[V8] meandering thoughts on a mild Saturday

[Roger M. Woodbury]

After reading this I spent a while perusing the Autotrader website 
looking around to see what sorts of allroads were there. There are a LOT 
of them, mostly 2.7's but a few 4.2's in a variety of conditions.  
Prices on Autotrader are all over the place, but it would appear that 
ALL the money is ten or eleven grand.  It doesn't make a lot of 
difference whether or not it is a 2.7 or 4.2, the difference is small 
assuming that the descriptions of condition are equal.  Strangely enough 
I found quite a few stick shift cars although Tips were far in the majority.

Now, dealers of all sorts are a different quantity and prices are higher.

It sounds like you have GREAT VALUE in what you've bought, Dave. I 
suspect the 2.7 cars are as reliable as the non-turbo 4.2's and there 
will be two major keys to having success with the allroad as a used car. 
The first key will be how well the car was maintained and treated by the 
first owner (and hopefully, any subsequent owners!). The second key will 
be you or anyone else who knows and understands these cars and will take 
the time and interest to properly care for them.

When I bought the '94 Avant, I searched for nearly a year for the 
"right" car.  The car was to be a one owner, and was to have a perfect 
service record.  I wanted low miles and I specifically searched for the 
'94 100. The reason for that was the '94 100 was the last year for the 
model and there were no Audi Avants in 1995.  The A6 was introduced as a 
'97 model but was the same vehicle as the '94 100...I don't even think 
there were "subtle changes" aside from the new model lettering.  My 
intention was to keep the car in service for a long time, so mileage and 
service history was most important at that time.  The car I bought was 
sold originally by the dealer in Kansas City who was reselling it.  They 
had been an Audi dealer back then, but had sold the Audi franchise and 
were now a BMW dealer...a big one, at that.  They had taken the car in 
trade from their customer who they had switched over to a BMW.  The car 
was a perfect seven year old example with 39,000 miles.  I flew out and 
drove the car back to Maine.

The car has now been maintained by the same mechanic for 170,000 miles, 
is not rusty beneath and still runs like a top.  It has NOt been "cheap" 
to maintain, but there is no reason to suspect that it won't cover 
another 50,000 miles with no worries.  What it does need now is exterior 
refurbishing and a handfull of small items and it will look as good as 
it is.  The question is at what point does it make no sense to do those 
items instead of movin up to a more modern vehicle.

In the case of the 100, the short list includes exterior refinish 
including the plastic body trim pieces that are curling away from the 
door.  I would buy these as aftermarket items I think, because the 
plastic pieces from Audi total $1100 alone (!). Then there are the 
"usual" items....three door window switches, perhaps an instrument 
cluster rebuild, a better radio, a new a/c compressor, new fog lights 
and that's about it.  Around $4000 or less to make the car look like 
new...I have most of the estimates.

That's the exterior. The only mechanical issues are the usual Audi oil 
leaks.  The rear of the engine is leaking pretty badly, truth tell.  Not 
bad enough to keep the car from being inspectable here in Maine, but 
it's getting worse.  What really needs to be done is to have the whole 
engine resealed.  Then again, I do have available that later A6 2.8 V6 
with 90,000 miles and a swap is possible, I suppose.  The wrench told me 
that resealing will probably be less expensive than making an engine 
swap, so I'll go with that.  Probably less than 1800 for the reseal.  
Eventually the oil leaks will be serious enough to take the car off the 
road until resealed.  The wrench has "counseled" that they should not be 
hunted for at this point, but the whole engine needs to be 
resealed...for example:  at 250,000 miles both head gaskets should 
be....well, you get the idea.

So, eventually, the 100 could go past $4-5,000 in order to insure 
continued use.  On the good side of that ledger, is the car will 
continue to run and cost the lowest possible amount in terms of excise 
tax and physical damage insurance.  These items are relatively cheap, 
and if I go up to something a lot newer, the State of Maine will reward 
me handsomely with a much bigger excise tax.

And the other side of it also is that I do not do any of my own 
mechanical work. Fortunately I do have an independent mechanic who knows 
these cars well and although not exactly cheap, I have 100% confidence 
in the quality of mechanical service I have available, albeit at 50 
miles away.  So I guess I can flip a coin, but for now we'll keep the 
100 in service.

Best of luck with the 2.7 and I hope you'll continue to post here so 
I'll know how well things go along with you in the new car.

Roger




On 7/11/2015 3:14 PM, Dave Saad wrote:
> Well...
> I just bought a allroad 2.7t. I got it for 3k with 115k miles on it. The interior is in fantastic shape, and the body is also very nice. The previous owners daughter did a little "art work" on the paint, but it will all buff out. Kinda cute actually - kids do funny stuff. It also has a rebuilt transmission and came with an extra set of wheels/snow tires. It had a leaky front suspension and weak air pump. Also had a bad dash display and the stereo display has dead pixels. Basically this is how I wanted to buy it. All fixable stuff.
> So far I have rebuilt the front end with new lifetime air springs, new upper control arms and re-bushed lower control arms. The air pump is rebuildable for $30. The dash lcd panel was $120 and easy to replace. I also put new tires on. The whole mess cost about $2k (including the vag-com I just bought and the service manual) so I am in this car for slightly north of 5k and it certainly feels like it will go another 100k miles with little trouble.
>
> So far I love it which surprises me since it is a tip tronic but I like that too. It is very easy to drive like a manual transmission.
>
> So- rather than spend top dollar for a perfect specimen, look for one that can be brought back to life. This way you get to control the quality and cost of your repairs.
>
> I also hear the 2.7t is near bullet  proof. There will be lots of rubber hose issues for me for the next year but this is expected and planed for.
>
> Dave
> Btw does this mean I have to leave the v8 list?
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Jul 11, 2015, at 4:38 AM, Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>>
>> I have made the decision to put the V8 back on the road.

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