Unbeatable on a wet road (Audi 80)

Member Name: r_welfare

Product:	Audi 80
Date:	16/06/02 (3185 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic handling, THAT engine note!, Very reliable

Disadvantages: A touch heavy on fuel

After owning six cars in the previous five years, the last being a nearly-new Honda Civic, friends and relatives thought I was off my nut to buy such an old car.

So what did I get for my £300. Registered in 1984 on a B-plate (but built in 1983), one elderly owner from new, a year's MOT and a full Audi service history for it's 51,000 miles. It came to me via an internet auction, and I was lucky - the seller put it on without a reserve, but I was the only bidder. He worked for the dealership where it had always been serviced and had bought it from the old chap when it had failed it's MOT due to lack of use. Although he was taking a loss on the sale, he considered the auction legally binding. Good man.

After a Japanese car with beautifully light controls, it was a bit of a shock to be introduced to German starkness and efficiency. This car was from back in the dark days of the 80's when the prestige German manufacturers would even charge you extra for a radio. Mine had never had one fitted (I soon fixed that). The car had had no options fitted, so was original down to the steel wheels with plastic trims. Most of these cars came optioned up with alloys and a steel sunroof, so it seemed a bit odd at first.

The five-cylinder engine (which Audi have now departed from) made a wonderful offbeat throb at idle which would transform to the most glorious wail between 3000-4500rpm. Above that it would get a bit thrashy, to be honest. Producing 136bhp, it always seemed a bit down on that, but I suspect that the heavy weight of the quattro four-wheel drive transmission blunted the performance a bit. I haven't managed to drive a Coupe or 100 with the same engine but front-wheel drive to compare. It would run on unleaded, which was a nice bonus, and did 25mpg in average use, low 30s on a motorway run.

It always seemed really well-planted on the road - despite the breezeblock styling (before the aerodynamic 100, remember) it did
n't get blown around in crosswinds. There was plenty of room for four (five at a push) but the interior showed that VW/Audi have come a long way in this field in the last 20 years - hard brown plastic abounded.

Now, the handling - in the dry it was very predictable but didn't feel much better than the Civic or other modern cars (probably down to the quite narrow tyres) but in the wet it was awesome. I never really got near its limits - if it understeered you just fed in more power and it would pull the car round. Fantastic.

These are really rare cars - the only 80 to be fitted with the 2.1 litre engine, only 10,000 were made of which 1,000 came to the UK. I saw only one other in the six months I had it, and that was at a Club Audi meeting!

In terms of running costs, I always tend to "over-service" my cars and so servicing and consumables cost a total of £800. There was quite a lot of work done for this, though - a new cambelt, exhaust centre pipe, exhaust manifold gaskets, brake pads and discs, brake fluid, anti-freeze, oil and filters, differential and gear oil.

As to be expected for a car with such low mileage, the condition was excellent. There was a docket in the service invoices that showed it had been resprayed in 1994. However, it needed a few things here and there that I viewed as a sort of "rolling restoration" - a new front spoiler (the old one had been cracked in a parking scrape), a new rear spoiler (the paint had started to come off), a new interior (the only option as the driver's seat was worn and I couldn't source replacement material), a new central locking pump, and a spell at the bodyshop to sort out some rust in the wheelarch and a shallow dent in the back door. I used Audi breakers whereever possible so the total cost of all this was about £200. I used Audi dealerships just twice, to buy a touch-up paint stick, and a new rear light lens. Here's a tip to solve a common f
ault (water in the boot) - it will be leaking rear light seals, so use mastic.

After six months I had got the car looking and driving perfectly, so I sold it to an enthusiast from the Audi Owners Club for £800. In that time I'd added 10,000 miles to the clock, and it had let me down just once, when the ignition switch failed (I could start the car by running a wire from the starter motor to the +ve battery terminal).

The only time I've made money on a car!

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