Q buying fever's back...

[tnas@dtpdirect.nl (Tom Nas, DTP Direct bv)]

Hi all,

Some time ago I asked for your collective advice on buying a B3 or B4 coupe
or saloon, preferably a Q. I've looked at a couple of cars then, but
decided against them because most seemed either badly maintained or
overpriced. The offers I got for my car were laughably low as well, despite
its excellent condition and full maintenance history. Lots of German
imports (the cars the Germans don't want, they export).
While doing my shopping I couldn't resist buying AutoTrader magazine.
There was a very nice '87 90 2.3 20v Quattro in there, German import but
looking nice and standard. As it was relatively nearby I decided to take a
look.
>From a distance the car looked nice. It had the original wheels, unmarked,
and the body was absolutely straight with no dents or scratches. In fact,
the condition belied its 134K km. That is, until I took a closer look.
Running my hand over the roof, I felt a kink. Hmmm... on looking further,
there was some barely noticable overspray in places. The panel gaps were a
bit off, too-like 3mm in one place and 13mm in others.
I verified if there was oil in the engine this time (there was, but it
looked like tar), and took a test drive nevertheless. It drove OK, although
not as exhilarating as I'd imagined. The suspension didn't feel as taut as
it should (rather like my 80, actually) and it pulled strongly to the right
on braking... hmmm again.
The interior looked OK, although the all-black cloth was a bit dark being
used to my beige 80. There was a strong smell of stale cigar smoke in the
car though, and some strange smell which could best be described like 'dead
dog'. A large Alsatian, I think. The price was OK, but not for a car that
had been so badly damaged and inexpertly repaired. There was no service
booklet, although the car was described as 'FSH'. The owner of the lot
wasn't there, and no-one else could tell me more about the car. It looked
like it had been there for some time, with grass growing around it.
A definate nono, this one. I'm currently thinking about carving a notch in
my steering wheel for every beat-up Audi I've looked at.

Next venue: there was also a 1990 S2 coupe in the AutoTrader. Too expensive
for me at $14K, but for a good S2 I'm willing to sweet-talk the bank
manager. But a '90 with a B4 (post-'91) front end? Does this spell more
accident damage, or did the previous owner (like me) like the newer front
end better? Also, you don't get a lot of S2s for sale here, so it's hard to
put a price on them. But still $14K looked a bit cheap to me for such a
car...

More on this to follow!

Tom
1988 80 1.8S

 _______________________________________________________________________
   Tom W. Nas, graphic design                        tnas@dtpdirect.nl
   DTP Direct bv                              Voice +31 (55) 5 790 799
   Apeldoorn, the Netherlands                   Fax +31 (55) 5 790 125

       Life would be so much easier if everyone read the manual.