Welcome to the Audi Advantage (long)

[Bob Cotton <bcotton@synxis.com>]

I've had my Cactus Green '97 A4Q 2.8 for several months
now. (Purchased on December 10, kinda like an anniversary ;-) I have
been nothing short of ecstatic about this car. I've been reading the
quattro list ever since I bought the car (big mistake, should have
found the list BEFORE I bought the car, but that's just how I do
things). Read all the discussion around oil, when to change and what
to use bla bla bla.

Given the fact I've been doing a fair amount of skiing, and driving
the get there, coupled with the fact that I cant keep my foot off the
floor when driving this wonderful machine, I decided to get an
out-of-service-cycle oil change at ~4000mi, boy I'm glad I did!  I
took Friday off to goto the dealer (Stammler Porsche/Audi, Boulder
CO), as I was going to Vail for the weekend. I brought my own Mobil-1
for them to use.

After arriving at the dealer, was told that it would be about 30min
for the oil change, ok so I relaxed. A few minutes later one of the
two service managers comes out to tell me they've found an oil leek
somewhere on the engine and want to know how I want to handle it
(leave it here, come back Monday etc.)  After informing them I'm
headed for the mountains, he proceeds to arrange a rental car with a
ski rack. He was VERY INSISTENT about not loaning Audi's. Overall
seemed reasonable. Then the other service manager asked if I wanted to
hang out long enough to see exactly what the problem was, possibly
they could fix it today. Sure, I had nothing else to do but some
shopping.

A few minutes later they informed me that there was a cam seal (right)
leaking oil, they had the part in stock and it would take about 2
hours to fix. After getting the ok from me, I was offered a ride to
somewhere, my choice being the mall to complete my
shopping. Fortunately the last time I checked the oil, I added ~ 1/3
quart to bring it up from "just ok" level to the "add no more" level.

So after killing a couple of hours at the local mall, I returned to
the dealer, the car was being washed and was almost ready. Signed the
paper work, paid for the oil change ~$25 for filter and labor. 

Overall the experience was satisfactory. The service manager who was
trying to arrange a rental car was a little irritating w/rspt. to his
attitude, but nothing worth complaining about. I wanted to talk to my
sales person to get the scoop on any Audi news, but he was too busy
doing A4 test drives! The other two sales people had absolutely no
desire to Audi-talk with an Audi-geek. I certainly didn't receive the
level of A** kissing that was exhibited while purchasing the car. Hmm.

When the service manager first informed me of the engine leak, my
level of enthusiasm for Audi dropped a couple of notches. But I soon
got over that while driving the car home. It occurred to me, that the
engine, at high rpms was ACTUALLY QUIETER and PULLED STRONGER than
before I took it in! Subjectively, I'd say the engine is now ~10%
stronger than before. The dealers only possible explanation was that
the engine may be timed better now than it was earlier. Got me.

So that's my first experience with the Audi Advantage. Hopefully it
will be the last (unexpected) one.

Later,

- Bob
'97 A4Q 5-spd