Last week you’ve read about the new-for-1988 Audi 80/90. Now read a full-on road test.
This is off R&T’s 1987 December issue:
Vintage Road Test: Audi 90 Quattro
– Posted on March 2, 2016
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Curbside Classics Archives
Last week you’ve read about the new-for-1988 Audi 80/90. Now read a full-on road test.
This is off R&T’s 1987 December issue:
I didn’t realize these had a rear locker. I’ve never seen a car with that, although I don’t doubt there are more out there.
My ’84 4000S quattro had a rear locker and a lockable center differential, both driver controlled. West German cars used to have real mechanical features like that instead of dashboard toys for wowing people on ADHD meds.
For the 50-plus years that I have been reading it, “R&T” has displayed a long history of lavishing high praise and fawning over various unreliable, questionable quality foreign cars, while taking pot shots and poking rude fun at much more reliable and cheaper to repair American cars.
The funny thing is that the cars they lavished with the most undeserved praise are gone. Their hierarchy of prejudice was British cars; French cars; Swedish cars; Italian cars; German cars; Japanese cars; American cars. They expended so much energy fluffing MGs and Peugeots only to see both fail in the US market. Most of the car companies they liked that still exist are just branding exercises for Indian, Chinese, German, or global car makers now. Alfa is coming back without the benefit of Alfa engines. What’s the point? I suppose the US companies that Road & Track didn’t favor mostly failed too.
My first new German car was a 1988 Audi 90 Quattro. I loved everything about it. I drove it 110,000 miles without incident and then traded it in for 1994 BMW which had nothing but problems. When the A4 was introduced, I quickly traded in the Bimmer for silver A4 Quattro, which still might be my favorite car ever. Something about those wheels……
These were really nice looking cars. They seemed a little heavy though, not much lighter than the much larger 5000/100.
This car is about as heavy as a FWD 5000S. Adding quattro hardware meant adding 250 lbs to the curb weight.
The styling has aged very well! Hard to believe it came out almost 30 years ago. You can see a lot of the basic profile in the current A3 behind the A-pillar.