[V8] How rare is a '94 V8.....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Back around the dawn of time when I first became interested in V8 
Quattros....that'd be sometime around 1995 or so....the information I 
was given by someone was that there were 27 V8 Quattros actually 
imported as model year 1994.  Bastian will know for sure, but I believe 
actual production ceased in 1993, not later than either November or 
December and there were no differences between the '93 and '94 models.  
I vaguely recall the information came from some one or some source that 
might actually have known. Back in those days the dealer here in 
Waterville, Maine (a former client of mine) actually sold and serviced 
these cars and had two, count 'em, TWO mechanics who had been to V8 
school.  (Two mechanics in a very, very small Audi/VW/Mazda dealership 
in rural Maine was a HUGE number back then.).  Anyway, that dealership 
actually sold a few V8's, but not many.  If I am correct the "source", 
who we shall have to refer to as "Deep Venturi"...might have been Bob 
Thompson, the original owner of the dealership. Bob (now deceased) had 
been quite successful in management in a big VW/Audi dealership in 
Massachusetts and I think also worked for VW itself, but those details 
are foggy now.  Anyway, he bought the then failing dealership in 
Waterville, Maine and moved here sometime in the 1970's, he told me.  
The turnaround of that dealership was not an easy task. Waterville, 
Maine is a small milltown in central Maine which under any stretch of 
the imagination is hardly a big population territory.  I do know that 
the way he survived in the early years was by being largely on a cash 
basis: he told me at one point that he owned his entire floor plan and 
used no financing for his operations at all.  (I was his insurance 
agent). I still remember seeing his Ur-quattro sitting on the show room 
floor in 1982. It was "lose your license" red and it sat there, and sat 
there, and sat there, and sat there until finally being removed when it 
was nearly a year old.  It wasn't sold because although he had offers, 
his price was what the sticker said and not a pfennig less.  I think he 
owned that car for two and a half years before it finally did sell, and 
he told me with a little smile, that he got his price.  Then there was 
the story of The Black Mariah....a 1997 A6 Avant.  I think that was the 
last, new, NEW Audi I  have ever driven.  It was a very late production 
car and VERY expensive: Something over forty grand  I seem to recall, or 
sometime shockingly huge. Anyway, I was absolutely shocked at the 
sticker price of Audis, as the sticker prices grew to unrealistic 
levels, and this one was a perfect example. Man!  It was gorgeous, 
though:  some sort of special black I had never seen before over black 
leather and I wanted that car.  I was in the process of searching for 
something to replace my '87 5000CS Avant, and wanted another wagon. The 
Black Mariah was a left-over as the new models had arrived and I was 
given a price about four grand below sticker.  Nope...I couldn't think 
about something like that. The model year after The Black Mariah, Audi 
dripped the prices of the 100/A6 cars by thousands of dollars. What I 
was told was the Avant came in and was quickly sold to someone with an 
awkward trade of some sort.  The dealer sold the car at a discount and 
reported the sale just under the wire to recoup his dealer "hold back", 
an incentive bonus from Audi...just prior to closing date for the year's 
sales.  Then the sale fell through and there in his inventory sat a car 
that he had already sold, collected money from Audi for, and in the next 
quarter he would report that car to Audi as a part of his inventory...by 
the end of the 90's there was an Audi floor plan in place, of course.  
Ooops!  So for a while, The Black Mariah became Tompson's demo and thus 
became a "used" car.  I made one more try for that car, but it was still 
far too expensive for me (I left he big cash-flow insurance biz in 
1989).  Eventually that car sold, but it remained at that dealership for 
at least two years, so bad was the price drop by Audi. Bob Thompson knew 
a lot about Audi and its history in the US, so he might have told me the 
actual production figures for the V8, but that's so far in the mists of 
time that I ramble on about all sorts of other things while I try to 
remember what happened back then. So, suffice it to say there were very, 
very few '94's...cars sold and registered as MY '94, so this Colorado 
car will be quite rare.

I really hope this car sells and we learn how much it brought, because 
it will set some sort of market price for these cars, as bad as that 
might be.  But as a CAR, it's nothing special.  There is a '90 in 
Chicago and my '90 that appear cosmetically in better condition, and I 
know there are others that are at least this good with many fewer 
miles.  If there had been some significant change made in something for 
MY '94, then this car would be worth more than the others. But the 
performance improvements of the 4.2 over the 3.6 wasn't terrific...it's 
really only at the bottom end...so the larger engine doesn't mean a 
lot.  I liked my '93, but the only thing I really liked about it as 
"better" than my '90 was the hvac control panel and the power steering.

Roger

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