Cheap cars (was brake booster...)

[jdouglas@mitre.org (jason douglas)]

Here's a favorite thread --- audi quality!

>I can see people buying a used 5000 that needed all these repairs and
>never wanting to buy an Audi again.  That probably why they're fairly
>cheap used. 

Yeah, that and the bogus 60 Minutes story.....

The 5000 is definitely not a car for appliance drivers, people with no time to
hassle with repairs, and folks who won't do it themselves and don't have a
good mechanic.  Having said that, it is an incredible car for the money.  A 
comparable car made by anybody else costs at least 3 times as much, and even
then you probably won't get the extreme durability of the 5000 drivetrain, or
the priviledge of being a member of this elite group :-).  Comparable cars also
tend to be higher status with all the negatives that entails.  For example, the
BMW is a very nice car.  While there are plenty of BMW owners that would fit
in well with this group, the majority are the sort of people I have no interest 
associating with, let alone being mistakenly identified as one "them" when
out on the road!

The 5 banger might be crude compared to the VR6, but its a damn good engine.

> But funny thing is, it happens with Porsche 911s too, and
>probably a bunch of other cars?  

???? These are pricey around here.  The bargain Por-she is a 944 from
the mid '80s.  Those seem to run around $5k+ in the national capital area.
But the best sleeper might be the relatively rare six cylinder 914.  Anybody
here run accross one?  How much do they cost, are they hard to maintain,
etc. etc.

Jason Douglas