are they really THAT bad???

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

Recently there have been an unusual number of posts about the "legendary"
unreliability of our Audis in general, and more specifically about the type
44 (5000/100/200).

I think we need to step back a little and look at some other cars, and the
owners or same, and the interactions between them.

Simply by being on this list, it is obvious that *WE* are interested in our
cars, that we do not "just drive them", and do not treat them like
appliances like toasters or refrigerators except more expensive (Is there a
Maytag group on the net for instance? {No, don't tell me!})

We fiddle with our cars, fix our cars, improve our cars, cherish and keep
our cars MUCH longer than owners of appliance-mobiles and are aware of
what's going on with them, thus are more likely to FIND things to fix, some
of which DO need fixing, and some of which are really due to us persnikety
Audi fanatics.

Example: Remember the 1988 Eldorado with 94,000 miles I bought for my wife
for Valentine's day and she couldn't stand it? This was a one-owner car,
and the one owner just drove it. It cost $35,000 +/- new. It recently had a
radiator, A/C repairs, new rack, new battery, new alternator, new
serpentine belt, etc. No one is bitching about the unreliability of this
car, because there's no user's group to bitch to! But the list of parts
sounds remarkably similar, and I'm sure that there's lots more to fix if I
wanted to be really picky about it.

Example: Had an 84 K-car for eight years - longest I ever kept a car. Got
it two years old in good condition with 45K on it. When I sold it, I made a
list of all the parts I had replaced in 100K miles, and the list was over
100 items!, some of them more than once. And no one EVER drives a K-car as
hard or "enthusiastically" as an Audi. (Yes, it was an unmitigated sh*tbox
- but it ALWAYS ran.)

Big thread on rotten headlights here, constantly. Lots of other cars have
worse lights (wifes 323 Mazda for instance, you can't see ANYTHING at night
- you can hardly tell the lights are even ON!), no one complains to "their"
list, mostly because they really don't care. Or they think it is normal and
doesn't make any difference anyway.

We might want to look at some other lists and see what *they* complain
about on a regular basis. See if all cars have achilles' heels or it's just
us (doubt it very much!)

Years ago I had a motorcycle shop - I used to think that all motorcycles
were always broken - then I realized that I was only seeing the broken ones
- if it ran, they didn't come see me. Same phenomenon with policemen -
everyone is a dirtball - but they only get to meet the dirtballs - they
never meet us good guys!

We're looking at a continuum of parts here - brakes and lights and timing
belts are normal wear items on ANY car, so we can't bitch about them. Auto
A/c's are not supposed to break, but it seems they ALL do, so why are we
surprised? The bomb seems to last 7 years or so from new - we define it as
a failure, Audi defines it as a wear item (self-serving logic on both sides?) 

All in all, I am not unhappy with the attention I have to give my 86 5 Ks.
At least when I am done and all cleaned up, I have something worth driving.
It would be great to have a car like this that NEVER needed ANYTHING - but
I don't think that's realistic, to say the least.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman