On the Lot for 30 Years: 1973 Audi 100 Coupe
There’s not much time left on this old-school Audi 100 coupe, which the seller said he rescued from being parked for 30 years in a Colorado car lot. I’d love to know the story behind that, but the sunburnt paint does seem to indicate long exposure to a western sky. The auction ends tomorrow night, and you can find the Audi here on eBay with a $3,999 Buy-It-Now or best offer.
We’ve featured a sedan or two over the last few months, but the coupes show up far less frequently. Often called an Auto Union or NSU due to the close proximity to the branding change-over to Audi, this early example was far closer to its Volkswagen siblings of the era than any of the RS-series coupes made by the modern-day company. Still, it has pretty lines and looks quite nice with its slim chrome bumpers and narrow A- and B-pillars.
Like so many of these early cars, it is saddled with an automatic. It’s a shame, as the coupe just seems to scream for a more sporting set-up. The removal of the interior at least makes it easier to spot potential rust issues, which are not insignificant: the seller notes rotted floors and pinholes in the roof, but that the frame and unibody are solid. It was also fairly loaded when new, with the aforementioned automatic and A/C.
The engine is close to turning over, the seller notes, but says the timing needs to be set. Also worth mentioning is that the gas tank was professionally cleaned, so that much is done. The seats will be included, but I’ll bet those are nearly destroyed due to sun exposure and the potential for moisture to enter via the pinholes in the roof. The price is OK, but I’d make an offer of around $1,500 and see where it goes.
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Comments
A worthy project. The Audi 100 was also designed by Claus Luthe who designed the NSU Ro80 and myriad BMWs to include the E30 3-Series and E31 8-Series after becoming BMW’s Chief of Design. The Audi 100 chassis was also heavily based upon the Ro80’s and shared with the VW K70 as VW/Audi had just taken over NSU.
I’ll pass
I would too. The early Audi 100LS and the Fox were a total POS. That’s why you don’t see them anywhere but in a junkyard. My Girlfriend bought a new ’76 Fox in Denver. It was the most unreliable and worst mechanically designed car I’ve ever seen. Audi’s at that time were so bad, that a Denver Attorney filed a Class Action Law Suit against the Dealer. In addition he put a big Paper Mache and Chicken Wire Lemon on the roof with a sign about what a POS he was driving.
Crap when new (I had one, I speak from experience), now obviously fully baked crap.
If you want to see something totally shocking check out this link to Bring a Trailer
Read some of the comments.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1974-audi-100ls/
I kept an eye on that one too. Shocked that it went for that much. But I love these cars for some reason, especially the coupe. If the engine in the coupe is toast, would be fun to drop a later Audi or BMW engine in it, along with a manual tranny. Deck the interior out with leather seats and trim. It’d be a labor of love, but I’d sure enjoy it!
I had a 72 100ls with a stick myself. As I said in the post I made in BaT, they were like an opiate, you knew if was going to be bad for you at some point but you just couldn’t stop yourself. I wrenched for a living about the time the 5000’s hit the used car market and they were the same way; people who had them loved them but they sure kept me busy on the lift.
I worked in a Porsche/Audi dealership in ’73. The Audis were the most basic car I’d ever seen this side of a Volkswagen. It astounded me in the ’90’s that Audis were so highly thought of until I realized that the later models bear little resemblance to these s—cans. Not among my favorite memories of a misspent youth.
In the succinct opinion of Steve A. above, “I’ll pass.”
Now I remember. You’re the one that sold me our 100LS. We loved it for a little less than a month. We never could get an oil px sending unit to last for more than 6000 miles. The heat went to max luke-warm, 1/2 shafts kept going out… You name it, it failed.
BMWs used to be pretty basic as well during this time period. You had to go with a Mercedes if you wanted something upmarket.
Yes, but BMWs were amongst the best made cars in the world back then – it’s too bad they’ll never make cars as good as the 2002 or Bavaria again, but if they did, no one would buy them! No power steering (at least for the 2002), wind-up windows, no cruise or power locks. Mercedes built simple cars back then too – I had a “bare bones” 220 D – manual transmission, steering, windows & locks. But very little to break too. While the Audi theoretically had little to break, what little it had, usually did!
Also – that’s not the coupé. 2-dr saloon.
Quite right. Coupe was a fastback, this is probably rarer. On that basis, only way to go with this car is for a VW freak to resto-rod it.
Good that folk recall how bad Audi´s reputation was in 1980s USA. Bottom of the heap with Citroën. Unfair on Citroën, I thought.
A more apt comparison would be Renault in the ’50s/’60s, Jensen Healey in the ’70s or Yugo in the ’80s. All bad cars.
For many, especially in the midwest, this was the 1st time we ever heard of Audi. It was not well received,( especially in Rambler/ Harleytown) even though, it was probably a heck of a nice car. I’m sure the owners were happy with them. I think there was a lack of dealers, or something. I don’t remember any Audi dealers and the closest Porsche dealer was Chicago. I see it has the junk Solex carb, that would have to go. Audi went on to become quite a car, but I think these were their throwaway models. Neat to see one tho.
In 1973, I was 19 & about to buy my first brand new car. I’d basically decided on an Olds 88 convertible, but my boss had an Audi & she loved it. I went to the dealer & looked at one that I liked, but they wouldn’t give me a dime off their car where the Olds was nicely discounted. I got the Olds.
You made the right choice!
With the 350 or the 455 ?
Just to change the fanbelt requires removing the motor mount, and as I remember, the rear seat cushion was covered sculpted foam rubber. No springs or real framework, just cheap expedient construction. Back when we associated German cars with superior engineering and build quality, these were the exception to the rule. I don’t think the 5000 that followed was much better, and then there was the “unintended acceleration” debacle .. .. .. was Audi overly influenced by Detroit products or what??
I had a ’74 100LS…..PITA..battery under back seat, gas fumes would fill the cabin, shift mechanism would come loose off of the transaxle.
I had my battery short out and fill the car with acid fumes; coughed up some blood that night.
Just think of the lawsuits or big recall that would result today.
Rough! At least it’s straight.
Used to see a lot of these around. Brit librarian with a hair bun at the local library had a two door like this but dove gray! These came in some interesting colors. I just remember their sound, kind of a brrraaaabbb…then a shift would quiet things down. Not an entirely bad sound thinking back.
I think this one is a GL and it would’ve had some simulated mag wheel covers not totally unlike, but not as funky as those found on a Datsun B210.
I have parts for this car on my shelves. =JCC
I owned a 1973 100LS. The car was fun to drive, when it ran. It is probably the biggest POS that I have ever owned. At 7 years old, the electrical system was shot, the floors were rotted and it used tons of oil. Finally, it spun a bearing and went to the junk yard.
I did think the Coupe was looking like this photo
This is a 1973 Audi 100 Coupe S
I started my apprenticeship with Porsche Audi in 1973. I remember these cars. They were horrible! Inboard front brakes, had to pull the front suspension apart to change discs (which wore out altogether too quickly!) They leaked oil from the front seal, the rear seal and both transmission side seals. Cleaver Audi engineered a system of gutters and hoses that made the oil leak in one place!
OMG – why would anyone have saved this that long? I took to leaving tje keys on my 71 hoping I would leave work and find it gone, and it was only 9 years old! Seriously, it took me 30 years to look at another Audi. Bought a used A4 and drove it happily to 190k – completely different beasts.
There were a few of these on post in germany while I was stationed over there. One of them was owned by my old roommate. It was a serious rust bucket and would never pass a german safety inpection. The army inspection wasn’t near as harsh, hence his ability to drive it till he left for Conus. He drove it right into the PDO lot. Army junkyard. LOL. The other one belonged to another roommate I had he gave $100.00 for the car and it ran great. He bought it from a short timer who didn’t bother to tell him that it wouldn’t pass even the army safety inspection. It was so rusted out it was sad. He tried to patch it up a couple of times with no success. He got summarily drunk and decided to get in the car with no tags or insurance and do donuts in front of the MP station late one saturday night. He was an E-2 when he started and got busted so hard he owed them a stripe. LMAO. The mechanicals on those cars were great, the bodies just couldn’t deal with all that salt and cow pee they sprayed on the snowy roads over there.
I just bought this, can’t wait to restore it. Get it this weekend.