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90 or 91 Sunbird with 385,000km on it now and still going, the body is a little bit rusty
You have no problem with a rusted out 12year car??? If you friend is wants to own the most horrible driving car that is also the most unsafe compact car on the road (Consumer Reports) more power to him. His obsessive maintenance REALLY paid off. It does not seem like he's had many better cars for comparison. You made my point for me, what good is synth in THAT car? Pat, what's the last fat European car you have driven, an old Beetle? Why even make assertions without experience? I'd expect more of the guys here.
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My 98 GMC is in almost new condition, has in excess of 300HP and run's 14.50's at 100MPH in the quarter
So you are saying what? It's an efficient engine, no. Are you saying it has compact advanced geometry like VWs W-8, 275hp no. Are you saying it uses high-tech metalurgy like European engines, no. Engine control as advanced as Motronic ME5?, no. I'm guessing your engine is at least a 5.7, divided those 300hp come to a PATHETIC 52hp/liter, ha ha the old 1.8t Audi is 125 hp/ltr even base engine crank out a whopping 75hp/ltr. All you can say about the GMC is it fits in the big engine bay of your non-CAFE truck.
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laugh at overpriced Audi's. My parents bought a 4000 some years back...
Ok, how much do you want to bet that Audi is still on the road and their replacment car has already been crushed? My woman's Coupe GT (same car)is 17 y/o without a speck or rust, a rip in the seat, crack in the dash and ANY work we do is elective. It's parked outside in the Poconos. Trans and engine are bulletproof. Frequently I see 400,000 mile examples that have not been rebuilt. My friend: "I have 250,000 miles on my '87 Buick, 3 engines and 4 trannies".
The Audi window *switches* go once-in-a-while, maybe that was what was really happening to you. I have never needed a window reg or been stranded in 15+ years. Most "problems" with German cars here is due to incompetent "good-olde-boy" mechanics who are untrained and have a knee-jerk reaction to things they don't understand. Price-wise I don't now what you mean, Passat in under $21,000, show me some comparo where it is beat by an American sedan, it drives incredible. I'd put a $15,000 Golf, the *SAFEST compact car made*, against any US-made economy car in any comparison. (crickets chirping) If American cars are so great, how come they can't export them? Saturn spent like $2 billion to re-tool to RHD and try to sell in Japan, they sold like 3 cars. Nobody wants them, they are the bad joke of the auto industry. If I am "anienating" anyone, it's because they have not actually driven a European car to compare! Not my fault! Go drive a new BMW 330i and then an Intrepid. Go drive a quattro in the rain. What about the quality of the interior and paint, does that count for anything? Audi has the best paint in the industry and their interiors are widely copied. Audi, 100 years and more World Records than any other car company. Any guys here who have the SPEED CHANNEL know there are no American cars that are competitive in open classes except Panoz. You guys have NASCAR, we have LeMans. VWs even had a new product every 6 months for as long as I can remember, who can beat that?
[ September 01, 2003, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: AudiJunkie ]