Ordering a new A4TQ has evolved into a habit

[Igor Kessel <e6941tb@ix.netcom.com>]

Hello, club! 
           
As you might remember, I originally ordered a '97 A4 1.8T in early July.
Pearl, sunroof + keyless, quattro, stick, black cloth, trip computer.
I did not order a so-called *Sport Package* since it was a joke:
no sport springs or shocks but had the 205/55/16 H-rated Eagle LS garbage
instead.
The car arrived in late August, beautiful inside and out. It had a gorgeous
Black Velour interior.

By that time the first '98 A4 2.8 30v with sport pkg has arrived. I test
drove it and lost my sleep over the sport suspension, which was not available
on the '97 model.

Cancelled the delivery of my '97 and ordered a '98 w/sport pkg, sight-unseen.

A day later the dealer called and told me that for the '98 m.y. Black cloth
was not available. The only cloth options were Grey (a horrible greenish-grey
IMHO), Terracotta (looked as if the taylor had a diarrea) and Blue. And the 
fabric itself was no longer the Velour, it was some kind of boring, flat, 
cheap looking satin instead.
Black was only available in Leatherette (vinyl -yeech!) or in real leather as
a $1200 option. I can't stand leather in the car (went through the trouble of
taking the leather off all seats on my 200 and reupholstering them in Velour
because of this reason).
Naturally, I chose Grey cloth as a lesser evil.

The '98 has finally arrived in Philly this past Saturday.
On Monday I raced to the dealer, with a check book in hand.
There it was, all prepped and ready to go.

Here's the scoop on the '98 A4 1.8T as opposed to a '97, first hand.

Good things first:
1. Reclinable centre armrest, attached to the console.
2. Cargo net in the trunk.

Now the bad stuff:
1. Grey interior in the car with the Grey cloth (and Blue in a Blue, etc.)
I am serious! Matching interior, Detroit style! Like my neighbour's Buick,
that has the red ceiling (!), red carpeting and red door panels to match the 
red seat upholstery. My car's interior was totally screwed up. It looked so 
cheap it would've made a Corolla envious. Lookes like cheap plastic. Who the 
hell was that genious who came up with this *Ambience Theme* $hit in a car 
that used to be so classy?!
It had a light grey dash board with assorted black switches and bezels 
inserted here and there. They looked like a sore in the eye.
The gorgeous textured Aluminium grey dash and door inserts (in place of the
yeechi laquered firewood on a 2.8) was completely lost, blended into the grey
panels.
>From my previous ownership of a '85 5000s I still remember how it's grey
carpet looked like after several years of trampling on it in the winter.
Especially after the clutch MC went and leaked the brake fluid onto the
carpet (what knucklehead came up with this bright idea of putting the MC in
the passenger compartment instead of the firewall, like the rest of the world
has it? Must be the same dude, who decided to combine a timing belt
tensioner and a water pump in one unit. Audi must have hired a Saab engineer
for this)

2. The Detroit-style all-red tail lights. A4 now has red blinkers! The
logical step now would be to combine them with the stop signals and rename
the car into a Chebby.

3. The beautiful Audi Sport steering wheel has lost the Ni plated ring with
decorative hex screws. It has a yeechi rubber circular insert instead.

4. The elegant shifter knob is replaced by an ugly huge piece with a dimpled
rubber trim. The shifter stick now looks like it belongs in a sex toy shop.

5. The traditional oval Audi logos disappeared from the fenders. They
must have been bothering the geniouses at the Ingolstadt design studio.

Why don't they leave the obvious design success alone? Why the hell did they
try to improve on what had been near perfect to begin with? Arghhhhhhhh!

On top of all this the dealer had forgotten to order the trip computer and 
the California emissions. And as if it were not enough the car had two 
primer-deep 10mm long scratches on the hood.

Quite honestly, I was totally devastated.

I have reordered the car again, with the (would you believe it?) HORRIBLE
leatherette interior, simply because it was the only one available in black.
Jeez, I remember how happy I was when they came out with the A4 1.8T, that
had a turbo, cloth interior and DID NOT have wooden trim. A perfect car for
an enthusiast on a budget.
I am totally pissed off because I am buying a $30k car for which I will have
waited for half a year and which I allready don't like!

Here's the plan:

1. A set of reclinable sport seats will go in the front. The brand name is
undecided. I am leaning towards either Corbeau or Sparco. Recaro, OMP or MOMO
would have been welcome, but they tend to be more expensive.
Does anyone know of any speed shop in PA or NJ or DE, where I can try various
seats with my own butt? *Driving Impressions* at the Lime Rock Racetrack is
just too damn far away.
The car should be here in early December, which means that I will have to rip
the wanna-be-leather seats out of the car right away and replace them with
the cloth ones, which are butt-friendly. Incidently, a friend of mine and
fellow lister Mike Z will be in the UK in late November to watch RAC and to
take a Rally school. He will be also looking for a set of seats for his rally
car and I will be asking him to buy me a set of racing seats also. I would
appreciate any advice from our UK listers, as to where could we get the best
deal on the seats. Perhaps, Demon Tweaks?

2. The rear seat will get reupholstered in the OEM fabric (I know for sure
that Recaro, for one, sells it's fabric by the metre).

3. I will try to trade the rear tail lenses off my '98 for an '97, if anyone
would be interesterd in an all-red lens. I recall someone looking for a tail
lens off a V8 to install on a 200, so there is some hope.

Thanks for listening to this rant. Did I mention that Audi is a totally
screwed up Co? Soon they will rival Saab.
This comes from a die-hard Audi brand fanatic, mind you. That's pretty sad.

I will probably forward this post to AoA (after all, they are responsible for
the choice of trim levels of Audi cars that reach our shores as they are
the sole buyer for the US market). And to Audi AG also.
I am sick of being forced to order a $30k car with options in PACKAGES, that 
some half-wits without a trace of taste put together for me.

-- 
Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ - 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ - on order...again. For the third time and counting.
Philadelphia, PA
USA