Junkyard Find: 1990 Audi V8

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Junkyard Find: 1990 Audi V8

05 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Audi has been building cars with V8s for decades now, but the very first Audi V8 came installed in a car named, appropriately enough, the Audi V8. These cars cost plenty when the buyer signed on the line that is dotted, and they continued to cost plenty over the life of the car. I used to see quite a few of these cars in self-serve wrecking yards about five years ago, but now we're seeing the long-term survivors whose owners took a look at the most recent repair estimate and, finally, barked GENUG! Here's a high-mileage example that I spotted yesterday in my favorite Denver wrecking yard.
02 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin 247 screaming German horsepower, fed to all four wheels and providing a good living for Audi mechanics.
07 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Remember factory car phones? Do any phone companies still provide the analog connections they need?
11 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin 250,525 miles! Who needs a Camry? Note the fuel gauge calibrated in gallons.
09 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin After the "unintended acceleration" debacle of 1986, Audi printed up vast quantities of these stickers and applied them on the shifter bezels of most of their automatic-equipped cars until, what, sometime in the mid-90s? They also recalled older cars and slapped stickers on them as well. Did these stickers prevent elderly drivers from mixing up the gas and brake pedals? Let's hope so!
14 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Now that Audis are packaged as carefully as any Apple product, we can assume that the company would rather sell itself to FAW-Hongqi for 11 bucks than slap a sticker this hideous on a door panel.
10 - 1990 Audi V8 Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Not satisfied with the ECON/PWR transmission-mode choice available in the Lexus LS400 (and most other slushboxed Toyotas of the era), Audi V8 drivers could choose between "Sport," "Economy," and "Manual" modes, courtesy of this switch.