Having been around a lot of high-mileage Porsches and Audis, I've gotta
say that the Audis we've had in my family have all been slightly more
reliable and WAY cheaper to keep than the six (yes, six) '70-'87 water and
air cooled porsches we've owned EXCEPT for my 924, which was really a
vw/audi. Audi motors and bodies have been DEAD reliable and rust proof
(Save for the 4000 and old coupes) in the 5000/90/100/200's we've
owned...My dad, for example, has a 150K mile 20v Turbo that has never had
any engine/turbo work done to it and compression is still even across all
five cylinders. The two 5000's we owned both had over 170K miles on
original engines, and while one did have some tranny problems that we had
to address, neither had any engine problems or rust and both are still
around town (Both with more than 200K on the clock now, I suppose).
I don't doubt that the BMW will cost $100K in maintenence in its
lifetime;
but Porsche's aren't exactly cheap to fix! One of the guys on the 944
mailing list has spent over $90K in REPAIRS in the 130K mile lifetime of
his car. 911's are not any cheaper to keep, either. You wanna talk about
expensive; try pricing a rebuilt flat-six. Nor are many of us going to be
doing repairs on that hidden boxter engine; unless we've got a hydraulic
hoist in the garage.
Yeah, the boxter will be running circles around me at 150K miles, but
personally, I prefer a car that doesn't spin in circles whenever it rains
or snows. I'm pretty sure that TT won't have any problems making it
150K-200K miles. I'll just have to put some slightly shorter springs on
the car. Porsche makes great, high quality cars, but they're ungodly
expensive to maintain.
On a side note, since I was born 21 years ago, my family has OFFICIALLY
now had 50 cars. That makes 55 total for my dad :). Anyway, I thought I
would take this time to list as many as I can remember. If you've got
stories about any of these, email me. Always good to swap horror stories.
Mind you, the only cars on this list that I don't remember are a couple of
the fiats and the chevette. I don't remember a lot of my relatives,
though. Go figure. Also note, when I was born, there was a period of
about four or five years when we only had two cars, so that makes 48/16 or
3 car changes per year. Since we rarely had more than two in the driveway
at a time, any given car only lasted for 3/4 of a year. Looking back, that
even seems optimistic. Anyway, here goes:
Three Volvo 240's, Volvo 750, Volvo 122, Volvo 124 (350K miles on
original
engine!), Mercedes 280SEL 4.5, Mercedes 300TD, Merkur XR4TI, Porsche 924,
Four Porsche 944's, Porsche 914, Renault thing, Four fiats of different
types, Two A2 16v's, Three beetles, two Karman Ghias, MG Midget, Triumph
TR6, Saab 900, two Jaguar MKII 3.8's (neither ever ran), Jeep Grand
Cherokee (subject of a three year legal battle), Two S-10 pickups, a subaru
wagon of some sort, a dodge champ (my dad turned his fastest lap at
waterford hills raceway in this), an Omni (the family's dark period), a
lumina minivan, an Opel GT, pontiac 6000STE (C&D's 10 best back in the
80's. Morons), Chevette, large Dodge full sized car of some sort, Chevy
Malibu (big V8, no brakes, dead reliable), Audi 90, Two 5000's, and the '91
200 20v Turbo.
I'm missing three...they'll come to me later....Barney? You reading
this?
What have I missed? Anything since I met you?
**************
Patrick Austin
[email protected]
(617)493-6636
**************
_____________
List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com
To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with
'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message
See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com
Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
