a generally yukky 
winter
morning.



The overarching question is, IF gasoline prices spike above $5.00 per
gallon, AND we were to replace both Audi's with newer, more fuel 
efficient
vehicles, or perhaps VEHICLE (singular), what are some of the options?



One likely candidate is another Audi.  In our case it would be a 
2000-2005
A6 Avant.  Pretty nice cars although rare with low miles and I question 
how
well any of them REALLY get maintained nowadays.  The ideal car would 
be a
one owner from outside of the rust belt, and not more than 50,000 miles.
Very hard to find so my casual search has shown.  AND when you do find 
them,
they tend to be pricey.



I am ruling out anything made in Japan.  I will walk or crawl before I 
buy
some automobile made in Asia in general, and Japan in particular.  I 
won't
buy a Volkswagen CC because the transmission is made in Japan.



Then there are cars in the opposite direction.



One thought that I have had is to hunt (and it will be a BIG safari 
taking a
long time, and maybe never finding the white rhino at all) for a 1987
Mercedes 2.5 diesel.  That was arguably the best of the 190 series car 
as
the 2.5 litre diesel was absolutely bullet proof, got terrific fuel 
mileage
whether in town or on the road.  Mercedes still provides parts for that
model series, too.  Very rare with less than 200,000 miles.



I wouldn't mind having another 190D-turbo, but there never were a lot of
them, and they are now very rare except for those with 300,000 miles.



Then another thought is an '87 Mercedes 300D-turbo.  That was the new 
body
style with the six cylinder turbo diesel engine.  I actually bought one 
of
those cars in Florida in the mid '90's.  I absolutely fell in love with 
the
model after driving one, and there was this particular car at a used car
dealer/body shop* in Naples.  *the body shop was the warning flag and I
totally missed it!.



Anyway, the price was truly right, and the miles were low.  It was 
almost
too good to be true, and maybe it was.  But I bought the car, cancelled 
my
return flight and drove up the east coast.



The car drove and rode like perfection.  The six cylinder engine had 
plenty
of power and the power came on smooooooothly, in contrast to my '83 300D
turbo.  I bought the car in Florida to bring back here to Maine to be 
sold,
so it was a speculation car not something that I intended to keep.  On 
that
trip from Florida in the middle of the night, the car floated along
Interstate 95, getting around 35 miles per gallon of diesel at any 
insane or
sane speed I wished to lock in with the cruise.



On the last leg of my drive from Belfast home.45 miles.I encountered a 
heavy
snow shower just as it was getting dark.  I clicked on the windshield 
wipers
and found..they didn't work.  It was VERY hard drivnng those miles 
depending
on the defrost to melt the snow on the windshield, but somehow I made 
it.
The problem was a fuse I think it was, although I don't even remember 
now.
When I took it to my car guy to sell, the news was far worse:  the car 
had
been hit HARD in the left side, with major body reconstruction 
including the
"B" pillar.  Turns out the car had been totaled, the title lied, and the
former elderly owners had been killed.  The only part of the body work 
that
was improperly done was the body shop had not installed the sound 
deadening
material in the driver's door.  Other than that it took an expert body 
guy
to show where the damage was repaired and where the paint was obviously
reapplied: I might never have found it myself even if I didn't' have 
stars
in my eyes.



So eventually the car got sold for about what I had in it..I think I 
lost
perhaps a thousand bucks, and I decided that I would not do any more
speculation buying.  But it also says something for the integrity of the
Mercedes 300D shell to take that kind of a hit and be fully repairable.
Take  notes, Japanese cars.



Right now there is a very nice looking 300D on eBay with 135,000 miles. 
 It
will probably not bring $5,000 in this auction. Another one with 30,000 
more
miles just sold for less than $4000 in New York.



Of course they are two wheel drive cars, and I am not really interested 
in
depending on one of those systems year round here in Maine, but they 
still
make winter tires with studs for all four wheels, too.  And when the 
weather
is bad enough we don't have to go anywhere.



Then there is the question of that six cylinder engine. It was a one 
year
only motor because Mercedes had major issues with the engine.  It was
non-catalytic equipped, using thermal reactors for emissions.  Mercedes 
came
up with a fix for the thermal reactor issue and the cracked cylinder 
heads
that the engine suffered, an as far as I know the fix is warranteed for
lifetime.whose lifetime, I have no idea.



And they did make a station wagon variant, but those are really rare and
very expensive..



I have read over all of this, and find it interesting that the only
replacements that I can come up with for the "fleet" we have, is either
something a little newer and more expensive with little gain, or 
something
older from Mercedes that burns diesel fuel and is an imperfect 
replacement
at best.



I guess all the best cars HAVE been built.



Roger

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