1995 Audi 500 SEL review from South Africa

One of the big-end bearings went at +/- 280 000 km, so I had the engine replaced.

Interior is starting to show its age. Driver's seat leather is starting to wear through and the steering wheel does not look that well.

Some minor quibbles the interior, but mostly poor servicing and lack of knowledge from service people.

Lovely car and grows on me daily. Sure the shape is getting dated and the mechanics a bit old, but she still has her moments of beauty.

You sit high up in the Audi, and can even look a couple of MPV and SUV drivers in the eye. This for an executive saloon makes it better as you don't have to fold yourself double getting in and out of the Audi.

This also lends itself to the interior space. I am 6 foot and a bit, not long. Having a back problem I need to sit correctly and this means a lot of space gets take-up behind the drivers seat. The Audi just shrugs its shoulders and says is that all? Why not try the back seat when you have finished getting the correct seating position. The only problem with the seats are the head restraints, but I replaced them with the A6 4A body shape units shortly after I got the car.

(Off topic: I am amused at the amount of cars being marketed as family cars. Those hatchbacks and sedans that look like sardine cans. I call them 2+2s, and the dealers hate it when I move the drivers seat and then tell them we should take a seat in the back, and then they can brief me on the specs.)

The performance is good from the 2.8l V6 12valve AAH motor. It is just a pity that Audi did not want to introduce the 30 valve units with the 4A body shape, thus giving the next Generation Audi's a bigger performance improvement.. As the extra torque would have been welcome. Then again, Monday or Tuesday I made a Chevy Lumina SS V8 owner sweat between 3 traffic lights. He was rude and in a hurry, so I made him 'a bit' furious for keeping at half a car length from him and NO the Audi is still stock standard.

One thing I am really impressed with is the handling. Look I prefer rear wheel or 4 wheel driven cars, but Audi has won me over on the longitudinally mounted front wheel driven concept. Near neutral handling pushing to under-steer at the limit. Running on Continental Premium Contact I even showed a couple of BMW drivers how to take a corner.

My biggest problem with the Audi is that the service centres in my opinion are poorly equipped to service the Audi's as one of my experiments proved when I questioned the mechanic that serviced my Audi on the engine. Since I replaced the engine, I have taken over the servicing and I can say that the designers did a good job of making it friendly to work on.

I have also started to itch and I am slowly but surely updating and adding electronics to the car. Second project is an IR camera in the grille feeding to my DVD radio's TFT monitor that I have already mounted popping-up in the dash.

Thanks Vincent