Following on from stevec's excellent thread, I face an identical dilemma.
I bought my 8L S3 new nearly 7 years ago, and have held onto it in eager anticipation of the new S3 being something special. Sadly, I share the views of many others on this forum in coming to the conclusion on the information available so far that it is not. I may be wrong, and it might drive better than some of the pundits are suggesting. However, even if it does (not likely in my view - Frankel of the Sunday Times and Autocar got it dead right first time about the 8L S3, so there's no reason to disbelieve him about the new one) there's no getting round the fact that it is still going to be hideously expensive to spec up the new S3 to a point where there is "clear blue water" between it and an S-Line.
This has now got me thinking. I would be looking at spending upwards of £35k to spec a new S3 to the level I want (I'm a toys man
), and even then, it would still have a 4-cylinder engine (always hoped it would be a V6) and no DSG (big disappointment). Is this value for money? I have seen a 12 month-old A3 3.2 Q S-Line DSG, 40k miles but with a very high spec (including SatNav Plus, which is what I would put on the S3 at a ridiculous cost) for just over half of what I would be looking at for the new S3 with the spec I want. This 3.2 seems to me to be a lot of car for the money.
What do people think? Does this make sense? Or am I jumping the gun? Could I live with an A3 after having an S3 for all this time? Or is the 8P A3, even in non-S3 form, so much better than the 8L that I won't look back?
Also, I don't have a lot of knowledge of the 3.2, and would welcome the thoughts of anyone who has one, particularly the S-Line, who could tell me what I would be missing out on compared to my old S3.
S.
I bought my 8L S3 new nearly 7 years ago, and have held onto it in eager anticipation of the new S3 being something special. Sadly, I share the views of many others on this forum in coming to the conclusion on the information available so far that it is not. I may be wrong, and it might drive better than some of the pundits are suggesting. However, even if it does (not likely in my view - Frankel of the Sunday Times and Autocar got it dead right first time about the 8L S3, so there's no reason to disbelieve him about the new one) there's no getting round the fact that it is still going to be hideously expensive to spec up the new S3 to a point where there is "clear blue water" between it and an S-Line.
This has now got me thinking. I would be looking at spending upwards of £35k to spec a new S3 to the level I want (I'm a toys man
), and even then, it would still have a 4-cylinder engine (always hoped it would be a V6) and no DSG (big disappointment). Is this value for money? I have seen a 12 month-old A3 3.2 Q S-Line DSG, 40k miles but with a very high spec (including SatNav Plus, which is what I would put on the S3 at a ridiculous cost) for just over half of what I would be looking at for the new S3 with the spec I want. This 3.2 seems to me to be a lot of car for the money. What do people think? Does this make sense? Or am I jumping the gun? Could I live with an A3 after having an S3 for all this time? Or is the 8P A3, even in non-S3 form, so much better than the 8L that I won't look back?
Also, I don't have a lot of knowledge of the 3.2, and would welcome the thoughts of anyone who has one, particularly the S-Line, who could tell me what I would be missing out on compared to my old S3.
S.
