RE: quattrowatching

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

Tom wrote:

	>The third quattro was a real rarity- an original Dutch 1986 200
Avant 10V
	>turbo quattro. Must be one of about five in the country. It
looked great in
	>dark grey metallic, just a few paint chips and scratches but
all there, the
	>(half-leather: black leather on the side bolsters, tweed-like
centres)
	>interior was perfect including the load cover, it ran
beautifully and at
	>equiv $4500 wasn't overpriced either. OK, it'd done 221k km,
but no ticking
	>or lifter rattle, no blue smoke and it looked well-cared for. A
shame about
	>the multitude of screw holes in the dash (probably car 'phone
holders) and
	>it had none-too-pretty aftermarket alloys with near-new
Gislaveds. I was so
	>interested in this car, I even let the guy make a trade-in
offer on mine.
	>Wrong, his offer was insultingly low. Hmmm... I didn't take it
for a test
	>drive, but I might do so anyway in the course of next week.
Does this car
	>have the dreaded UFOs? They looked like standard discs to me,
but I didn't
	>pay that much attention...

Nope, standard discs.

	>Pros: great-looking car, stupifyingly fast after my 1.8S, lotsa
room and
	>all the gadgets (remote c/locking, a/c, cruise, trip computer,
leather
	>seats, H4/H1 headlights, headlight washers, foglights...)
	>Cons: two years older than my current car, even (slightly)
higher mileage,

Age and particularly mileage is not a big problem on these cars. 86s
were fully galvanized, so rust is no problem. What kind of engine does
it have? If it's got a MC or KH with watercooled turbo, you shouldn't
expect any problems with the engine as well. Check the oil cooler hoses
for corrosion on the crimps and, as usual with a 100/200/5K, check for
Pentosin leaks. 

   >fuel consumption

Depends on where you usually do the driving. In heavy city traffic it's
a gas guzzler, I agree. On highway, I think you won't notice much higher
consumption than with your 1.8. 

   >a speeding ticket accumulator,

Agreed :-)

   >all these gadgets break

It's not that bad, really. In almost 4 years that I own the 5K I didn't
have any problems with "the gadgets" except for erratic A/C, which
turned out to be dirty connectors on low-pressure switch, and broken
automatic antenna cable.

	>Still thinking... comments, anyone?

You know, there's nothing like the big body Audi with turbocharged five
under the hood :-)

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)