About a month ago I bought a 2006 Audi A4 quattro from a dealer in Palo Alto, CA and it is the first Audi I have ever owned. The car was in mint condition, pre-owned certified and less than 23K on the odometer, loaded, minus NAV system and xenon headlights, white with tan leather interior and I paid only $21K for the car. (I love Ebay.) I saw the car a week before at the same dealer and they wanted $28K for it.
I have fallen in love with my Audi, who I now call "Tro."
After buying the car I put in my letter of resignation a week later, no the car had nothing to do with it, and last Friday was my last day at work. Saturday I packed some things and headed home to Idaho to do some fly fishing, spend time with family, my dogs and see some friends. I got cheap too and decided to do the whole 800 mile trip from Walnut Creek, CA to Pocatello, ID, where I grew up, in none stop trip. On my way east I saw a friend who lives near Sacramento, who generously took me out shooting, something I haven't done since I have been in California, and had a great time. After getting a feeling of what normal life is like, I continued my journey east over the Sierras and into "there really isn't anything to see" stretch of I-80 east of Reno. (It was at night so it didn't really matter anyway.) Roads were great east of Reno for about the first 30 miles, and I did "inhale" a little of the "thrill for speed" drug, but if I go fast I like to see where I am going for a a fair distance and you really can't do that at night. After about 20 minutes out of Reno it started to snow, just enough to be annoying and then it got BAD, to the point where you could see only 50 to 75 feet in front of you and headlights on high-beam were useless. I found a bump in the road truck stop and pulled over and decided to let the snow pass so I could at least tell where the road was while I was driving. (Nevada needs to work on their reflective markers too, they don't have a lot of them.) About 1:30 am, after about a hour nap, I took off and headed east again. In Winnemucca, NV I filled up with gas and kept going. I had on an off snow from there to Wells, NV where I turned off I-80 on to HWY 93. A couple miles north out of Wells it started snowing again.
Well, the Audi performed amazing on the snowy roads. I grew up in snow country and I have had a 4x4 or AWD most of my driving career, a Subaru Legacy and two Toyota trucks. All three vehicles were great cars, with about 500K miles driven between the three of them, but none of them performed like Tro did in the 3" of snow and ice I encountered on the way home, plus a 30 to 40 mph cross-winds. On snow/ice driving I know enough to sense how the car's gravity is behaving to determine how fast I go. Well, I felt really comfortable and the next thing I notice is I am doing 60 to 65 mph. I have been through worse driving conditions, but the weather I encountered home was a good baptism to learn what my A4 can do. Plus Tro got 29 mph through Nevada, over mountain passes, heavy winds and some moments of experimenting on the speedy side of things.
People told me Quattro drive is the best AWD system in the world. After my journey home, I am pretty darn convinced it is. Thursday I head to Montana for a few days and I figured I would take some photos of Tro in God's Country up north in the mountains, which I will post over the weekend.
Here is a photo I took about 6:00 am Sunday morning north of Wells, NV while I drove and was surprised to notice my speed considering the conditions and Tro didn't slip or slide at all. I know it isn't break neck speed, but none of the other cars on the road were any where near catching up to me. Looking back I probably could of gone 70 mph, posted speed limit and I would of been fine, but better to air on the side of caution when the weather sucks.
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