[V8] A V8 Avant in my future?

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Thought about it.  When it first was announced I started to froth at the
mouth heavily thinking about an all road V8.  I got over it.

I also got over the all road in general because the added complexity serves
me no purpose.  And all the other objections apply...considerably higher
excise tax, insurance cost and naturally, the added sales tax at the initial
purchase.

As it happens I just spent my Sunday morning hour perusing eBay used car
listings.  I included the A6 and all road in this mornings perusings, and
found nothing, nada, zip of interest.  Worst of all, what was there was
really VERY expensive for what they were. This is the trend that I have
found used cars generally following during this recession.  

The most interesting car of the whole bunch that I saw this morning was an
'87 Mercedes 300D-turbo wagon in Texas. This particular example is an
extremely interesting one because it appears to be a US spec wagon but with
cloth interior.  To my knowledge Mercedes has not imported ANY MB's without
at least MB-tex interior for thirty or more years, so this one is and odd
ball.  It also has heated seats, not particularly common with MB's.

The 6 cylinder turbodiesel was in these cars only one year, and was a
magnificent engine with a LOT of power and terrific fuel mileage.  Plagued
by trap-oxidizer and thermal reactor problems, Mercedes warrantied their
systems for the life of the car, and I wonder if this car has had the "fix",
or if Mercedes would still honor their original warranty.  I had an '87
300D-turbo sedan for a short while and as a driving car for long distance,
they were just wonderful.

Now, I would NOT swap the 100CS for the 300D, but I am watching the progress
of the auction.  I know that such a car gives away the huge Audi advantage
of Quattro, which for where I live is really essential for our daily driver.
Still, I do love Mercedes diesels!

Since there is no point of urgency in my ponderings (other than when I have
NO V8 around, then I become absolutely manic), I'll just continue to ponder,
and watch the market from time to time just to see what is around.  At the
end of the day so long as my wife continues to love to drive "her" Avant, my
ponderings are harmless.  But fair warning:  she now has her new kitchen,
and that was a BIG stumbling block over the past few years!

Roger

P.S.  Oh, yeah. She's also got her Dyson, so I just may get really
rambunctious before long.

-----Original Message-----
From: knitknacks at coslink.net [mailto:knitknacks at coslink.net] 
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2011 8:41 AM
To: rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net; v8 at audifans.com
Subject: RE: Re: [V8] A V8 Avant in my future?



Before you go through all that dance, Roger, consider an Allroad, V8 or dual
turbo V6. 


------- Original Message -------
>From    : Roger M. Woodbury[mailto:rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net]
Sent    : 7/2/2011 4:18:19 PM
To      : v8 at audifans.com
Cc      : 
Subject : RE: Re: [V8] A V8 Avant in my future?

 I'll bet the money is steadier and probably better than trying to be an
independent Audi guru, Keith.  But I thought it might be worth a shot in
case you were thinking, "Gee, wouldn't it be neat to get my hands on a....."
Sigh.  OK.  I'll forget it.
 
But I have had numerous conversations with my mechanical genius guy about
doing an engine swap.  He has two early A6 wagons in back of the shop,
either one of which is in decent enough overall condition to make an
excellent candidate.  My wife's 100CS would also.
 
Assuming a tired engine, the biggest reason to consider an engine swap is
that the C4 is really a very nice car, and there is nothing wrong with it
that an additional seventy horsepower or so wouldn't cure.  I will even bet
that with two more cylinders and that same seventy plus horsepower the C4
Avant would get better fuel mileage overall....at least in my semi-rural and
rural NE driving.
 
Right now I feel quite dumb.  It NEVER occurred to me to try to source euro
parts for the conversation to make it in fact a Euro C4 instead of the
slightly emaciated but stolid US car that it is.
 
The arithmetic argues well for a conversation.  The cost of ANY replacement
for the C4 or early A6 Avant approaches pretty respectable dollars and most
other similar cars on the market have lots of miles.  When we bought the C4
it was seven years old and had 39,000 miles from new, one owner.  I watch
the auctions a lot and anything similar with low miles like that is well
into the teens.  About three years ago a dealer in West Virginia had a 100CS
Avant Quattro for sale with less than thirty thousand miles on it, and the
dealer was firm at $10,600...the only one I have seen since I bought ours.
 
So it seems likely that for less than any reasonable replacement Avant, our
100CS could be Europeanized.  The obvious advantages of low excise tax and
low insurance rates argue in favor, given that we already have a highly
maintained example.  
 
The next time this car goes to the wrench is in the fall, and I think I'll
ask him to do a compression leakdown test just to see what the health of the
V6 is ....then I'll start to fantasize some more.
 
Roger
 
 
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