Was nominated as a parts donor but is still going strong
The streamlined, third generation Audi 100 caused quite a stir in 1982. Bertus Douma bought a quite rare Avant 23 years ago. It would not have made much difference if the car we now admire had become a parts donor in 2009, but fortunately the penny fell in the right direction and this Type 44 was retained for the next generation of Douma.
Bertus Douma’s love for Audi goes back to his youth and starts with his admiration for the first generation of the Audi 100 Avant that stood in his street in 1977. “I was really blown away by that. So it was logical that my first car became a 100 Avant, the same model as this Turbo. That was a CD. Then in 1997 I bought an Audi 100 CS Avant quattro Turbo 2.2, for me just about the ultimate version. Unfortunately it turned out not to be a good car. There was always something about it. After two years of struggling, I decided to look for a good successor. In addition, my girlfriend got a driver’s license for cars with an automatic transmission, so that was partly the reason to look for a 100 Avant with an automatic transmission. Well, how did things work at that time? You bought De Telegraaf on Saturday and scoured the advertising pages. Endless rows of used cars, that alone was a treat. On Saturday, March 25, 2000, my finger stopped at a small advertisement offering a pearly white Audi 100 Avant Turbo automatic. I immediately picked up the phone and during that first conversation quickly discovered that it was a special car: it had been imported by Hessing and delivered in 1990. According to the seller, that color was a disadvantage. The following Monday I found an Audi that exceeded all my expectations: with all conceivable options and even in Hessing’s original performance specification. We even managed to haggle a little bit.”
The Douma house almost said goodbye to the Avant
It is now 23 years later and Bertus lives up to the adage once used by car salesmen: ‘you stay put with a white one’. Yet it was close to the Douma house saying goodbye to the rare Avant. For that we go back to 2006. “I heard noises from the automatic transmission. We were going to Normandy during the May holidays and the Audi dealer recommended an overhaul of the gearbox. I didn’t dare take it on a trip and decided to park the car in the driveway and suspend it. As a temporary replacement, I bought an old Ford Scorpio Wagon. A year later nothing had changed and I decided to start the Audi; If the engine started, the car could stay, I made an agreement with myself. After two attempts, the wonderful five-cylinder sound sounded again and I immediately knew: this car is not going away. Two years later I thought it was time for action. The car would no longer start and had to be taken to a professional. A colleague pointed me to Hessel Terpstra in Sexbierum. I had already taken into account that there would be a negative assessment after the inspection, but the garage reported that the engine was running again. We then had regular contact about all the good and bad luck and eventually my Audi was ready for daily use again with a new MOT. With still the noise in the machine, which according to Terpstra I shouldn’t worry about. I didn’t do that then and thoroughly enjoyed the WU five-cylinder, the open roof and the original radio, for which I finally had the code.”
End of exercise for the machine
Bertus noticed that standing still is certainly not progress when he started driving the Audi again. Every now and then a problem presented itself, some worse than others. It’s all part of driving an almost twenty-year-old car. During one of the repairs in 2010, the technician at Terpstra discovered that there was some leakage in the windscreen. Bertus: “Given the costs of the new window, I first decided to look for an alternative. And how coincidental, a Volkswagen enthusiast from Dronten had once bought a batch of new car windows, including one for an Audi 100. During the replacement, the stone chips on the windscreen pillars were immediately touched up. By mid-April everything was ready and my car looked like new again. It was then that I realized that I had owned the Audi for ten years. With still a sound in the box, which he managed to make for a long time. Nevertheless, this proved fatal in 2017, during a holiday in France. I also had the plan to have the carriage completely repainted, but the body shop does not dare, because they fear that all the rubber strips will be broken during disassembly. In the meantime, there is a rust hole in the front fender and there are some strange spots in the paint at the rear left. Over the years, the car has undergone a lot of repairs, but on the other hand, the depreciation is minimal. The relatively low mileage is because I don’t use it daily. I ride motorcycles a lot, on a BMW K1100LT with three tons on the clock. For the nice days there is a Saab 9-3 Cabriolet in front of the door. But the Avant will never go away, that’s for sure.” 
Carrec Technocenter’s opinion:
Dennis: “An Audi 100 Avant, where do you still see that? There are cars of which fewer were made that I see more often. The pearly white paint makes it not only rare, but also a striking appearance. The Audi is a great traveling companion; its wonderfully comfortable, fabric-finished seats offer a nice place to sit and the turbo engine in combination with the automatic gearbox ensure that you can easily keep up with the flow of traffic. The chassis is a bit tired, the shock absorption leaves something to be desired, but all in all this Audi has stood the test of time.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl