[V8] A V8 Avant in my future?

[knitknacks at coslink.net]

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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