Is hoarding a valid reason to give my gf when asked “what did you come home with now?”

I’ve got tons of them. I inherited them from my father, grandfather and uncles, and picked up some at elderly people’s yard sales at some dirt cheap prices.

But even Vice-Grips(tm), the most American of tools, are made in China already... what a world. Sad.

IIRC, most of the tools we use are imported, so they will probably be more expensive.

And what did our previous trade policies do to help the middle and lower classes?

Soon to be seen on mall-hopping Wranglers everywhere....

Potentially hot take incoming:

Your dad sounds awesome.  It tells me that he’s not the average farmer in America.  You must be proud of him.  

Another example of classic Audi quality (though not relevant for this S5), are the engine rebuilds necessary to correct the rampant design defect in Audi’s standard 2.0TFSI that, at full flower, causes the engine (quite impressively, I must admit) to consume a full quart of oil (not exaggerating) with every tank of…

Headlight removal - not true. It can easily be removed from the passenger side rear seat using a special Audi S3 specific tool. 

When Austrians start talking about high breeds, you can get some strange things happening.

I searched high and low, and ended up in Minneapolis to buy my black on black Flex. I live in Iowa, so the hot seat issue is about one month of the year (until this summer of hell, that is). The only bad thing about the Flex is that there is a whole lot of glass to let those seats get nice and hot!

Mr regular is the worst car reviewer. 

Not that hard to keep a car clean (lots of wax!) and a black interior is awesome for northern winters. Park in the shade or deploy a reflective visor = mandatory.

You are a brave man and an intrepid jalop.

As the owner of an old Audi I will be the first to acknowledge that the cost/benefit ratio is heavily weighted against the brand, especially as the years tick by.

Drove it onto the trailer and to the gas station after I rebuilt the Transmission Valve Body. Just got done with the Upper Oil Pan Gasket and will be buttoning up the Lower Oil Pan this weekend.

Have you seen it in motion yet?

Exactly. I think you’re pretty close on your time estimate, because the mileage says that those timing chain guides are already missing pieces. Catastrophic failure is not far behind.

Having owned Audis over a span of 17 years I always feel I have to chime in on these Audi NP/CP posts with my obligatory “hahahahahaha”.