The Ur-Q market...

[OorQue@aol.com]

Two other observations: 1) Most of the people who seem to be interested in 
buying Ur-Qs today are under 30 ... or so it seems to me.  2) Because of the 
car's age and the difficulty in establishing its market value, most are 
bought for cash ... unless you can qualify for a signature loan, very few 
banks are willing to finance cars this old. 

Now that I think about it, I wonder if these two factors aren't contributing 
to keeping the sales prices for these cars lower than they might be 
otherwise?  I know several people who can lease a '99 A4q but could never 
come up with $12k worth of cash to buy a nice Ur-Q.  I also know two people 
who bought the best Ur-Qs they could afford -- one paid $4,200 for an '83 and 
the other paid $6,500 for an '84 -- and both of them are likely to be selling 
the cars soon as they can't afford the costly repairs that have grown out of 
the previous owner's deferred maintenance.  Needless to say, when these cars 
do hit the market, most of these repairs will still be needed and the cycle 
will continue on ad infinitum as the cars' new owners will no doubt find 
themselves facing the same predicament a year or so down the road...

Maybe there's an automotive version of Gresham's Law at work here, with good 
Ur-Qs driving out the bad ones?  It certainly seems that the only Ur-Qs 
publicly offered for sale aren't the best examples around...

JG (who'd happily write a check for $16k to buy an ultra-low mileage '85 Ur-Q 
in original mint condition -- even if it means Paula won't speak to him for a 
while -- and would immediately put his medium-mileage, good clean '85 up for 
sale.)