[V8] Future of....misc. ramblings

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I was glad to see an email from V8 this morning.  It sorta fits my mood 
at this early hour and it's been a while since I have been able to see 
there really are still a few people who once knew the V8.

A lot has happened here and a lot more is going to happen in this year 
ahead.  First off, our house will go on the market soon in this new year 
and we WILL sell it, somehow, T H I S  Y E A R! Time to move on.  We 
plan to build a new house that will be highly efficient (more than ANY 
Audi V8!) on some land around 25 miles from where we are now. We have 
found the land but we expect the negotiations will be long and 
potentially difficult, but I digress.

As I wrote a long time ago, the Audi's in the family are mostly history 
now.  The '94 100 Quattro is sitting in the back yard where it stopped 
when the battery died last fall.  I had no time to put a battery in and 
try to get it back into the barn because I was over my head with house 
stuff and the garage portion of the barn was full of packing boxes and 
miscellaneous "I've gotta save that" lumber.  Out the window 100 feet 
away the station wagon still looks good, though hidden from view are the 
rear brakes, front wheel bearings, a/c compressor and a/c control panel 
and more niggling items that would need to be replaced/repaired for the 
car to go again on the road. My mechanic says 'firmly', don't think 
about it which really translates into "I WON'T DO IT", so with 220k on 
the clock the Audi wagon will go to recycling in the spring, I guess.

Meanwhile I wrote about the '02 GMC truck I bought nearly two years 
ago.  It's the newest vehicle I have ever owned and truth to tell, the 
newest vehicle I ever really want to own.  The truck is a loaded 
example...extended cab and 6'5" bed and it was ordered for towing so 
it's got the goofy front shocks which will cost a gazillion dollars if 
they ever fail.  It's been a very good vehicle right up to the time late 
last summer that the transmission grenaded.  So I had a remaned 
transmission put in and now the truck runs absolutely like new and I am 
VERY impressed. The GMC truck is a really good vehicle for all general 
purposes if you live in the country.  My truck is not really rusty at 
all and I am thinking of having the undersides attacked by a real, rust 
proofing place next year.  Maybe.

Anyway, as I said the transmission grenaded while I was driving back 
from the grocery store one Saturday morning in August.  I knew I had 
transmission troubles and on my list of things to do that next Monday 
was to call the wrench and consult.  The wrench's shop is 50 miles away 
which I didn't think would be a problem....right up to the point the 
crunching sound and cessation of forward motivation informed me that I 
was wrong.  So there I was on the Back Belmont Road just about five 
miles from.  Actually it was worse than that.  I was two miles from 
Route 3 which is the main artery from the city of Augusta to Belfast and 
I would need to cross it at the Belmont fire station to continue the 
three miles to my driveway.  Not good.  Or not ENTIRELY bad:  I found I 
still had reverse.

So I managed to turn the truck around in a town maintenance yard that 
was right there and I began to back the truck toward Route 3.  Traffic 
was very, very thing along the road, perhaps a car coming toward me 
every thirty seconds or so. But the road is neither flat nor straight of 
course and can you imagine the kind of odd looks I got from people 
driving alone their right side of the road and seeing a truck's front 
end drinving in their same direction?  And then there were those who 
were driving on the opposite side of the road going in the other 
direction seeing this black pickup, back up lights on, coming toward 
them in the opposite side of the road.

When I got to Route 3, it was tricky.  The road on dead ends at Route 
3.  I needed to turn onto Route 3 heading east for around 150 yards and 
go across onto Route 131 which three miles later goes past my driveway.  
Traffic through the intersection coming from Augusta is coming up a 
fairly long steep hill and although the intersection is well marked, the 
state has widened that half mile stretch or roadway and cars reaching 
the crest of the hill, while they can see the intersection with the fire 
station, they may be going more than sixty miles per hours as they pass 
the "T" where I was parked.  Route 3 is two wide lanes with a wide, 
paved shoulder there plus a left turn lane for cars to turn down  onto 
Route 131 in the direction I was going to go.  I have seen car and truck 
traffic fly through this area before and on Saturday mornings it's apt 
to be really pretty busy with people heading into Belfast to shop.  Let 
me summarize here that I was significantly "puckered", so I stopped and 
watched a bit.

Suddenly there was a break in the traffic from both directions. I mean 
ZERO cars coming from or heading to Belfast and it was like it was 
midnight in a snowstorm-quiet.  So, into reverse I went and turned...er 
backed...out onto the highway.  Now reverse isn't a great drive gear in 
the truck and holding a straight course in reverse takes more 
concentration than driving straight ahead.  I pushed the truck as fast 
as I dared down to the intersection with Route 131....still no 
cars....and swerved across the busy road way, onto Route 131 and into 
the paved yard in front of the fire station. The BIG WARNING light on 
the dash board was screaming at me that the transmission was overheated, 
so I let the thing idle a few minutes and then shut it down to await 
developments while my pulse rate returned to normal.

I restarted the engine, shifted in reverse and began by bass-ackwards 
journey.  I never realized how curvey and full of short hills Route 131 
was from Belmont to my driveway.  I never realized how blind such curves 
and hills can appear to be when driving a truck down the road backward 
looking out the rear windows.  I also never realized how hard it is to 
back a pickup truck a long way when the rear window (and hence, the 
tailgate) is as far away as it is with a pickup that has a back seat.  
Lesson learned:  If you're gonna have a pickup truck and plan on backing 
it up a long way on public roads, get a standard cab model and your neck 
will not get nearly as cramped.

So there I was finally at home having endured all sorts of VERY strange 
looks by folks driving along minding their own business. And then I 
finally did arrange for a towing service to come an haul the truck to 
the mechanic's for it's new transmission.  All in all it wasn't a great 
year for Truck. Last winter I drove the truck to the barn and got into a 
tussel with patch of snow that was deeper than I had thought and pulled 
off a brake line....turned out the brakes on the truck were original, 
and that job involved ALL the brakes and ALL the brake lines and it was 
an unexpected expense for winter.  Then at annual inspection time I had 
to have the front end rebuilt which was another jolt and finally the 
transmission. So as I said, the truck runs like new now and I see no 
reason why it will not be around for quite a long time as a truck.  I 
think I'll explore the idea of having a plow on it once we are moved, 
assuming we move where we want to move and have a quarter of a mile of 
private drive to plow in winter.

But we were without a vehicle for about two weeks during the tranny 
episode.  From that we learned that if we intend to live in the rural 
area which we do intend to live in, we MUST have a second vehicle, even 
if that means one sits most of the time. Well, that's what barns are 
for, aren't they?

So, I am on the hunt for an appropriate vehicle.  I know one option I 
have is to restore the Audi 100. That's the perfect "type" of vehicle, 
and no don't tell me about cross overs or SUV's:  nope!  NOT happening.  
What we want is a station wagon or perhaps even a sedan if the rear 
opens up somehow and the rear seat folds.  Not many options either way 
and not many of those are at all palatable.

My target price to pay is $10,000.  That vehicle can be any age actually 
but it must be all wheel drive, have less than 75,000 miles and a 
perfect, verifiable service history.  I have been fantasizing a Cadillac 
CTS sport wagon which is pretty neat and by the time I'm ready to buy 
something I'll be able to find one in my price range or perhaps a bit 
more. The nice thing about Cadillacs is there were a lot of CTS's bought 
by older people who didn't drive much and always took their cars to the 
dealer so a good and intact service history exists. Alas, very few 
wagons though, made only from 2010 to 2014.

Next is Audi, of course!  A6 wagons of 2008-2011 are pretty close the 
price range. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of Avants and most of them 
that age have a gazillion miles.  But I am well acquainted with the cost 
of maintaining an older Audi so service history is imperative and I 
doubt I'll find what I would want to have and pay money for.  So, I'll 
look but I'm not enthusiastic although I'm willing to buy from a dealer 
a long way off if I find the vehicle that seems right.  I've done that 
with every Audi I have owned and the one rule above all others never to 
violate is NEVER buy a car that has lived those 75,000 miles in places 
where the DOT tries to kill your car with salty brine every winter.

Then there is Volvo. Volvo wagons are crazy popular here.  I'd consider 
a V 70 wagon, NOT XC, IF I could find one that didn't have a gazillion 
miles. VERY rare and the V70 wagon wasn't built in large numbers 
anyway.  And the truth is I'm not real turned on by a Volvo anyway.

Yesterday I came across an add at a dealer for a 2008 Lincoln MKZ.  
Strange. It just sort of struck a familiar chord with me. Then I saw 
why:  it's about the same shape as a V8 Quattro.  From the side it's 
similar and even from the rear there is a familiarity.  All wheel drive 
that one was, a one owner car with 80,000 miles.  A LOT of photos:  
$7,000!  Even better:  the back of the rear seat folds making the 
effective use of the truck really big which would be perfect for our 
trips to the Big Box that we do every month or so.

And oh, yeah, one more thing that I miss now that there are no running 
Audis in this house and that is REAL headlights that will clean 
themselves.  The truck's headlights are beyond miserable and driving 
home from August two weeks ago in a driving rainstorm gave me a hard 
reminder about how I need to replace the headlights that are there now 
and add some big driving lights to the nose....another one of those 
chores I haven't gotten around to yet, but as I said I was over my head 
with house projects ahead of listing the joint.

So all of this rambling started because someone mentioned they missed 
their V8....so do I and there will not be anything that could replace 
it, ever.  I know that. (sigh).

Roger