Audi Coupé 1.8E
Used car addict Keith looks back at his best – and worst – buys. This week, an Audi he brought back from Prague
WHY DID YOU WANT ONE?
I’ve wanted an Audi Coupé ever since I first clapped eyes on one when it was launched in the UK in 1981. With sharp looks, sensible amounts of room inside, and a vaguely quattro-esque style, it was the thinking man’s Capri. And yet, owning one evaded me for far too long. Fast forward almost 30 years, and the news that my friend, Rob Bambridge, was taking one on the CzechWrecks banger rally – and potentially leaving it in Prague – saw me cooking up a plan. How about I meet him at the rally’s end in Prague and repatriate the car for him? I get a road trip, he gets his car back and we all save an Audi Coupé from a fate worse than death in central Europe. The thing is, once we landed the car back in the UK, he decided that he didn’t want to keep it because it would need work for its MoT – so I swapped it for a Rover 200 and ended up keeping the Coupé, with my son Matthew being its main driver. I think we won at that deal…
WAS IT A JOY – OR A NIGHTMARE – TO LIVE WITH?
Oh, it was an absolute pleasure. Faultless, in fact. Yes, it needed a bit of welding to get it through the MoT and we struggled to find an exhaust, but that’s no great shakes when you’re mates with someone who’s handy with a MiG. In truth, it wasn’t really the one I wanted – it had four cylinders instead of five and was a bit on the baggy side – but with 211,000 miles on the clock and for what was effectively a couple of hundred quid’s worth of Rover, plus two tanks of fuel, who’s complaining? The only real issue we had with the car was that it had a slight coolant leak that we could never quite get to the bottom of, and it looked a bit brow-beaten once we’d removed all the rally stickers. In the end, my son had it – and he ran it for several months before selling it on to another car journalist in order to bag a Saab 9000 Turbo. He still looks back on it fondly, as do I.
WHAT’S YOUR ABIDING MEMORY OF IT?
As with all road trip cars, it comes with lots of happy memories. I went to collect the car with my mate, Andrew Elphick, and son Matthew, and as well as having a great time in Prague, the drive back was brilliant. The bright red Coupé ran the stickers of Team Piston Broke and the bootlid proudly proclaimed the car’s name: ‘Not a Quattro’. I remember getting it up to 120mph on the autobahn, threeup and driving through the night powered by coffee to catch an early morning ferry in Calais. Customs didn’t want us to make an easy entry into the UK, and the three of us ended up being questioned for 20 minutes, while valuable minutes passed. ‘Is it your car, sir?’ ‘Who’s is it then?’ ‘What’s a banger rally?’ ‘Why don’t you have the logbook or insurance for the car?’ ‘Can you prove you have permission to drive the car?’ Oh, how we laughed…
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR BUYING ONE TODAY?
It’s pretty much impossible to buy a B2-generation Audi Coupé for banger money these days; projects can be had for a grand, but they tend to be ghastly. Survivors tend to be looked after now that they’re worth actual money and the good ones outnumber the bad. If you can find a Coupé with an unworn driver’s seat bolster, buy it – they always break up. If anything is broken inside, or you have damaged external trim, remember that you’re unlikely to be able to replace it because Audi’s parts supply for cars of this age is non-existent. Anything that is out there and shared with the quattro will also be savagely expensive. Engines are tough, though – the 1.8 goes forever, as do the five-cylinder ones, as long as you keep them in good oil, filters and coolant. Oh, and they rust quite freely around the inner front wings, sills, and windscreen and sunroof surrounds.