1984 Audi 100 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Not an unattractive car, and the first in the world to break the 0.30 drag coefficient, the Audi 100CD was revolutionary at its launch in 1982. Combining a powerful fuel injected 5 cylinder engine with slippery bodywork (flush fitting windows & designed in a wind-tunnel) in a large passenger car, Audi was onto a winner. It won European Car of the Year and went on to sell over 1 million units. It was in the same class as a Mercedes S Class and BMW 7 Series, with similar performance but with much better fuel economy. Fit and finish was typical VW/Audi – simply amazing attention to detail. The 5 cylinder had a lot of character, and proved to be a reliable and indestructible engine powering many more models in the Audi family for years to come. Why then do I rate this car so low? In a nutshell – the early automatic transmission. I’ve had 3 of these cars, 2 of them with autos. In the 4 years or so I owned the autos I went through 5 gearboxes. I’ve been assured that gearboxes will last up to 300 000kms without issues, and this is possible, it’s just that if they’ve been neglected or had any issues, they’ll be stuffed long before that. To top it off, they don’t like to be rebuilt. The (not so) amusing tales of heart-ache I’ve had with these cars include :- - auto-transmission dying (several times) - major electrical faults disabling half the electrics in the car and costing near to $2000 to repair - faulty sunroof (very common) which then proceeded to leak water all over me Worse than trying to run one of these, is trying to up-rate it (for instance, with a turbo engine). Speaking from experience, DON’T ever try this. If you own or buy one – do the minimum to keep it running and when it dies, pop a bottle of champagne as you watch it get crushed into a box and shipped to China. Spares and repairs are notoriously expensive – sometimes crippling. I’ve had to cut my (considerable) losses on these cars, long after hitting the point of no return. My advice – don’t get that far with them in the first place. The exception to the above rule is the turbo quattro versions, and the ultra-rare 20v late models. They’re probably worth saving. A bog standard 100CD or even a non-quattro or non-turbo 200 are worth nothing beyond scrap value. On the plus side, the later cars are much better and share components with other models in the Audi line-up. The only attractive aspects of the car are the wonderful 5 cylinder engine (which is legendary for it’s rallying and touring car wins in the quattro models) which is simply indestructible, and the strength of the bodywork. With my first 100CD, it got to the point where it was rough enough to keep driving but about to cost a lot of money to fix up to good condition. I decided to drive it into the ground. That took a long time, even when completely neglected and after being smashed! After a further 30 000kms of thrashing and neglect, it finally died when the transmission gave up (again!) towing a heavy trailer to Shepparton (hardly surprising!). A legendary story (confirmed, as I’ve seen the photos) involves a 1988 Audi 100CD ploughing into a road-roller at 100kmh. The driver fell asleep, and woke up suddenly to find she’d hit a rather large and immovable object. The force of the impact ripped the inlet manifold (bolted on with 8 large studs) off the engine! She walked away with only minor bruising to her head due to the immense strength of the passenger cell.Jun 19, 2008