Re: '88 TQ 5000 wagon?

[zm@mhcnet.att.com]

>3) According to my dealer, Audi let quality control slip in the heyday
>of the 5000 (ie before 60 minutes) because they were selling 'em faster
>than they could make 'em.  This correlates with reliability horror stories
>I have heard from owners of mid-eighties 5000's.  This car was on the tail
>end of that production cycle.  Audi tried to get their QC act together for
>the new 80,90,100,200 models because they needed to win back the american
>market.  In fact, when the 80/90 models were launched in the US, they were
>already selling like hotcakes in Europe, but Audi pledged to fill American
>orders before European orders.

In my research into the reliability of mid-to-late eighties 5000 (when I was
looking to buy one last year) I found that according to Consumer Reports, the
reliability was "much above average" (their best rating) for 87 and 88 turbo
quattros. The non-quattros did not fare that well for the same model years,
one of the contributing factors being problems with the auto transmission.
Of course, as is expected, reliability dropped for the older model years
(84, 85, 86) and improved for newer.

Zafer