Auf Wiedersehen, mein horchen

Today I said farewell to a good friend. After four years, almost exactly to the day, I've sold my beloved 2002 Audi A4. It was far from a trouble-free car; in fact, one could argue it was cursed. For example:

-A week after taking it home, we had our first snow in northern Virginia. Anxious to try out my quattro all-wheel drive, I backed the car out of the driveway... where it promptly got stuck. The tires just spun. Astounded, I called my salesman. "Well you have the sport package."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well it comes with summer tires."

"WTF are summer tires??"

"Well, they only work when it's warm. We will swap out all season tires for no charge."

I shrugged, "OK, let's do that."

"Well no, you've been driving it for a week. It's too late for that..."

So I bought a set of Michelin Alpins from TireRack. They worked great, but it was a pain switching them out every winter (and then back again every spring).

-In the summer of 2002, the car barely six months on the clock, I was leaving a shopping center and did not notice a metal can in the parking lot. I hit it. It hissed, and suddenly I smelled paint. It was a can of white rustoleum, which had exploded under the weight of the left front wheel. A few hours with Goo-Gone took care of the problem, but for years afterwards I'd find little splotches of white paint here and there.

-In its first year, it suffered not one but TWO coil pack failures. Then again, just about anyone who owned a 2002 VW proudct with the 1.8 turbo went through the same thing. The dealership gladly offered me a loaner car, but after six weeks I was tired of waiting, and bought new coil packs on eBay from Germany.

-In 2003, I was sitting in my living room when I heard a loud noise outside. Investigating, I'd discovered that some drunk had sideswiped the Audi while it was parked. He'd continued on to hit the curb, which tore off his right front wheel. When I approached him, he was trying to remove his license plate with his hands. He ran away when I started questioning him, but the police quickly found him... probably because he had a "for sale" sign in the back of his car, complete with his name and mobile phone number. The body shop brought it back to perfection, but it took weeks.

-In the spring of 2004, I was putting the summer tires back on. Now anybody who's used an Audi jack can probably tell you, they are a model of inefficiency, tinny, fragile little things. Sure enough, a second or two after I'd put a wheel back on, the car fell off the jack. No damage, and my fingers were (barely) clear, but it scared the crap out of me.

-Winter 2004, it was snowing quite hard before I got around the swapping the tires again. By now I'd purchased a floor jack, but was stymied as to how to get the damn wheels off the car -- apparently the two different types of metals that comprise the wheel and the hub form some kind of bond after time. It took a sledgehammer to finally knock the wheels off the car. That same day, I discovered another charming VW/Audi trait: If you keep the parking brake on, and it snows or sleets, there is an excellent chance the brake cable will freeze, making it very difficult to disengage the parking brake.

...And this is just a sampling of the car's bad luck. Yet, despite all of that, I still think it is one of the most beautiful sedans ever sold. I loved the balance, the amazing rigidity, and the many thoughtful touches. The engine always seemed ready for more, the 5-speed snick-snicked with almost a Honda's smoothness, and with the aforementioned snow tires, I never got stuck in snow. Not once. Quattro is an astounding piece of engineering.

I received a fair price for it, from a young fellow who was purchasing it for his college-bound sister. I hope it serves her well. I hope she's happy with it.

And it with her.