[V8] retirement

[GEORGE TUR]

Subject: RE: [V8] retirement
Date: 2/21/11 12:45:09 PM
From: "GEORGE TUR" <getur at optonline.net>
To: rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com


I was just looking at the A6 avants myself, thinking of replacing the 
2004 allroad.

The A6 avants post 2005 model years are all in the $30k plus range and 
their fuel usage is in the 17 to 26 mpg range, which is not too much 
different from your current A6. I did see a nice 2005 A6 avant last week 
that was $25k and had 43k miles on it but it was sold very quickly, 
didn't have time to enquire about it at all. Overall, I'm a little leary 
of the post 2000 model year A6s in regard to the reliability or cost of 
maintenance. Based on two co workers experience with the cars, one is a 
2005 model and the other is either a 2007 or 2008, they seem to have 
spent quite a bit of time at the dealers getting repaired. Granted most 
of the work has been covered by the warranty but I wonder how well they 
will hold up as time goes by.

I know you're set against the VW CC but my close friend has the 2010 
Passat wagon with the 2.0T engine and he is getting almost 30 mpg on the 
highway. My wife has the 2006 VW Passat with the 3.6 V6 and that car has 
been returning in the mid 20 mpg range with her mixed driving. It's also 
been pretty reliable except for an issue with a transmission valve that 
was covered under warranty. That car has almost 80k miles on it now. 
Even though she likes the car she feels that the 95 A6 we had had the 
roomier and more comfortable interior. Interestingly the car that brings 
back the fondest memories from both the wife and kids is the 1982 Audi 
5000 that we had. Everyone felt that that car was the best overall of 
all the Audis we've had even though it was a bit under powered.

If you're looking at fuel mileage the best cars I've seen so far are a 
pair of diesel powered Jettas, model year 2008. One is a manual 
transmission model and regularly gets in the high 30 mpg range in short 
urban or around town driving and almost 50 mpg on the highway. The other 
one is an automatic and gets a little less in the city and and highway. 
Both cars have been solid. The manual one is a wagon and is definitely 
smaller volume wise than the A6 avant, but still pretty comfortable for 
driver and passenger. The interior build quality is pretty good also, 
defintely not as up scale as the A6s but good for that price range of 
mid $20k

A set of cars that caught my eye recently were the Ford and Mercury MK(z 
or s) line. I saw them at the Philly auto show a couple of weeks ago and 
the hybrid models were advertising city mileage in the low 30 mpg range 
while the highway mileage was touted to be 40 mpg. The cars were in 
finished off pretty well and were roomy inside. Not sure if there is a 
wagon version but I believe the same drive train is available in the suv 
models. Maybe something to consider down the road.

Regards

George


On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Roger M. Woodbury wrote:

  snipped stuff ....
>
> 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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