[V8] I've been thinking....never a good thing!

[Roger M. Woodbury]

As usual, I have been pondering our aging fleet of Type 44 Audis. My 
wife's station wagon, a 1994 100 Avant Quattro is approaching 200,000 
miles.  It's beginning to look pretty tacky, the curling lower body rub 
strips peeling off and the paint generally needing refurbishing.  But 
the car is mechanically near, 100%, only new struts needed in the late 
fall at inspection time, plus new tires to get it ready for another 
30,000 miles.  I just  had the engine vacuum lines and top-end seals 
replaced. Now the engine runs as it did when it was new to me, 160,000 
miles ago and it doesn't leak oil.  Yesterday we drove to my wife's 
doctor and back, a round trip of just shy of 100 miles and the thing 
runs and runs.  If I fix EVERY little thing, and have it repainted the 
cost will be around three grand, so I am not even thinking seriously of 
replacing it.

The V8 is the other car in the fleet.  I recently tried to sell it. It 
is arguably one of the best there is and with 80,000 something thousand 
miles, it's still relatively young.  Right now it is unregistered as I 
have no need to drive or pay to keep two cars on the road.  This fall 
may well be different, as I have a new venture I may be involved with 
which will require me to be away during the day, and my wife doesn't 
want to be at home alone without transportation if I am away all day 
often. The V8 will be put back on the road if I need it, sometime late 
in the fall.  Perfect:  I look forward to driving it again.

But I think about the 100, and have been looking around for something 
that we might get to replace both vehicles with one. Eventually, we will 
need only one at all, so I have been pondering something with some 
utility but not a SUV thing...something that would have the overall 
performance of the 100 AVant, with the room, but well, something a bit 
different.

Oh, yeah. I have thought about an A6 Avant, and a Merceded E-class 
4-matic wagon...about a 1999-2001 model before they became 
electronically unified and unrepairable, but no:  I don't really WANT 
one of those station wagons again.

When they first introduced them, I sat in a Volkswagen CC.  It was small 
inside and cramped with huge, thick doors and NO rear visibility.  Parts 
of it came from Japan, too, which really turned me off.  I thought it 
was chintzy.
I still do.

A Porsche Panamera is out of the question, price wise, and I no longer 
have much love for Porsche anyway.  I think my Porschedisease has 
finally been cured, now that the 928 is fading into history.

The BMW X6 is an intersting thing, but the snouts are too cut off for 
me, and the price....well, they hype themselves up as the Ultimate 
Driving Machines, but any more, who can use an "ultimate driving 
machine" in a driving environment that rewards "ultimate driving" with 
speeding fines and unaffordable insurance rates? Besides, BMW has been 
recalling their cars because they are now a marketing business not a 
quality manufacturer...MY opinion!

So, I dunno.  Right now, I think we'll keep what we've got and await 
developments.

Oh, then there this morning, somehow I stumbled onto something that I 
can't stop thinking about.  It is a sickness, perhaps, or maybe I'm just 
losing it entirely, what do you think?  I found and have been reading 
about something called an Acura ZDX.  I didn't know what one was so I 
looked it up on Wikipedia, then on the Acura website, then other places. 
Finally I went to eBay and looked to see what was around.

It's an odd thing.  Four doors, fast-back roof with insulting, 
claustrophobic rear seating. Clearly a car intended for two people with 
occasionally, shoving two more in the rear, preferably two people you 
don't like very much and who you don't wan to ride with you ever again.  
Glass panel roof that opens, rear hatch and rear seats that fold flat to 
the floor.  It struck me that it is probably the right size for my wife 
and I to drive the 50 miles to Sam's Club and back loaded.....about what 
we get when we make that trip.  Neat interior....rather interesting 
dashboard, but like all Japanese cars, far to much going on in front 
that is electronic and probably will fail when it is six or seven  years 
old andhas around 75,000 miles. But then, Honda stuff runs pretty good 
and for the most part, can be repaired, too.  F uel mileage around 
twenty overall, which is about what the 100 Avant has always done....

Horrors!  For some reason, I rather like this thing!  And the dealers 
can't sell them, too, and the thing is being discontinued. Sounds like 
soemthing that I might like....odd, but it might work. I am wondering if 
we should plan a trip to whereever they sell Acuras to look at one in 
the flesh?  I don't know where that is....is there an Acura dealer in 
Portland....that's 150 miles from here, or else New Hampshire or 
Massachusetts, I guess.

Or maybe, I should just go and lie down for a while.

Roger

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