Re: Hello and some questions..

[Huw Powell <audi@mediaone.net>]

> << Perhaps the "fanciest" parts of the car are the pwere windows
>  and mirrors.  The drivetrain on the 4kQ is well known for its robustness,
>  and it should be easily possible to find one that is in pretty good shape >>

1.  I think a car is pretty fancy if it has power everything.  the 4kq
could have power steering, brakes, sunroof, mirrors, locks, heated
seats. trip computers are fancy. anyway...

> 
> I added up the repairs to my 4000CS Quattro one time, and they topped 5,000$.
>  No joke.  I paid 2,500 for the car.  My coupe, which I haven't added up, I
> estimate somewhere over 2,500$, which I paid 1,200$ for.  Some people may
> vary, but most stories I have heard about 4000CSQ's and GT's is that you, at
> one point or another, drop a bunch of money on them.  Now, neither one needs
> much.  But my last GT, I paid 1,500$ for and put more than 4,000$ into it, as
> well.

This is my point.  Not that Audis are unreliable or expensive - but that
the catastrophic drop in resale values changed the equation on buying
them.  A *lot but not all* of the mid eighties Audis for sale have been
run down hard, since they have a (freak) low resale value.  This resale
value is not very "real" when compared to the "owned value" of the
cars.  Compare to, say, BMW's of a similar vintage, and a type 85 Audi
bought for $2k with 3k thrown at it over a year or two is still a good
deal.  But to be a good strong reliable performer, it will probably need
that 3k put into it.  Not to just get down the road, but to be good and
reliable.  Sometimes a good example gets sold used and the "book" value
prevents it from being sold for what it is really worth, then the buyer
gets a $2k cherry.  Doesn't disprove my point, it's actually due to the
logic behind it.  (sounds like a recent thread, doesn't it?!).

But the buyer of the $2k car who gets hit with, say, 1.5k in required
maintenence over a year or two is shocked.  that doesn't include the
other 1.5k they *should* spend to tighten the car up and get ahead of
the preventative maintenance curve.  Somewhere around that 12-25 year
point you have to start rebuilding systems not just replacing broken
parts (best example, replace all twelve rubber bushings in the front of
a coupe not just the one that fell out), to get to a "good car" baseline
again.

That's my operating theory and I'm sticking to it!

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/

82 Audi Coupe - almost new again...