Torquing point:- Quality Matters?

Audis are put together very carefully and made out of nice stuff. We all know this. My own venerable A4 has only ever gone wrong once (the water pump expired thanks to a wildly inadequate plastic impellor, no doubt a part bought by an external supplier and not really Audi's fault:- benefit of the doubt issued), despite my maintenance habits being of the "keep me mobile" variety, not the money-no-object, preserve-for-eternity mindset afforded to more valuable machines (as in more than £750...).

Every time I drive mine, I am reminded how every single interior attribute is OK at the very least. Not one aspect is insufferable, and those that are merely adequate are certainly liveable. The only significant demerit is the paucity of rear legroom; a design travesty, not a quality issue. So when  I read of Audi's current quality crusades (CAR, issue 600), I was left wondering whether really, to be quite honest, they wouldn't be better off sitting back with a nice cup of tea and resting on their laurels for a while.

Does quality sell a car, really?

(Image stolen from CAR, issue 600 (July 2012))

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BMW M3:- Still doing it right after all these years.

Some cars are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. The BMW M3, it could be argued, falls into every one of those categories.  It's been around for a quarter of a century in one iteration or another, but while so many other cars run out of ideas like recent episodes of the Simpsons, the M3 always has something new to offer.

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Driven #31:- Audi Q7 3.0TDi

 

I love big cars. I'm absolutely thrilled if I get the chance to thread an Elise or a Noble along my favourite countryside party-route, and I get considerable joy from small cars in big cities. Feeling vulnerable is kind of exciting. But at the end of the day, when I just want to trundle home, or if I want to cross continents without furrowing my brow, I want a big car to do it with.

But there's probably an optimum size. In the BMW range, for example; I prefer the M5 to the M3. It's just more me; probably because it's bigger. They could even have built an M7 if they wanted, which wouldn't have been better; it would have been too big. It may well even have been rubbish.

And it was with thought of the relative values of bigness in my mind that I found myself at the helm of an Audi Q7; a car bigger than the likelihood of me being disappointed by my next pay-cheque.

 

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Roadwork Vacation:- Trans Europe Express Part Three

 

The following has already been hosted at Hooniverse where I'm eternally grateful to Tim Odell for all his support. I thought it about time I gave it a permanent home here, as it concerns one of the greatest weeks of my driving career.

Wednesday 8th October

Wittenberg, Germany to Lagen, Sweden.

The map was pretty intimidating to look at early in the morning, as condensation dripped from the glass, skin emerged from sleeping bag and shuddered on contact with cold leather, and stomach rumbled with dissent. We would be notching up another couple of countries during the day, but first priority would be to stem the ferocious bassy roars from each of our bellies. Opening our 12v coolbox revealed the bacon to be a little close to the edge, but we figured it could be cooked back to life. It pretty much worked and after an apple and the last of the yoghurts hunger pangs were defeated for the time being.

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Roadwork Vacation:- Trans Europe Express Part Two

The following has already been hosted at Hooniverse where I'm eternally grateful to Tim Odell for all his support. I thought it about time I gave it a permanent home here, as it concerns one of the greatest weeks of my driving career.

Monday 6th October 2008 Bellagio, Italy to somewhere scary in the middle of Germany.

We had parked up in the wee small hours, and had no real idea where we had ended up, except that there had been many corners and we were obviously very, very high up. From inside the car all I could really see through the condensation was trees and I could smell the scent of a nearby bonfire. Seeing where we were for the first time in daylight, the car park turned out to be basically abandoned, with an uneven covering of flint gravel and several somewhat intercooler-unfriendly raised sections.

And then I saw the view.

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Out of the frying pan. My new Alfa.

I love my 1998 Audi A4. It is unerringly reliable and comparitably easy to work on when it does break. It has a reasonable turn of speed and handles well, it also has incredible grip and looks different thanks to my controvertial choice of Mercedes AMG Wheels. It is, however, and I am unhappy to admit it, quite boring.

Until some wonderful and far-sighted benefactor kicks open the door of opportunity and gives me that dream job I always wanted, I almost perpetually have No Money. As a result of which I make do and mend and can rarely even entertain the notion of buying a new car. Or an old car, for that matter. However, every now and then an opportunity arises that I just can’t overlook. Well, it’s just arisen, and I haven’t been able to overlook it.

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