The car I learned to drive in was my mom’s 1979 Audi 5000. It was the first European car we had in my family, and I loved the way the car drove, handled, and felt. I also loved that car because it was one of Robin Masters cars on Magnum P.I., bearing the license plate “Robin 2” in the show.
A few year later there was a big lawsuit around the 5000 and unintended acceleration was a potential issue. This turned out to be nothing, but the press ran multiple stories on this and the 5000 was seen as a car to avoid. A well known TV news program even did a story on this, and they actually set it up to fail by modifying the car. As a result finding an Audi 5000 is quite difficult, and finding a nice example of one is even harder.
The Pick of the Day is one of these collector car unicorns, a 1987 Audi 5000 S with a 5-speed manual gearbox.
The car here is one of the cars after the 1982 facelift, which made a car that was already good even better. Interior ergonomics were better and the car had a more aerodynamic body. These were quite popular when new and Audi would sell more than 200,000 of these facelifted 5000s.
The seller describes this Audi 5000 S as having covered a total of only 58,700 miles from new. They describe the car as being in excellent condition and one that both runs and drives amazing. The car is said to have zero rust and still wears its original blue paint. They add that there are also no serious scratches or damage and that the car has never been in an accident.
The interior looks to be must the same, completely original and in terrific condition. The light tan factory velour seats look to be in exceptional condition, and I see no evidence of dash cracks or any other issues. All in all it looks like a well cared for example. Even the shift boot is in amazing condition.
The seller goes on to state that the suspension system is in excellent condition as well. Recent service items include a new clutch kit, new master cylinder, new engine & transmission mounts, new power steering rack, new PS fluid, brake fluid, new timing belt kit with water pump, new brake rotors and pads, and a new AC compressor.
This truly looks like an exceptionally well cared for time capsule of a car you are not likely to see another one of ever. For me, I would try get “Robin 2” personalized licenses plates for it and show it at the next RADwood event.
The asking price for this car is only $12,995 which if you do the math likely covers the cost of all the recent service items. If you are looking for an Audi 5000 S that might be the best one in the world, this one would likely be in contention.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, you can find the library of archives at Pick of the Day.
I remember the arrogant (maybe tongue in cheek?) advertising for these cars. In a heavy German accent, “The Audi 5000. We should have charged more for it!”
My Dad had one. It replaced his BMW 733i when he decided spending less on a car made sense. His was a light Ivory color with brown interior and was the pre-facelift model with sealed beam headlights. Great car, fantastic road manners, spacious and very quiet interior, good trunk. Definitely down on power as were all cars in the early ’80s but once up to speed a fantastic freeway flyer. The 3-speed automatic was probably a bigger handicap than the 2.2L 5 cyl. under the hood. When the “unintended acceleration” story broke, Dad joked that it was nothing new, the pokey Audi never really felt like it “intended” to accelerate. Tried to talk Dad into a 200 turbo Avant when he was ready for a new car, he took a walk on the wild-side instead with a new Jag XJ6.
It was a very great car in reality . The quattro , all wheel was king of the road in rain or snow conditions . The b.s. story of unintended acceleration was actually a lady wearing high heels who caused the accelerator pedal to jam forward , so she sued anyway and it took years to discover the truth of her real ineptitude .
The Audi CS TURBO was the model to have – with the full time 4wd if you needed it (I didn’t) The reason you don’t see them anymore because a lot of them were corp lease turn-ins (@ 2 years old) and a straw guy was buying them and selling them to a German guy who was rolling back the odos and shipping them to Europe/Germany and reselling them, but they were still in good condition then and they LUFFED the AUTOBAHN!