
IMHO
UR quattros, old quattros, the turbo version of the 2.3 and the MPG / performance my dad got back in the day when the car was fairly new are not a fair comparison to an old knackered out Audi 80 2.3 E money pit sat up someone's path gathering moss. It's like saying I've found a sierra 2.3 ghia then saying well rs200's were great so this sierra must be great, when they are not.
I drove a number of audi 80's and a few 2.3 E's and audi 90 2.3 E's that were brand new back in the day at Ian Skellys in Liverpool when I had my first and only MK2 GTI and I found them crap back then, so I don't feel they would have got "better with age" nor am I saying all Audi's from that era were crap but as drivers cars I'd say most Audi's back then were a bit crap in the excitement department, infact all the Audi's I've owned I'd never consider as true drivers cars including the two RS4 V8's I've owned. (I did it twice to check I was right the first time

)
Oh and adding quattro to make a car handle better doesn't make it a great handling car just a car that doesn't handle well with a bit more grip.
I've also watched the pain of ownership when of a certain member of staff at my office bought his dream car, an Audi S8, that too was a money pit constantly requiring parts of one sort or another, it was crap on fuel and not fast versus the fuel it drank and wasn't exactly exciting apart from the excitement one gets from not knowing if you were going to make the end of a journey or not, which one day it did not along with a fair amount of smoke and knocking.....
I stand by my original post that Audi 80 2.3 E's are crap and that the OP has had a great escape IMHO
