“OG” 5000

Getting Old & Going Older

In my opinion, if you do something long enough, you don’t master it; you become comfortable with it. I say this because after nearly 12 years of working with these vehicles, the second you think you have it all figured out, a new challenge crops up. To age gracefully you must accept the challenges that lie ahead: and with that, as I turned 30, I was ready for a new challenge. Something new, and something I personally haven’t done before. And that’s where the “Original” Audi 5000 will come into play, and it’s quickly making me realize that I’ve been missing out on the Type 43 experience all these years.

SCHEFFLER OVERVIEW  

Personality Profile: Make no mistake, the C2 5000 looks and feels like a vehicle developed in the 1970s… Because, well: it is. However, if you are immersed in C3 cars and also have had plenty of wheel time behind B2s, the C2 has a similar soul. And that soul’s essence is probably its best redeeming quality, since the early inline-5 is undoubtedly more gruff, the manual shifts are notchier, and the suspension is floaty and vague. Piëch’s aspirational efforts of turning Audi into a Mercedes and BMW-fighter (well, maybe “alternative” is the better word here) are commended: even with the older technology the C2 feels just as solid as a later C3. It’s also a nice breath of fresh air that this car is a little more tactile to operate – because at this point you can generally trust crank windows and slide HVAC controls over later half-baked power regulators and digital control units.

1980 Audi 5000 (Production 12/79)  2.2L I5 (WD) | 5-Speed Manual 

Mexico Beige LE1M| Tan/Brown Vinyl Interior

MSRP: $11,505 ($12,465 after Delivery & Dealer Installed Equipment)

Origin Dealer: European Imports LTD. Albuquerque, New Mexico (now Audi Albuquerque)

Dealer Delivery Date: June 25, 1980

Factory Options: Tachometer, Air Conditioning, Stereo pre-wiring with 4-Speakers & Antenna

Dealer Installed Accessories: Floor Mats, Blaupunkt Ingolstadt Cassette Radio

Member of T44Brian Since 4/2/2025

Special Plate: AUDI100

Status: Completed Restoration, Permanent Collection

Usage: Seasonal Daily Driver

Odd & Unique About This Car: 1980 saw the North American C2s only facelift – the round headlights of the 1978-79 models were replaced with a quad square setup with chrome bezels, and more chrome trim was added to filler trims on the front a rear bumpers. Rear taillights received a cleaner design. Interiors also saw minor tweaks – most notably a simpler dash design with updated speaker grilles and the deletion of a wraparound wood trim. This particular 5000 is a base: they were not all “S” trims for this generation. Non-S cars received wheel covers (now full chrome rather than partial silver painted for 78-79), and were not equipped with AC, a radio, power windows and mirrors, front vent windows, illuminated vanity mirrors, rear seat headrests, rear ashtrays with lighters, or driver seat height adjustment.

Name Origin: Scheffler is named after original owners Talea and Ernst Shcheffler, who oversaw his care from new until 2012. Pet names include Scheffy, The Scheff, and “Goddamn Audi” when he breaks, which is often.

Scheffler was bought new by Talea and Ernst on June 25, 1980 from European Imports Ltd. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From what I’ve been told, the car was Talea’s pride and joy and she loved to drive it and took meticulous care of him. You may notice that there is a gold plaque on the ashtray door in the center console that read’s “The Scheffler’s.”

This would be her last new car, and she finally sold it in 2012 to his next owners, Hans and Ina, who lived in Washington at the time. They drove the car back from New Mexico to Washington, documenting this mini road-trip of everywhere Scheffler stopped, which Talea received photos of in the mail. From there, Scheffler stayed in Washington with Hans and Ina in their private collection of other vehicles – which has notably changed over the years and been very diverse, but has mostly been of German Automobiles. They later moved to Pennsylvania and took their collection, including Scheffler, with them.

I first met Hans and Ina back in 2020 during an Audi Club ice cream run in Pennsylvania. I was present with Ottmar, my now former Audi 5000CS Turbo, and notably, Hans, Ina, and I were the only ones with classic Audis at the event, so we became fast friends. I remember being in awe of Scheffler: at this point I had really only seen a few C2 cars in person, and they were incomparable to the condition and personality of this car. Plus, it was the first car I had ever seen in Mexico Beige, which I immediately loved (I’ve had an affinity for Ivory C3 5000s and B2 4000s, but they are nearly impossible to locate and this, while being different, is a good substitute). For a brief moment I did research and learn all about the C2s offered here in North America while still more-than-knuckle-deep in C3s, mostly because Scheffler’s base equipment (i.e. wheel covers) intrigued me. Hans and I share a love of cars with cloth interiors, wheel covers, and manuals… Actually, I think we love a lot of the same cars, period. However, I do know Hans is a major opponent of tan interiors, and maybe to a lesser extent, white cars – so while he loved my 5000CS Turbo at first meeting, I did have to explain to him that Alpine White has been my signature C3 Audi color for a long time!

For the next several years, I would see Hans and Ina at various Audi Club events, Carlisle, and Radwood, usually with Scheffler or Ina’s car – her Saab 9000. While they have a lot more cars than I do to choose from to bring to shows, I know that they both loved Scheffler and were very proud to show him off, keeping the spirit of Talea and her love of driving the car alive. Hans owned many ’80s Audis in the past and Ina’s father actually had a C2 5000S in Mexico Beige many years prior, so the car was definitely nostalgic for everyone involved.

Now, you know how seriously I take my vehicles, so I am very protective of them. And while I have not kept every one, when I’m very much “in a relationship” with my cars I take offense to people asking me if I want to sell my car or if I’d ever think of selling. Getting this sense, I never really asked of future plans for Scheffler, assuming he had found his forever home, and a chance to own him would be many, many years off, if at all.

The goal of 2023 was to get my 5000S wagon back and 2024’s was to find a 200 20v Avant to complement. And since we found both of those cars, 2025 started off finalizing the 20v (along with any other loose ends in the fleet) and without a major direction for the year in terms of project cars. I had sold off three sedans in a 12-month span, so I was down to three “museum pieces” and the 20v was being daily driven. But, 2025 was also year 30 for me, so I wanted to get a car that was not only unique, but would inspire me to get back into the car scene. For a little bit, I was mostly tied up with work in the rental industry and my own detail shop, and the importance of shows and events and doing something “Audi” every day wasn’t priority.

After looking at a few more modern cars in the winter of 2025 as a birthday present, I quickly realized that anything that wasn’t an old Audi wouldn’t make the cut. Chalk it up to being stubborn or completely delusional, but my goal was to find a car that I would be able to drive and love every day again like I had done in the past. That’s when I knew I had to revisit a car that I knew of from many years prior – an ’87 5000S (Griff – his page is here) that was down in Florida. After doing a road trip back in that car in early March and starting to get him up to snuff, I was quite content with my choice.

But then: a text message.

Hans is a really fun guy – he’s a go-getter when it comes to cars, much like me. If I see it, and I think it’s a good idea (or I just plain want it), we tend to buy cars and drag our loved ones into another round of vehicle roulette without sometimes thinking the logistics through. Right around when I purchased Weissmar, the 20v Avant, Ina texted me pictures of a 1991 Audi 100 they imported from Switzerland. I remembered it being blue on blue cloth (a favorite of mine, obviously), but I had lost the photos/didn’t save them, etc. so I wasn’t quite sure what the full specs of that car were.

Am I rambling? Definitely. This will all make sense if I just cut to it. So, this text message: Hans is asking me if I want the 100 they just imported from Switzerland maybe.. 9-10 months prior. Now, I had just purchased the ’87 5000S, so I wasn’t so sure I needed another sedan. But curiosity gets the best of me, so I had to go see it. I also learned in this text message that Hans and Ina are both moving out of country, and they’re only taking three of their twenty cars they have here stateside. My first thought is – Scheffler, Ina’s Saab 9000, and Hans’s beloved W126, so I don’t even ask what’s happening to Scheffler.

Now, as I mentioned, the details on this ’91 I’m being offered are very fuzzy – I know it’s blue on blue, but I don’t remember which blue, which equipment or engine it has, and if it’s a manual or automatic. Remember: I just brought home a beautiful manual Nautical Blue 5000S just two weeks prior, so this 5.5 hour road trip to see this car could just be, at minimum, a final farewell before Hans and Ina head off overseas.

I poke my head in the garage and quickly see a Nautical Blue sedan, with blue cloth (but not quite the blue cloth I wanted), an automatic, and an odometer that, while in kilometers, is quadruple what my ’87 has. And seeing as how I did an automatic sedan purge prior, there’s no reason for me to buy this car. So after playing with some other very cool Euro W124s sitting in the garage at Hans and Ina’s house, I finally pipe up and ask: “What’s happening to the 5000?”

Hans alerts me that the car is likely going to a friend in Germany who works at Audi – potentially for the Audi museum: and I’m a little speechless that Scheffler actually isn’t making the cut to take with them to Europe to start their new collection over there. Ina’s 9000, yes, and Hans’s W126 no doubt, but a Porsche in a very special color combo is going instead, to join their Audi A2 which is already overseas.

Now, a lot of emotions and maybe not the best phrasing or sentences came out of my mouth after processing that information – and I don’t remember the moment well because witnesses say I didn’t exactly look in my right mind. What I do know is that I felt a seething, below the surface anger towards myself that I didn’t pipe up and say anything sooner that maybe I eventually wanted Scheffler for myself, and then a feeling of regret that he was already in the merry hands of someone who… Maybe… Is going to take the kind of care of him that he deserves. In my heart, I felt I was the proper next caretaker, so the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So, you see, when I was thinking another Audi, I was really thinking about the 5000.”

Hans: “Oh, so you want that car?”

Me: “Well… Yeah.”

Hans: “Okay well then you can have that one instead!”

And the rest is… Basically history! Minutes after, I was taken on a drive to a nondescript location in Lancaster county where most of Hans and Ina’s collection resided, including Scheffler. There he was! I hadn’t seen him in a minute, and that’s because Hans stopped driving him after the AC compressor went out a second time in 2023 (maybe third – I wasn’t really listening since when ACs blow on these cars I just don’t fix them: I live with peeling my thighs off vinyl seats and rolling through yellow-lights because I need the constant breeze/windows-down life instead). So now we know Hans won’t buy a tan interior car if he can help it, or if it’s white, *OR* drive a car without AC. You learn something new every encounter with him!

The initial plan was to come pickup the car on our way to Carlisle in May. I had plans to go to Germany and finally visit the Audi museum for my 30th on April 1, but with my work schedule and limited vacation time blocked off that week the flights sadly weren’t going to workout. So instead, I spent my birthday locally and enjoyed the day, then Mark and I took a flight to Harrisburg the next morning, followed by an Uber to Hans and Ina’s house, and we drove Scheffler back home. I don’t make a huge deal of my birthday, but it was the best birthday I’ve had in a long time.

So… A new chapter of life, and a new chapter with Audis all-in-one. While I will miss Hans and Ina as they start their new chapter of life, too, I will definitely visit, and will keep them updated on all the adventures Scheffler and I get into!

Notable Mods & Changes

2025: New Purchase