turbo510

You've laid it out pretty much exactly like I see it. The Lexus LS400 was a boat to drive, but a bulls eye aimed right at the big Mercedes and BMWs of the late eighties. And the B5 A4 is the savior of Audi in the US, as it was for once a really reliable Audi, plus great looking. I'd owned three of the 5000 series; a '78, a '81 Turbo, and an '86 CS Turbo. My favorite was the 1981, although slower than the '86, had less to go wrong. The later one just had trouble spots all over, especially the hydraulic brake booster, but plenty more issues besides that. My early B5, built in 1995, was just so much simpler and better in every way. I sold that one after getting to over 270,000 miles; original 2.8 and automatic trans, still running great. I had it repainted/clear coated, re-upholstered, and lowered just a couple of years earlier, and now wish that I'd kept it.

W261w261

Your comment about the 5000 parcel shelf brought back memories of banging my shins against it, maybe when I put the seat forward to benefit a rear seat passenger. I'm 6'3.

W261w261

The '85 died at about 140k when the seal between the tranny and diff failed. The car had no value by then, so I sold it for a few hundred to a starry-eyed Audi newbie.

W261w261

The list price on the '93 wagon, btw, was 38,500. I think the lease was capitalized out at 34k. Also, just to move them, Audi was subventing the leases (setting artificially high residual values in order to offer lower lease payments). It was a way for them to financially kick their hit down the road. At lease-end, the residual was about 21k,but the value of the car was 16k. I offered them 16k,but they said no thanks, so someone got a really nice no ding fresh timing belt car. The timing belt hurt, as I was sure I could make a deal, but it wasn't to be.

I also remember the extremely cheap **** oem Goodyears that arrived on the car. The worst tires I've ever had. Like grease when it was wet. To me, that was almost unforgivable, to put customer's lives at risk. It was a topic on chat boards for awhile

turbo510

Then I guess that you would be cramped in an older car that I just bought; a 1986 Mercedes-Benz 560SL roadster. An lady in town is moving and had a garage sale, and to make room, her SL was moved outside. During chit-chat with my wife, she asked if we'd be interested in a used car. Which car? That red one, the lady said. My wife got me and we went back, took a neighborhood cruise, then gave her a deposit. It's paint is nearly perfect, leather interior OK. It has the removable hard-top roof, and a convertible fabric top too. At 5'10" my head touches the underside of the roof's headliner, so not for tall guys I'm afraid.

W261w261

A friend of ours has an '89. I'll ask him what typically is an issue with it. His has the PO' s ghetto wheels on it - too big, ruins the proportions of the car imo.

turbo510

If you get an answer from him, PM me please (we're getting off subject here). My 560 doesn't like hot-restarts, reminds me of the CIS issues that happened on the 5000's occasionally.

W261w261

Will PM you. As I recall, hot starts are an issue. He did a lot of stuff to try to deal with it.

lyleswk

Been out of pocket for a few days. This was a very reminiscent thread for me. Always loved the mid 80's SL. And then all the conversation of the 60 minutes program and "fake news" that killed Audi in America for 10 or 15 years. I bought an 86 4000CS quattro (B2) for my fiance at the time, now wife of 31 years when she was finishing grad school. A lot of my friends were appalled that I would buy a car with "that" issue. I just ignored and we enjoyed the car for 180K miles until we outgrew it with our 3 boys. Two stories that I remember just made me shake my head:

1) Second hand story of a woman who pulled up to a strip mall cleaners with her husband and infant child in the back seat.. Husband goes into cleaners, wife hears baby cry, she turns around to tend to the baby, and the car suddenly lurches toward the store, but stop with the rear wheels spinning against the curb. They immediately sold the car because of the story from 60 minutes. My first question was "Is a quattro?" (they were still relatively rare back then); the answer I got was why would that matter. I started to explain the difference, but gave up. I then suggested that maybe she stomped on the gas and not the brake when she rotated in the drivers seat. Oh, no way I did that...
2) First hand story from a female friend of mine that had a nearly new standard transmission Honda prelude. She literally drove it into a wall and destroyed the front end. Blamed "unintended acceleration" (she saw the 60 minutes story too) because her foot was squarely on the brake and was appalled when the dealer said her brakes were fine. I noted that 2 of the three pedals would have prevented: 1) clutch for obvious reasons and 2) brake, because from a stop, brake will overpower the engine. She didn't believe the second, so I drug her down to my car that had an automatic, started it, put my foot on the brake and stomped on the gas. It died. She said thought it was because I had an automatic. I gave up. Maybe her foot was squarely on the gas?

Now I'm not saying that there couldn't or haven't been issues. There was news on "precious" Prius' some time back that I followed for a while, but never got a sense of what was going on. Then it all just got very quiet....

turbo510

You bring up the brakes and that what made so many people, who understand something about cars, skeptical. The brakes could apply far more opposing torque to the driveshafts than the engine could.