As a long time Audi owner this car is somewhat of a holy grail for me, and maybe for other Audi owners and fans. This is a rare-in-the-US 1982 Audi Quattro and it’s listed here on eBay with a buy it now price of $28,500 or you can make an offer. It’s located in Raton, New Mexico where it has been in storage. Let’s check out this dusty gold gem.
One thing about vehicles being shown in storage, they often times don’t include photos of all sides and this is one of those cases. The passenger side isn’t shown at all but I would have to assume that a car of this caliber doesn’t have any hidden damage. The seller says that “some rust has accumulated on suspension and chassis fasteners but zero structural or body panel rust.” This is one rare beast, especially since the Audi Quattro wasn’t offered in the US in 1982. The seller says that this is “1 of 3 examples imported by Audi as press/promotion vehicles – only 2 exist today.” You could say that’s holy grail material.
Colorado plates on a New Mexico car? The seller says that this Ur-Quattro has been “stored in several locations for years” and that it’s “currently stored in a climate controlled building in New Mexico.” I hope they have rodent traps set up in there. The Quattro Coupe, or Ur-Quattro given that this is one of the first models, appeared in Europe in 1980 and the US got them for the 1983 model year. These cars were built on a separate line by Audi workers who were specifically capable of building these limited edition cars. Reportedly, only 664 were made for the US market between 1983 through 1986.
Out of four AWD or 4WD cars, only one of mine is an Audi and my warranty expired about a dozen years ago – that’s scary. The Quattro system is well known for being one of the best for both on-road and off-road action but I would be worried about driving a car like this to its limits and having something go haywire. The driver’s seat bolster shows some wear but they’re usually much worse than that and the seller says that this car has a mere 33,000 miles on it and it has had just two owners and has had no accidents or paintwork. A 5-speed manual was the only transmission available and these cars had lockable differentials. Hagerty lists a 1983 Audi Quattro in #3 good condition as being worth $30,300 and a #2 excellent condition car as being worth $48,900. This could be a great buy if a person could do most of the recommissioning work him/herself and deal on the asking price a bit.
After a good detailing on this entire car, I bet that the next owner would really have a show-stopper. US market cars paid a huge penalty in power with the 2.1L inline-five cylinder turbo having just 160 hp, whereas European cars had 200 hp. A 5.0L Mustang of the same vintage had 157 hp and a Porsche 911 had 172 hp so the Quattro was at least in the same ballpark. Now we have 300-400-500-700 hp cars with emissions equipment and safety and everything else, the times aren’t really getting worse like some people think, are they? This car will need to have the “entire fuel system flushed and cleaned due to prolonged storage and varnished fuel” but this would be a heck of a car to own. Are any of you Audi fans? Have you owned an Audi Quattro car and used it as it was intended?
I owned a number of Audi’s over the years, all quattro models. Several 4000CS models, a 90, and the holy grail, 1991 200 Avant. Only 149 were imported into the U.S. and was the precursor to the S4, which debuted in 1992. Five cylinder, check; turbo-charged, check; four valves per cylinder (20 v), check. 5 speed, check; quattro all-wheel-drive, check. What’s not to love?
I’m assuming that’s a fuel disty similar to a Porsche 924. 1 of 1 or 1 of 100,000, I’d pass at that price
At the time my 6th grade teachers husband owned the local Porsche Audi dealership. She would drive some pretty exotic stuff including one of these. I’ve been a fan since. One day she showed up in a Porsche 930 painted red with yellow and black stripes on it. A few years earlier in 1979 one of the salesmen put a 928 through the sales room window. Vivid memories are all I can afford. Not suprised this Audi is already sold.
Sold before my ink dried lol
Not a big fan of Audi. Not much of a legacy left in in the 70-’90’s generation. Nice VW Scirroco ! Good overall condition should garner deserved appreciation from fans in this niche, nice example.
I owned several Audi Quattro’s and found them to be exceptional cars and exceptional buys after 60 Minutes tanked their reputation and pricing with an expose on their sudden acceleration. It took Audi a good 20 years to get their pricing up where it needed to be after that. Starting in the 2000’s I found my Audi’s to be much too expensive to maintain. So many small things but they sure added up. I switched to BMW and have never looked back.
Audi apparently just announced they wouldn’t be bringing a manual into the USA for MY 2019. Another great marque goes all-auto… Great find! Clean it, tune it, drive it, love it.
I know little to knothing about this type of Audi. In my sad career in auto sales, I worked at Porsche/Audi dealer for 6 months before 1984. There was a local guy who owned something similar to this that wasn’t sold in the US and he brought it into the dealer several times when I was there. It was good looking but we’d been told not to ask him about it or get close to it. It was Audi Red, which I thought was about the only color they came in, at least the real sport models like this one.
nice to drive, not own.
“…much too expensive to maintain. So many small things (edit: always breakin) but they sure added up…” to big costs.
Agreed Chad, the 200 Avant I owned was a typical Euro POS. Every time it went in for an oil change I couldn’t get out the door without writing a check for at least four figures. Pretty much been my experience with all cars from the old country.
Reminded me of my next door neighbors car. Dan’s 1985 Audi Ur Quattro. The original Quattro… Hand built in extremely limited numbers for homologation purposes for Audi’s entry into the FIA Group B World Rally.
1 of 73 1985 US cars built out of 664 total between 1982-1986. 100% correct and original, 34k miles. It took Dan a year from when he found this car until he managed to get the previous owner to sell it to him.
Had a 4000 CS turbo. What a supreme POS. Previous owner dumped $17k in repairs before me. Everything should be fixed, right? Nope. The spending continued with me. So, I purposely bypassed the waste-gate and after some fun runs, blew that motor. Thank god-to the crusher.
My grandfather was a devoted Audi fan! I have heard that these are very fast cars! It must have sold to someone who I think actually paid the asking price! That’s a whole bunch of money for a ol import! They must be something special!