RE: quattro-digest V4 #3637

["Rich, Jack" <JRich@Kronos.com>]

The only new car I've ever bought was my 84 4kq (Nov 12, 1983, I still
remember.)  Full sticker price (over 16k) plus dealer prep, clear-coat,
chapman alarm, rust proofing (waste of money), and Massachusetts 5% sales
tax brought it to over $19k.  Gulp!  Plus all I've spent in maintenance +
over $1k/year in insurance alone (rates go up at the same rate the vehicle
devalues apparently).... Don't go there.  OTOH, I've been driving a really
fun car for 15+ years.

When I saw a 90 V8 ($45+ sticker) for $13k (about dealer wholesale) a few
years ago, I jumped.  (A year too early -- they went under 10 shortly
after.)  When I couldn't even sell my beloved 4kq for the mid 2K range at
the time, I decided to beat it to death on the race track every summer.
(The V8 was less fun there.)  That has made it run better than ever instead,
though the doors don't open in the winter and it's getting rusty.  I've been
very dissapointed with the way S4/6 and A4's have held their value (i.e.
from the waiting to buy one point of view.)  Audi's just don't plummet in
price the first few years the way they used to.  I expected to be able to
buy an A4 for less than half price by now, but no way.  So I'm "stuck" with
my old beater.

Jack Rich

> -----Original Message-----
> They bought the car in 1986 -- 1996 was a typo -- and put $10k down on it.
> 
> They drove the car for the next nine months and put 8000 miles on it, when
> it 
> was totalled.  After protacted negotiation with both insurance companies
> -- 
> theirs as well as that of the driver who hit their car -- they ended up
> with 
> a settlment that left them $3000 short of the remaining balance due on the
> 
> loan.  I didn't ask how much they paid for the car -- I'd guess somewhere 
> around $25k -- and it sounds like they got something in the range of $12k
> for
> it.
> 
> As a further point of reference, I bought an '87 5k (non-turbo) with 22000
> 
> miles on it for $9400 in 1990 ... according to the window sticker, the 
> original owner had paid $28000 for the car three years earlier.  Any time
> I 
> ever think about buying a new car instead of a used one, all I have to do
> is 
> get that sticker out & take a good, long look at it...
> 
> JG 
>