Kaisen bashing: do you know me?

[kaisen]

Originally posted by Capt. Carrera
Wow... Mid thirties, over sixty cars....
That averages out to more than three cars each and every year you've been a licensed driver. Ever had time to actually do anything other than shop for cars?

I guess I never counted, just started thinking of the list. I'm surprised it's over 60. I did remember one other, a 1976 BMW Bavaria 3.0Si. There might be more.

Quite a few of the cars were cheap, and most times I owned several cars at once. Some of my neighbors hated me. Some cars I owned for VERY short times, some several years. I owned three cars before I was sixteen, and owned the 1984 Trans Am 15th auto, the 1986 Thunderbird Turbo, and the 1977 Caprice when I turned sixteen. Having a 'beater' that I drove in the winter and registered as my primary vehicle for insurance reasons made a lot of sense. My parents weren't rich and didn't give me a car. I worked since I was 12, (paper route etc.) and saved money.

Ironically, I am down to one car, the 2001 Audi A6 2.7T. I sold my 05 Corvette (got in Feb, sold in April) and 00/01 Camaros over the last year. Life changes, and I'm trying to be as liquid as possible with what's going on with our economy/RE market.

I remember each and every car and can tell the stories.

BTW, I don't take it too personal. Life's too short.

With respect,

E

[onewhippedpuppy]

Nice call on the A6, is it a 6 speed Quattro? I had an A4 1.8T sport 5 speed, great car but it was front wheel drive. Something about the way it drove just didn't do it for me. The build quality was amazing though, Audis are great cars.

[kaisen]

Originally posted by onewhippedpuppy
Nice call on the A6, is it a 6 speed Quattro? I had an A4 1.8T sport 5 speed, great car but it was front wheel drive. Something about the way it drove just didn't do it for me. The build quality was amazing though, Audis are great cars.

Of course the Audi is a 6 speed! I had to search for quite a while to find the right one (Black on Black 6speed with heated front and rear seats). I found it in Florida and drove it back to MN.

Audis are great cars, but very complex. The Audi forums are strewn with posts on common failures, and they compare warranty companies often. I wouldn't own a newer one without a warranty. My 93 S4 had 137K (I think) when I sold it. Those 5 cylinders were bulletproof.

Here is a pic:



E

[dd74]

So where do you live that you keep all these cars? Can't be a big city, unless you have a big house with a big garage...

[onewhippedpuppy]

I spent my fair share of time on AW and Audizine, and instead of my 540/6 I almost traded my 951 for a '93 S4. It would have happened, but the guy ended up getting a 993 and didn't want a 951 too. In the end I think I'm happier, no turbo lag is nice. Still, those 5 cylinders are sweet cars.

2.7T is a great engine though, if you don't mind the turbo failures with the KO3. The power they can make with a chip is just unreal, add a few more mods and you really have something. A 2.7T A6 could make a great sleeper.

[kaisen]

Originally posted by dd74
So where do you live that you keep all these cars? Can't be a big city, unless you have a big house with a big garage...

Minneapolis suburbs.

Only in LA or NY would you worry about off-street parking.
MN = Big garage, big driveway, wide open spaces. Everyone here has at least a three car garage. Have to have room for the boat, snowmobiles, Harleys, and lawn equipment too! (No other toys for me though - just cars)

Winter was tough when I stored my Mercedes 6.9 (big car), 2001 Corvette, and 2000 Camaro SS, and still had my ex's SUV and my Suburban (and the lawn tractor!) all in an oversized four car garage.

E

[kaisen]

Originally posted by onewhippedpuppy
2.7T is a great engine though, if you don't mind the turbo failures with the KO3. The power they can make with a chip is just unreal, add a few more mods and you really have something. A 2.7T A6 could make a great sleeper.

I really thought about buying another 95/96 S6 but they still bring near the same money as the A6 2.7T, but don't have side airbags, stability controls, adequate front brakes, etc. The HP3 brakes in the A6 2.7T and A4 S4's are great street brakes. My last S6 had Hoppen chip and RS2 manifold and made a little over 300hp (up from 227 stock). With no other mods but a good chip, you can be over 310hp in a 2.7T, but you're pushing the K03's to an early death. There are quite a few K04 / RS4 cars in the 400+ range. Sleeper indeed.

E

[Rodeo]

Hey Kaisen, since you seem to know a lot about Audis, what do you think of a 2003 S6 wagon with 10,000 miles for $38,500. My uncle has one coming off lease that he is willing to transfer to me. It will have 2 years, 40,000 miles left on the factory warranty if I buy it. I was all for it, but after reading some more, I decided the price was good but not great, and that if I kept it 2-3 years, I was going to take a big hit on depreciation. And I got worried about the complexity.

Familiar with the car? Would you pull the trigger at that price?

[onewhippedpuppy]

S6 is a great car, can't tell you about the price though. Talk about a sleeper, wagons shouldn't be that fast.

[kaisen]

Originally posted by Rodeo
Hey Kaisen, since you seem to know a lot about Audis, what do you think of a 2003 S6 wagon with 10,000 miles for $38,500. My uncle has one coming off lease that he is willing to transfer to me. It will have 2 years, 40,000 miles left on the factory warranty if I buy it. I was all for it, but after reading some more, I decided the price was good but not great, and that if I kept it 2-3 years, I was going to take a big hit on depreciation. And I got worried about the complexity.

Familiar with the car? Would you pull the trigger at that price?

I posted in your thread on the car. As I mentioned, it is a great price if that's the car you want. I wouldn't personally buy the car and I think depreciation will be huge. They are fantastic cars if you need to have only one car that does everything pretty well. Even if that were the case, I would look at an All-Road and save $10000.

E

[onewhippedpuppy]

Anything you buy that new will depreciate, at least the S6 has rarity on it's side. Plus, they're just so damn cool. Allroads are ok, but they're like a faux SUV. A6 Avants make way more sense than the Allroad. Of course, most things make more sense than SUVs.

[Rodeo]

Oh, ok that was you! Now I remember .... Thanks a second time. I'll probably pass. I'm not in the market anyway, so I'll let the kids trash the Pilot for a couple more years.

BTW, I've had a bunch of cars on your list, and also had three cars before I turned 16. For a while, I was trading what seemed like two or three cars a month, 99.9% of them junk. The going price at the time for a car that ran was between $75 and $100. You could get something pretty sweet for $1,000 (but I didn't have $1,000, or close to it).

[kaisen]

The A6 Avant is a great car, but only available with the 2.8/3.0 V6, where the All-Road is a 2.7T biturbo or 4.2L V8. The 2.7T is also available with a 6 speed manual transmission where the S6 is auto-only. I'm with you on the SUV wanna-be status of the All Road, but it still performs at 90+% of the S6 for 70% of the $$. It's not like you're going to track the thing. The S6 is worth all of the $38500 TODAY, but rare or not, it is bound to be $20000 sooner than you'd like. I suppose it depends on your needs, but my advice remains the same.

E

[Rodeo]

That's exactly my fear. This is going to be a $20,000 car real soon. After I register it (7% sales tax plus fees), that means I lose $20k in maybe 30-40,000 miles. And that's assuming no problems or upgrades/accessories (unlikely on both counts).

It is one damm good looking car, though!

[onewhippedpuppy]

That's the bit*h of paying that much for any car though, they'll all be worth $20k in a couple years. At least when you can only afford cheap cars like me you don't lose much to depreciation.

You do make a good point about the engine choices in the Allroad kaisen, I wasn't aware the A6 Avant wasn't available with the 2.7T or 4.2. I love the Avant style, but that saddling the V6 with that much weight would not make for an inspiring car.

[kaisen]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
But, if you want, it would be interesting to see your data/backup on widespread transmission failures in 996s.

Well, I hope this qualifies:


http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={4DB234BA-3801-4765-A752-A10B825FD502}
"Porsche has taken a different stance with the 996 transmission compared to previous models. With the 996 they are not offering parts diagrams or replacement parts for the internals. How do I say this politely, it is basically a throw-away transmission, if it's no good they just replace them.

Joel Reiser - PCA WebSite - 12/17/2004"

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={751B62FD-152A-436F-9365-7BEABA1DFF40}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={89819688-6C4A-42A2-9107-70287E0FF537}
"Thanks for the report. Even before I finished reading it I was going to say 'they should replace the transmission' "

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={F1F2F506-CBF5-47A5-B343-A86727374661}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={4E8494C1-B9EA-4570-8072-B13CCDB3552F}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={A6A5E363-C0AE-4467-9D81-48AA7EB70718}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={C14AD094-333F-4321-A84B-9E0F00C29F21}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={A142A747-D9F2-45DA-B519-807CFF1070C7}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={145D3CF4-CB15-4307-BABD-7D71C4F3E6F6}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={AAA02C4B-7F5B-407C-8397-83DAD2649F98}

http://www.pca.org/tech/tech_qa_question.asp?id={DE6F0CC8-47A5-48BC-ABF1-80D39F7CE9B3}

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85183

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=114
"Recently purchased a 2000 Carrera with 52k miles. After another 5,000 miles I began to hear a faint sound in the trany. The two main support bearings just about went out, the rest is fine. However, now Porsche says I must buy and entire re-built trany. They claim no person in the U.S. is capable of doing a repair, even dealer shops.

What's up with this? I would never have bought the car if I had known this!!!

Tried to find new bearings (by the number). Come to find out they are available but Porsche USA has 'pre-puchased' all of them!"

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2800
"Well. I decided to bite the bullet and fix it. Bob in Sunnyvale got me a Porsche rebuilt for $4700 (about $700 less than the dealer) with warranty.......According to Bob, 996 tranny was built with cost in mind, so there is no way to fix it except swap out the whole thing. I know there are people teasing about 997's Japanese tranny. I rather have a tranny that works or can be easiler repaired, no matter what their nationality is."

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=48&t=200454
"We have two 996's in the shop this week in parts.

The first has a noisy gearbox, after stripping and inspecting the parts the fault appears to be the differential pinion bearing. Guess what? The bearing is made in Brazil under licence to Getrag, they are licenced to Porsche, and for whatever reason Porsche have decided that they will not sell the bearing. So we are having to supply a Porsche exchange gearbox at £4300+VAT rather than replacing a £100 bearing. "

"The more disposable nature of the 996 gearbox was highlighted by 911 & Porsche World a few months ago and it was suggested this was a contributory factor in the depreciation of this model. Sounds logical"

http://www.theautobahn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17214
"Anyone know where I can buy a 2nd gear for my 99 6speed? The syncro is fine but the gear itself is cracked.....Hopefully I can get the car fixed and then resell it for a small loss. I'm going to switch back to Covettes. I really loved my 996 but after doing a lot of research I just don't have the time of money to replace engines and transmissions every few thousand miles."

http://www.theautobahn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16936


There's more, but I'm hoping this suffices as at least good anecdotal evidence.

E

edit: spelling and url parsing

[kaisen]

Try the links again. The automatic url parsing cut off the {}. I fixed it.

E

[TerryBPP]

So...not a single pic of one of the many cars you have owned? Never met a car nut that didn't like to take atleast one pic of his car. Hmmmm.........

[kaisen]

Please show me where I have used the word "widespread" as you continue to quote?

E

[kaisen]

Originally posted by TerryBPP
So...not a single pic of one of the many cars you have owned? Never met a car nut that didn't like to take atleast one pic of his car. Hmmmm.........

Are you calling me a liar? Just asking.

E