re: memories (Christian finally speaks up)

[RELAYER@aol.com]

> Selling a large-ticket item to another Q-lister has risks. Just as I'd
> prefer not to sell a personal vehicle to a friend, ...

 Phil Payne responded:
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As I think I've mentioned, one of our local deals went pear-shaped.  I
bought John Robinson's Passat off him for use as a workshop and family
runabout.  I'm a bit more mechanically minded than John, and I rapidly
discovered that the service history was fiction.  He'd been taking it
in regularly, paying lots of $$$ and getting the book stamped.  Trouble
was - no one was doing anything to it except topping up the oil.  So I
had a vicious battle with 'black sludge' (now fixed, but required a
head-off cleaning session) and a long uphill struggle to get all of
the engine accessories working.
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Qlisters:
I think I should now speak up to defend myself.  The earlier post was not from
me, but many of you know the saga behind it.  BUT, by the looks of this post
above by Phil Payne, I must step up because his post is an example of how many
QListers have the impression that I sold a bad car to Dan.  This is NOT an
attack on Dan, but a post to defend my reputation.  So, I am here to put the
whole thing to rest.  

The CQ I owned had been seen by many Qlisters over the years who could attest
to it's near perfect body, engine and interior.  Mechanically it was running
just great with very little history of problems.  To prevent any possible bad
blood between Dan and I, he agreed to buy the car once it passed a mechanical
inspection.  I suggested a third party mechanic named "AutoCritic" that does
used car inspections only.  But, Dan had noticed that I had my car serviced by
a local German car shop and said that they would be fine for the inspection.
The car was inspected, (with compression test) and passed with flying colors
(actually, they did say the alternator belt was showing some wear).  That
sealed the deal.  

Once Dan had taken possession of the CQ, he noticed the heater was not keeping
up very well in the 20 degree NY weather.  This is something I could not have
ever known about considering the car has never left Florida, and winters in
Orlando only get to a low of 45 degrees.  Next he had a bad knock sensor.  I
had told him that when I got a TAP chip put in the car, it reacted badly to
some 89 octane gas that a friend had put in my car.  I warned Dan not to use
89 octane due to this....but as it turns out, the problem was really the knock
sensor which retarded intermittently.

Then I started getting a lot of private emails from the 20Vlist and Qlist
about how Dan was almost accusing me of selling him a car with lots of hidden
problems.  I just ignored it knowing that Dan was just bitching about the car
and blaming me as a joke.  But then his emails started having subject titles
such as "Christian, something else went wrong with your CQ."   I got really
mad at him over this one, due to it suggesting that I sold him a P.O.S., but
again, I never voiced it on the Qlist.  I got more emails from people asking
what was up with Dan, and if I was going to let him insult me like that.  I
did nothing because I figured he was still just frustrated with his long
problems with the heater flap, and I did not want to cause waves on the Qlist.

So, then it seems every time I meet a fellow Qlister at PP or down here in
vacation, the question always comes up; "Was your car really that screwed up
when you sold it to Dan?"  I would go through the whole explanation as stated
above to clear my name.  Now it seems that this has finally climaxed this week
with that anonymous post.  I have defended my name to lots of people on the
list privately, and it seems someone tried to pass on my frustration. 

Then, someone in Atlanta who had been privately emailing people on the 20Vlist
asking if they knew the history of Dan's car since he was selling it.  The
20Vers would then contact me asking me if I knew that Dan was already selling
my car for $3K more than he bought it.  I would respond saying yes, and that
he had even offered to sell it back to me at that price.  It seems Dan was
joking about trying to sell it back to me at that price, but I didn't know
that then, and it kinda hurt me since I really loved that car.

I have already gotten 2 emails today from 20Vers referring to Phil's post.
One said quote: "when are you going to stop accepting shots for the crummy way
you maintained Dan's car for him before he paid you for it?"  Here we go
again.

I am NOT directing my post to Dan in anyway, this is just to clear up any
misunderstanding with other Qlisters about my CQ and it's problems.

  /\        _I        Christian J. Long (& Breeze Heller - fiancee)
/    \ I_I I_I I      Orlando, Florida, USA
                       University of Central Florida Alumni 1994
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'98 Audi A4 1.8T            Low pressure V2 rocket
'96 BMW 318ti              Will be replacing with a CGT or 4KQ
'90 Audi 90                   Now in the hands of the mother in law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Past Audis: '84 CGT, '85CGT, '87.5 CGT, '90 CQ