Musing of an Audi owner (long)

["Bill Kolofa" <billk@ecg.csg.mot.com>]

Memories of great (and not-so-great) cars...

'84 4000 - 4E  Bought new in '85. Lasted about 2 years. Wife pulled out in
front
of someone going 45 mph. The car was totaled but nobody got hurt. The rear
window broke for no reason when the rear defroster was used on a cold winter
day. Still, had a Bentley manual and lots of problems with the electrical
system, mainly grounds (or lack of ground). Manuals cost $30.00 back then.

'86 5000s Bought to replace the 4000. Not a great car. Transmission/diff.
replaced under warranty. Lots of electrical problems with accessories - like
power window switches. Ho-hum performance from the 5 cylinder engine.

About that time, the 60 Minutes piece about "Sudden Acceleration" came out
and the market for Audi dropped to almost nothing. Trade-in values slid
alarmingly low. The best deal could only be obtained by buying another Audi.
Audi offered rebates if you traded-in your Audi for a new Audi to spur sales.
Most dealers of other cars would rather you drove your Audi off a cliff. You
can thank (or curse) Audi for coming up with the transmission lock until you
step on the brake found in many cars today. But, many other cars had the same
problem, as it turned out. AoA handled this "problem" very badly, from a PR
standpoint, IMHO. They were never really totally vindicated. Ask a person
today what "sudden acceleration" means and most folks will say: "Audi".

'89 90 My wife wanted a smaller car since the 5000 was just too big for her.
She loved this car but insisted on driving it into the rear of Honda CRX.
Damage was over $8K but not totalled. It was fixed but never drove quite the
same as before. It never looked quite the same, either. White pearl and
matching
it to the rest of the car drove the guy at the body shop nuts. He did not want
to see another white pearl car, he told me. Even after the accident, it was
a relatively trouble-free car. This car was traded-in for a red Dodge Avenger.
It is a POS and the Dodge dealers are just awful to deal with. I won't be
buying another Chrysler product (or an american or japanese car) any time soon.

I got a call from the Dodge service manager who was looking for a reliable used
car for his sister. The 90 (our trade in), with white pearl paint, was drop
dead gorgeous. However, he found some broken glass in the sunroof tracks and
was wondering if it had been in an accident. No, none of the Audi glass was
broken in the accident. It was from the rear window of the Honda. I told him
that it had been in an accident but I didn't tell him just how bad it was and
how many of the engine components had been replaced. Maybe that's why I get
such sh*tty service from them. He must be still p*ssed for unloading a car
on his sister that turned out to be a POS.

'98 A6Q This car was bought for me. I totaled a motorcycle (Honda ST1100) that
was being used by me as our 3rd vehicle. The only other car being considered at
the time of this purchase was a Volvo S80 - 2.9l.  Sure, I'd like to have
bought
the twin turbo version. After researching Volvo, I am convinced that they will
someday offer many of their cars (not wagons) with an AWD option. I wonder if
they will price the AWD option as affordably as Audi. I do understand that
affordable is a relative term. My 16 year old drove the A6 and thinks it is
nothing special. I disagree. Funny, he was a small child in a car seat when
the '84 was totaled many (or so it seems to me) years ago. He only got a bump
on the head from hitting the side window in that accident. Another case for
side airbags, I guess.

My hat is off to anybody who is driving and maintaining an older Audi with over
100k miles. I have a Mercury Villager with 110k and it's a PITA to fix all the
little and not so little things that go wrong with it. What really pees me off
is that I pay full price for parts over the Mercury counter. At least you folks
have a car that's fun to drive.

This is the second subscribed list I've been on. The first was the ST1100
owners
list. The ST1100 is called the "Pan European" across the pond. Very similiar
to this list except the vehicle in question was absolutely stone reliable. Most
of the discussion was about the best tires, the best oil, accessories,
headshake, group rides, steering head bearings and routine wrenching. We never
got any "spam" like this list seems to attract. Daily activity was 30-40 emails
per day. Way less than this list. Both lists seem to have a lot of very helpful
and knowledgable folks.

I can go back to lurk mode now.....


-- 
Bill Kolofa                             SToc:005  
Integrated Circuit Development-Pan American Cellular
Phone: 847-523-7134  Email: billk@ecg.csg.mot.com 
"Fools you are...who say you like to learn from your 
mistakes...I prefer to learn from the mistakes of 
others, and avoid the cost of my own." Count Bismarck