Sportback courtesy car

While my 8L A3 was in the hands of Bedford Audi to have the drivers' door lock mechanism replaced I got to bomb around in an '07 2.0 TDi Sportback. I did ask the lady from servicing if I could have an RS4 as a courtesy car, but apparently they were all out already Still, the A3 was rather nice, though I missed not having cruise control or lumbar adjustment. The engine was nice and smooth though didn't feel as quick as my 1.9 TDi but that could be because of the way the power's delivered; I nearly had a heart attack when I tried to pull away from a roundabout due to the amount of turbo lag! It seems like the engine doesn't do much until about 2,200rpm whereas my 1.9 is happy from ~1,600rpm.

Once up to speed though it's a lovely cruiser and was quite happily caning down the motorway with plenty of go left in sixth gear. I was very impressed with the brakes which pulled the car up nicely, though I'd have liked a little more range between "light braking" and "drop anchors"

Interior-wise, the seats were comfy (though lacking lumbar support) and there was good space in the back and a decent boot too. The dual-zone climate control thingy took a little getting used to, but overall I quite liked it.

I should also have mentioned the fact I was impressed with the Bose sound system.

JohnS3 said:

Out of interest do you mind if I ask what the dealer charged you for changing the door lock? I changed one myself on my old 8L S3, the lock was about £50, gawd only knows what the dealer would have charged.

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Warranty job for me John, so I've no idea how much it cost :thumbsup: They had the car for about two hours, but I doubt they were working on it all that time.

silver75 said:

Batwad did you not find the 8P unrefined? 1st thing i noticed when i drove one

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I wouldn't call it unrefined, no. Did you drive the same car, with the new 2.0 TDi engine (170bhp I think)? I thought it was smooth, but too laggy. I found I was changing gear a lot more, compared to how I'd expect my 8L to perform, when hooning around some lanes. Decent cruiser though.