[V8] retirement

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Now, in case everyone else reading this wonder what happened to this
electrified lister, my friend the European motoring journalist about whom I
have written here before, has just called to tell me the answer.

You see, he has a friend who works in the Pentagon where they monitor
various ground objects, and at this precise moment they were scanning Maui
using their new super high resolution computer enhanced surface radar
scanner.

Turns out that our lister friend in Maui was returning home from a jaunt to
the grocery store in his battery powered prototype, made a wrong turn in a
cloud burst and managed to get forty one point seven two two three miles
from home.

Last seen he was scanning the horizon for the nearest place to plug in.....

-----Original Message-----
From: SlicerDicer [mailto:slicerdicer at mac.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 5:54 PM
To: Roger M. Woodbury
Subject: Re: [V8] retirement

I am going battery electric vehicle. So much for gasoline I can't justify it
anymore with going full solar. 

Living in Maui with driving no more than 40 miles anytime the 100 mile range
does not dampen me at all. This is a brave new world indeed. Most cars are
garbage factory material :(

Will write more further once I get home 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 21, 2011, at 4:09 AM, "Roger M. Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com>
wrote:

> 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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