With a massive 406 lb-ft of torque and AWD, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Q7 rivals many more traditional trucks in its towing capacity. Let’s see if its price could haul in a buyer as well.
Do you watch those reality TV shows? I don’t. Reality’s crazy enough as it is that I don’t need to tune in to some freak show on the boob-tube to be reminded. One of the shows that really nailed the coffin lid shut for me was one I did see a few years back. It was about cosmetic surgery gone wrong. The show escaped tragedy-porn status by focusing less on botched surgeries and more on people who went too far in attempting to realize their imagined ideal aesthetic appearance. Obviously the only way the show worked was if that work was way over the top and horrifying for the average person’s mindset.
I was reminded of that show while writing up the blog on last Friday’s heavily modified 1971 Intermeccanica Italia spider. It too suffered at the hands of someone with a singular vision—a vision that traded the car’s original Robert Cumberford-penned lines for a pastiche of anonymous styling tropes that may have seemed like a good idea at the time but obviously curtailed its broader appeal.
The Italia’s price reflected this, as while most Italias trade well north of $100K this one asked a mere $35,000. That wasn’t enough of a financial hit for most of you, as even at that major discount, the aesthetically compromised Italia earned a damning 76 percent Crack Pipe loss.
If your interests lie less on the form and more on the function side of things, then you might find today’s 2009 Audi Q7 more your cup of TDI.
The Q7 was Audi’s version of VAG’s PL71 platform, which upon its introduction it shared with the Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne.
The Q7 would be the only one of the three to offer three-rows of seating and hence was the largest of the triplets with a six-inch longer wheelbase and almost a foot more length overall. Audi’s big wagon was also the heaviest of the trio tipping the scales at damn-near three tons.
That’s a lot of Audi to get underway and one of the best engines to do that was the 3.0 TDI as found under the hood of this one. That’s a direct-injected V6 that’s good for 221 horsepower and an asphalt-wrinkling 406 lb-ft of torque. The ponies hit at a modest 3,750 rpm, while the twist gives its all at a remarkably low 1,750.
This 149,000-mile edition looks to have the tow package which means 6,600 pounds of towing capacity or enough to pull that car trailer and racer you’ve always dreamed of to the track and back in style.
This big Audi appears to have plenty of style despite its age and those miles. The exterior presents in what appears to be Phantom Black and looks to be in near-perfect shape. Handsome five-spoke factory alloys underpin and wear rubber which looks to still offer plenty of life.
The interior offers some lovely-looking dead cow on the seating surfaces as well as splashes of nice wood amidst the onslaught of buttons and switches on the dash and console.
This was an extremely expensive car when new, likely running somewhere north of $60,000 when all was said and done. That means it’s very well equipped, offering dual-zone climate control, rear-seat LCD screens and a panoramic sunroof as notable inclusions. Everything looks to be in fine shape here, with just some scuffs on the passenger-side dash about which to complain. That may just be dirt but seeing how clean the rest of the car is, that’s an unfortunate cleaning omission.
The ad claims the car to be in excellent mechanical condition with all maintenance up to date and completed by an Audi dealer. Among those apparently was the Dieselgate retrofit which supposedly brought the car into emissions compliance. That may or may not be influencing the market for these models. You can read David Tracy’s excellent intel on that program here.
The seller claims 30 MPG fuel economy even after the emissions repair which is obviously flexing, but even at the mid-20s these are known to do, it’s an impressively frugal hauler for the size.
The title is clean and the price is $8,750 which makes it also a fairly frugal purchase, well, initially at least. As many of you are going to comment below, there is little in life more expensive than a cheap German car and Audis of a certain age are known to have their share of very expensive issues. This one may be different, however, and the question for you is whether that $8,750 asking is cheap enough to take that chance.
You decide!
Brooklyn, NY Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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