Just a thought,

Why not drive the audi. If it runs great drive it. We all live with the fear of driving a car that is worth alot more to us than the clowns at state farm. THese old cars are worthless to them. 1000 to 3000 if you are lucky. And the trouble of getting the money out of them is not easy either. But how I look at it is we are not paying 600 dollars a month for a car payment on something that is rapidly depreciating. We assume the risk of whatever money we put into it we can lose in case of a totaled car but how much money are we talking about, in my view not that much. Maybe 5000 total investment after parts and such. On that 5000 I will get at least 100000 miles out of it. That is alot better than the average new car cost of 20000.

I would say that it may not be wise to start the whole process over again with another "worthless" car. You are not getting the return on your investment. If the audi is cherry drive the hell out of it. I view miles put on a car as an accomplishment not a deterant.

I would also say that the W124 is a much more refined car but I do miss my W123. It was simplier.

Also, when you drive old cars like this if you get out of an accident unharmed the car did its job.

Just something to think about.


good luck

bob c

I anticipated this:
Our winter mean temp is around -10 to -20 C. The bitter cold is usually short-lived.

The cold of the north is a wonderful thing - for starters the real cold only lasts for a couple of weeks - with the global warming increase we have not had the -40 weather for more than a few days....but the myth remains.

The myth of cold weather also keeps our population down. There are only 30,000 people in all of the Yukon -an area the size of California. In the mid-summer the sun doesn't set hense the 'Land of the Midnight Sun'

For the most part, we do not use salt as we do not need to thaw our roads as in the south. When cold, the roads are generally not too slippery as the cold de-hydrates the slippery-ness out of the road surface. In the city (Whitehorse) some salt is used by not often.

Spring time can get a little slick -but it is not a problem. As long as the plows keep the fresh snow off the road everything is dandy.
The North is an arrid climate much like Arizona. Not too much rain or snow for that matter.

There is around a foot of snow out there now but it is powder and not that mucky ooze that many in the south are familiar with.
I do have a Ford pu to use when things get nasty.

Visit here for a good look around.

www.touryukon.com

Cheers

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Yukon Audi

"For every mile of road - there's two miles of ditch!"

I had thought about using the Audi as the exclusive daily driver, but it is so unique that it has some faults due to its engineering.
It is only a 1.6 litre 4 cyl VW TD engine. It does not produce a lot of heat to begin with, but Audi went to the extreme with a factory performance cooling system. Dual rads with fans, oil and tranny coolers, a fully insulated engine bay c/w belly pan...suffice to say when its cold outside, its also cold inside. The cabin will warm up following a lengthy drive beyond 50 miles depending on the ambient temp.

It also has the factory sport suspension which places it a little low to the ground - this can cause some grief for the front spoiler when the snow is yet unplowed.

This car is also equipped with something called an E mode transmission. A regular 3 spd automatic, except it also has an E on the selector. In E the car will cruise at speed until it senses no load on the engine (a straightaway or downhill) and will disengage the drive link, the RPMs drop to idle levels and the car rolls along until it senses load again and everything jumps back to power in a split second. A little un-nerving, I just drive in D so I have control of all that torque.

I have been told that there were less than 500 of this model with these features imported so the real value is yet to be determined. She is in great shape with 395,000 kms on the clock. Very minor work to be done to the body and the interior is near 90%.

This what she looks like
http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/48672/83_audi_4ks_web.jpg

Cheers

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Yukon Audi

"For every mile of road - there's two miles of ditch!"

some one on this forum said that the finnbacks were the best
snow car mb ever made. i think the 115s are the best bad road
car ever built. on bad roads they handle better than anything, they are tougher than any pickup truck, even 80's model toyotas. what ever you go for (115,123,126,116)
put an extra big battery in the trunk, fuel with about 30%
kerosene, new modern glowplugs, sheepskins, aux. heaters.
i have looked for urathane bushing to replace the rubber ones,
i think(?) they will take the cold better. for the tires, if you park
in the same spot at night, farm supply houses have elec.
heating pads that can be buried. they might work. 5cyl non-turbo
is the diesel weak sister INHO. there is no shortage of mb rust free diesels on the us pacific coast; 500-3000 dollars
with any of these mbs, if a pickup truck hits you, you win

don

Yukon Audi I am from Edmonton , Alberta and I own 79 300D non turbo.

if you got any questions about winter diesel operation just ask

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1979 Mercedes 300D 265 000 miles
1969 Mercedes 230.6 164 000 km