V8 in Holland (& more)

[tnas@euronet.nl (Tom Nas)]

Hi all,

Returning home from helping out at a friend's business yesterday, I decided
to take the scenic route instead of the boring highway. Passing a local
specialist car dealer, I decided to stop and take a look.
Beside the usual Porsches, Firebirds, Corvettes and a few Ferraris and
Lambos, there were a 1989 Coupe 2.3 and a 1989 V8. I'd never really looked
at a V8 closely (they're rare here- last one I saw before this one was two
years ago) so I took a good look around. It was a 32v automatic, very dark
blue metallic (almost black) with blue leather interior. Everything seemed
to be in good condition and belied the car's indicated 176k km. No dents,
dings, scratches anywhere. Asking price was Dfl 27,500 ($14.5K).
Don't know if that's high- they never come up for sale here. I'd love to
have this car if it ran on LPG instead of regular gas- it's
wallet-breakingly thirsty. (LPG costs about 25-30% of regular unleaded
here)
The dash was beautiful with gleaming wood and it had the Delta stereo with
headphone jacks in the rear parcel shelf. Now I know why people on this
list write about the A/C unit not belonging in those cars: it looks like an
ugly aftermarket thing, and reminds me of an '87 Oldsmobile I rode in once.
This was no q, and seeing the new price of this car (Dfl 179K- $ 94K) I can
understand why. Besides, the V8q didn't come  here until '91.
The Coupe 2.3 was an automatic, and a recent German import. It had nice
5-spoke Borbet wheels and looked well cared for. No q, but every option was
there. Shame it was an auto... asking price was Dfl 24,500- $12.8K (on the
high side- for that price this week's AutoTrader lists several younger
recent import 20Vs and CQs)
By contrast, the same trader also had a 1984 80 1.6GL, looking almost
pristine and with the fully-stamped up service booklet intact, Dfl 1900
($1000) and an '87 80 1.8S like mine, but with a 'picknick table' rear
spoiler, sprayed in an ugly purplish metallic blue (non-standard) with
sanding marks and crazing visible and a 'drain-cover' aftermarket sunroof.
He wanted Dfl 9000 for that- very sad. The interior smelled like something
had died in it, and not too recently either.

On the way, I saw a 200q (*very* rare) and a beautiful A4 Avant q. I guess
I'll be seeing no more quattro Audis for the rest of the month now...

Bye,

Tom

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl

        Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it,
       misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
                                            -- Groucho Marx