At $10,000, Is This 1987 Audi Coupe GT a Knowing Deal?
The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Audi states in the ad: “If you know how rare this car is you know its value. If you don’t, then it’s probably not for you.” Most of us probably know the model, but we’ll still have to see if it’s priced for us.
Have you ever seen kids at a middle school dance—girls wobbling on their first pair of semi-high heels and boys wearing suits that was bought for them to “grow into?” With its custom paint and expressive body accents, yesterday’s 1986 Chevy Chevette had that same sort of semi-awkward appearance. Of course, it probably didn’t seem that way to the person who modded it in the first place. Sadly for that modder, the car’s lack of universal aesthetic appeal didn’t sit quite right with its $6,500 asking price. That was the opinion of the vast majority of you who voted the Chevette at an 89 percent No Dice loss.
During its heyday in the late 1970s, the Chevette could at least be had as the cheapest, most sparsely-equipped car in all of Chevy’s lineup. Heck, its lowest-tier model, the Scooter, lacked even such basic equipment as a back seat and armrests on the doors.
Today’s 1987 Audi Coupe GT is nowhere near as parsimonious as that, but it did serve as the foundational model for the line of Audis that introduced the Quattro name to the world, and in racing guise, re-wrote the rules book for WRC rallying.
This seemingly well-presented Coupe GT, however, has none of those fancy-pants goings-on. What it does have is a 130 horsepower, 2.3-liter edition of Audi’s “four is too few and six is too many” five-cylinder engine. That hangs out on the right side of the engine bay while the radiator and A/C condenser take up the space on the left, actually sitting behind the line of the engine’s oil cap.
Behind all that is a five-speed stick driving the front wheels. Unlike the cars that would make Audi’s name during the ‘80s and ‘90s, this car lacks both AWD and a turbocharger. It also lacks a hatch since that’s a traditional boot out back despite the fastback roofline. Ha, fooled ya!
Now, that’s not to damn this car with faint praise. When new, these were envisioned as sort of a bigger sibling to Volkswagen’s GTI, offering simple fun and good handling. Without all the added frippery, it would be a lot simpler to maintain than its siblings too.
It’s been maintained for 35 years and 180,000 miles, so far. That’s a generous slice of pie in both time and miles, but the car doesn’t seem to show the effects of either. The white paint still pops appreciably and both badging and dealer decals still seem to be intact. The car rolls on aftermarket wheels wrapped in new rubber but the seller says that they have the original alloys as well. What they don’t commit to in the ad is whether or not they are included in the sale. Whatever the wheels, there are new brake components behind them. The seller qualifies the Audi’s driving experience by saying that it “runs, drives great for 35yr old car.”
Inside, the cabin is upholstered in striped mouse fur and features a dash that looks to be free of cracks, completely intact. This being an ‘80s car, don’t expect any airbags, but at least it’s from the era before those annoying automatic seatbelts were a thing. The title is clear and the seller seeks to cull the wheat from the chaff as far as buyers are concerned by stating in no uncertain terms that if you don’t know the car’s pedigree then it’s not for you.
I’d like to think that we all have the 4-1-1 on this fairly rare Audi and so, while none of us is likely to actually buy it, I feel confident that we can at least weigh in on its not-so-basic $10,000 asking price.
What do you think? Could this coupe actually cop that much cash? Or, with that kind of price tag, is this an Audi that you’d soon like to forget?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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