'89 80 Quattro at 33K miles (long)

[pfh@craycos.COM]

You can't get two Audi owners together without a discussion of
maintenance and service.  I think it's vastly improved from ten years
ago.  I had a 1980 Audi 4000, purchased new, from early '80 till early
'85; I wasn't very impressed with the St. Paul dealer, even on warranty
service.  (I hear that Morrie's in Mpls. is OK, though I never tried
them; I switched to an independent garage when the warranty ran out.)

Currently own a 1989 Audi 80 Quattro, purchased new in late '89, with
33K miles.  Perhaps my experience will change when the warranty
expires; but I think the combination of car, warranty, and dealer
service department will convince me to buy another Quattro in a few
years.

My 80Q has had its problems, but they have been fixed, quickly and
competently and at no charge.  That's hard to argue with.  I suppose if
I'd got a four-wheel-drive Camry, I'd be at the shop less often; but
the driving would be a lot less fun.

I highly recommend Alpine Motorsports (Porsche/Audi) in Colorado
Springs.

For that matter, I highly recommend the Quattro.  The combination of
four-wheel-drive and ABS is fantastic.

Some service specifics:

The two big items were a cracked windshield and a driver's side
seat/shoulder belt that locked in its retracted position.  Both
recent, i.e. shortly before 30K miles.

The dealer agreed that the windshield looked like it had a stress crack
rather than an impact crack.  (It happened while parked at work; I 
suppose someone could have thrown something at it, but there weren't
any impact marks, only the crack.)  At first, they said the regional Audi
representative would have to look at it.  However, I got a call about 
a week later that said they'd replace the windshield under warranty.
They did.

When the shoulder belt started to intermittently lock up and refuse to
be worn, I called the dealer and whined.  They ordered the part.  Then
one day the thing locked up solid.  I called the dealer and flamed
(Thursday).  Friday the part came in; Monday and Tuesday they replaced
it.  They apparently underestimated the difficulty of replacing the
belt assembly, and had to loan me a car that night.  (If you haven't
seen it, the inertia reel has a permanently-attached steel cable that
runs down the door pillar, along the sill, through the firewall, and
over to the transmission.  It's a lot of work to replace it.)

Other fixed problems (don't have service records handy, so no mileage):
- oil leak at delivery; replaced gasket under warranty
- water pump leaked at delivery; replaced under warranty
- windshield wiper blades deteriorated after one year; replaced under warranty
- fog light bulb burned out; replaced under warranty
- center stop light bulbs burned out; replaced under warranty
- more center stop light bulbs burned out; replaced under warranty
- right rear door lock failed; replaced under warranty
- driver's seat heater relay chatters when at setpoint; replaced under
  warranty (long order time, took a couple months)
- severe tire wear on OEM tires; aligned under warranty

Outstanding problems:
- right rear door lock failed again, dammit
- paint chipping severely along leading edge of hood (was a problem with
  my '80 Audi, too)

I finally gave up on the OEM tires (Uniroyal Rallye 195/60VR14) and got
new summer tires, unidirectional Toyo 600-F1 in the same size.  Big
performance improvement; don't know yet if the wear will be better or
worse.

___________________________________________________________________________
Peter Hill                    pfh@craycos.com               +1 719 540 4259
Cray Computer Corporation, 1110 Bayfield Drive, Colorado Springs, CO  80906