Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Okay, I got the memo. You didn’t like earlier’s Tuner S4. And while I think it’s pretty silly to discount the car completely because of some fairly easily changeable interior pieces, I also had issue with the car as honestly I’d prefer an Avant if I was going the S4 route. What’s a guy to do? Well, lucky for us there’s an equally awesome, equally Imola Avant in our Self Service Classifieds:
Well, he’s at it again; the same seller as the 1984 Audi 4000S quattro in Laguna Seca Blue and earlier 1990 Coupe Quattro in Ginster Yellow is now selling his 1983 Quattro. These cars have been pretty rapidly appreciating, pulled upwards by the popularity of the E30 M3 and resurgence of Audi’s campaign to recognize that it made cars before the A4. Undoubtedly, this Quattro is much more valuable than the last two offerings from this seller – but is it the one to buy? The last few examples that we’ve seen have had some rare but polarizing modifications that arguably hurt more than helped the value of the cars for sale – is this legend the same?
Sometimes when opportunity knocks, you need to answer the door. If you haven’t been following the trends of all of the mid-80s metal on its way up the charts, pretty much every single one of our favorite cars has quickly been appreciating over the past year or two; many upwards of 100%. I’ve called it the “E30 effect”; I’m not sure if I coined that phrase or I picked it up somewhere – I don’t think so, but lack of sleep and a screaming two year old blur the lines time to time. But regardless, I don’t really think it was the M3 that started this all – I blame the early 911 trends from about two years ago. Suddenly those 911s crested and blasted past $100,000, and enthusiasts looked towards the next fun, race-bred and good looking transportation; the E30 M3 was a natural choice. Because of M3 appreciation, suddenly everything around the M3 is being pulled up, too – the 944 Turbo, the M5, M6 and 500E, and of course, the Quattro. But as I’ve covered previously, finding a good, clean and well sorted example with reasonable miles can be exceedingly difficult. Audis woes in the late 1980s and early 1990s meant that many examples fell into disrepair; at one point a few years ago, I was even offered a Quattro for free if I could take it away. Opportunity knocked, and I didn’t answer the door – though it’s a long story and you can blame General Motors for that one. In any event, today on Ebay a barn-find, low mile and all original Quattro has popped up and once again there’s a knocking at the door:
While the Audi 100 Avant I wrote up the other day was certainly a treat to see, for most late 1980s and early 1990s Audi enthusiasts, the cars that they’re interested in are the quattro all-wheel drive models. There are certainly many popular ones to choose from; recently we’ve seen the 4000 quattro and S4 quattro really take off, but the 200 20V quattro and Coupe quattro also grace these pages on a regular basis. One car we don’t see much of, though, is the 90 20V quattro; effectively the same car as the Coupe underneath, these 90s were rare when new and are more rare today. Featuring the awesome 7A 20 valve 2.3 motor and the legendary quattro drive system, unlike the earlier 4000s they were galvanized, meaning at least some could survive life in the environment which they were designed to conquer:
Okay, so this isn’t the first time I’ve written up a S4 face-off, but it’s an interesting question to me. That’s because right now, clean examples of the C4 S4 are on their way up, while prices of the B5 S4 have come down and stabilized at levels that seem to be very reasonable. Compared to their equivelants from both Mercedes-Benz and BMW, both are priced very reasonably and you get a lot of performance value for your money. You also get all-wheel drive capability, a luxurious and quiet highway cruiser, a car capable of carrying 4 adults, and both a near limitless tuning potential; both are certainly capable of 600 to 1,000 horsepower, if you’re willing to foot the bills. So which would you rather have? The two in question today are quite different; a turned up C4 S4 versus a 1 owner, all original B5 – let’s start with the C4: