2013 Audi S3

I'm calling my dealer tomorrow to do the same thing. I'm going to drop my mileage from 10k to 5k which should save me £30 a month or the equivalent to £1000 worth of options.

I've already got:
3 door, s tronic
Panther black
Black styling pack
Privacy windows
Lunar silver alcantara seats
Black inlays
LED headlights
B&O sound system
Tech pack
Comfort pack (rear parking sensors + standard cruise)
Extended mono finish
Interior light pack

Quick question! What would people add for the 1k?!

P.s. I'm not interested in the super sports seats!

pano roof - defo
 
i am now having panther black with the silver bars and surrounds, so having the sports seats to match made sense.....

Also I had a seat in a new RS6 and it had the same seat which is an improvement on the standard seat, which I was surprised by. The head restraint is better positioned and they are more comfortable with a bit more support laterally.

youve changed your opinion of panther black then!!?
 
I didn't need a quote, tell the lazy audi dealer to log to DTD and get the quote when you are there otherwise go elsewhere

reading audi did a deal for me at 6% - happy with that - shame as I was looking at 8.5% last week and they offered 6%, then went in Friday 18/10 and DTD was at about 6.3%, so my plan to get another 1% backfired. there's a moral there, do wait too long!!

His argument was that with a written quotation with a date, prospective customers name and full break down on it at least shows some validity to the prices offered from a broker. As it turns out I think he has a point, DTD prices seem to change like the wind. Oh and if I haven't labored the point enough already, DTD quotations really are not worth paying for. The whole point of it is to allow you to take the quote to a dealership to assist in negotiating a better deal. The DTD site even states "if you would like to print off a quote and use it to negotiate yourself a better price at your local dealer, then you will understand that we make a small charge to cover our costs." This would be fine if they actually honored the quote and gave some validity to it, but they don't, so unless you are certain you can conduct your "negotiations" before a detrimental price hike which could occur at any minute of the day, don't bother paying for a written quotation. UK Car Broker don't charge for a quote and send you a bespoke personalised quotation via email within 24 hours, DTD take note! Oh and their discounts are better at the moment!
 
youve changed your opinion of panther black then!!?

hi gareth, i have indeed....
i love estoril in flat dull light but couldn't live with it being so blue in sunlight, it's just too blue for me I'm afraid which is a shame as I love the crystal effect and the fact it was a S colour only........

i considered red monsoon, but saw it in the flesh and it's underwhelming, no pop or real metallic flake.................

therefore Panther Black ! Crystal, cherry flavour, S colour only and works incredibly well with the super sport seats and aluminium highlights...

I'll be keeping this car for a minimum of 6 years and know that black will remain en vogue throughout, and I'm extremely particular about a clean car, I actually enjoy detailing, sad I know...

so Panther it is, perhaps not a choice I was expecting but in consideration, most likely my final decision :)
 
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@lecht... glad you came round. i will share some photos of mine when it arrives in a couple of weeks!
 
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i havent. i like the chrome/alu bits, nice to have contrast. black on black is a big drug dealerish imo

contrast is good to have. With mine being silver I went for the black styling to match the window tints. I have also gone for body coloured mirrors as there is no point on them on a silver car with black parts everywhere else.
 
my FWD daily driver has a LSD. It also runs winter steelies on Winters Mud + Snows. I overtake 4wd's everywhere heading up the mountains for skiing each winter.

The S3 will have a set of 4 Winters come winter. Surely with 4WD and the appropriate tyres it will perform better than my FWD + diff ?

Trust me, with 4 winters on it will be awesome in the snow! I've driven on pure white A & B roads safely between 40 - 60 mph where my mate in a R32 on good summer tyres was all over the place!

The real test came when stopping. side by side at 20mph, he took 2-3 car lengths more to stop. Imagine what that would be like at 60...
 
Trust me, with 4 winters on it will be awesome in the snow! I've driven on pure white A & B roads safely between 40 - 60 mph where my mate in a R32 on good summer tyres was all over the place!

The real test came when stopping. side by side at 20mph, he took 2-3 car lengths more to stop. Imagine what that would be like at 60...

do the differentials pull the car into line in the snow ? What is the drive split with haldex on the S3 ?
 
I've currently got the 8L & as far as I remember its 50/50 split.

It's actually quite hard to get the back end to step out in the snow without really trying.
You need ESP off & a good yank on the wheel combined with a good boot on the throttle to get it out.

In normal driving, yes, it pulls it right back in line & keep's it well behaved. I expect the new one will have at least the 2nd gen Haldex, or even more. Not kept up with developments, but I know the 2nd gen is even better than mine.
 
Something else I noticed... There's no engine temperature gauge in the new S3. Don't know about you guys, but I'm not too happy with the idea of having no indication until there's already a problem.

Faulty thermostat for example...
 
Something else I noticed... There's no engine temperature gauge in the new S3. Don't know about you guys, but I'm not too happy with the idea of having no indication until there's already a problem.

Faulty thermostat for example...

thats probably looked after using the steering wheel buttons/digital display on dash
 
thats probably looked after using the steering wheel buttons/digital display on dash

When I drove one last week I had a good look through the DIS and on board computer and didn't see any options for engine water temp.

Its not unusual these days for cars not to have temperature gauges, I'm sure the wife's fiesta didn't have a temp gauge.
 
His argument was that with a written quotation with a date, prospective customers name and full break down on it at least shows some validity to the prices offered from a broker. As it turns out I think he has a point, DTD prices seem to change like the wind. Oh and if I haven't labored the point enough already, DTD quotations really are not worth paying for. The whole point of it is to allow you to take the quote to a dealership to assist in negotiating a better deal. The DTD site even states "if you would like to print off a quote and use it to negotiate yourself a better price at your local dealer, then you will understand that we make a small charge to cover our costs." This would be fine if they actually honored the quote and gave some validity to it, but they don't, so unless you are certain you can conduct your "negotiations" before a detrimental price hike which could occur at any minute of the day, don't bother paying for a written quotation. UK Car Broker don't charge for a quote and send you a bespoke personalised quotation via email within 24 hours, DTD take note! Oh and their discounts are better at the moment!

fair point that's why i didn't pay for the dtd quote. however these dealers are signed up to audi and so they shouldn't need proof. they are just playing games. walk away, go elsewhere
 
contrast is good to have. With mine being silver I went for the black styling to match the window tints. I have also gone for body coloured mirrors as there is no point on them on a silver car with black parts everywhere else.

yeh i might change the mirror colour
 
Like I said guys,

Orange Wheels is giving still near 8% discount. DTD is not the only broker out there.
 
Something else I noticed... There's no engine temperature gauge in the new S3. Don't know about you guys, but I'm not too happy with the idea of having no indication until there's already a problem.

Faulty thermostat for example...

I think it's something that can be changed with VCDS
 
I'll keep it factual! Ordered a S3 SB from a Jardine Motor Group Audi dealer (many outlets inc Manchester, Liverpool, Wolverhampton, Milton Keynes etc etc etc ) in June at full price with October delivery estimate. Hear nothing till call in response to chase saying now wk 6 2014 build date = 9 months delivery. Dealer says ordered straight away against allocation. Considering all options, what would you do?

id complain and see if you can get a discount, though a better option is maybe some sweeteners - like free servicing, some additional options if they haven't built it yet - like a free pano roof, etc - just say you are considering pulling out
 
Like I said guys,

Orange Wheels is giving still near 8% discount. DTD is not the only broker out there.

will they get a dealer to source a car at that price though? I have my doubts. the dealer will just say no, then what do you do?

mind you their site is better than the god awful dtd site - did a 2 year old design dtd's site
 
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I've always been a firm believer that cash is king so I'd rather have it in the bank. Especially at 23 and running a company I'd rather have the money around to invest in growing the business!

same here as im buying a flat to BTL so need the cash for the depo which makes this car purchase positively miniscule, even tho it isn't - depends on the person
 
Hi, I know it is a long time to wait for a car, however, with such a vehicle, would you want Audi to overproduce them and then just stack them up on a field or a old airfield runway? I remember Ford having hundreds of vehicles damaged because they were outside in the middle of a severe hailstorm. They were repaired and sold as new, again, would you want that?
 
Hi, I know it is a long time to wait for a car, however, with such a vehicle, would you want Audi to overproduce them and then just stack them up on a field or a old airfield runway? I remember Ford having hundreds of vehicles damaged because they were outside in the middle of a severe hailstorm. They were repaired and sold as new, again, would you want that?

The issue is not that the cars would get damaged it is that residual values would drop if the supply was greater than the demand. Exactly the same is happening with the Q5 at the moment.
 
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Just had a build week confirmed as 45!

Tried to call the dealer to see if I could change spec this morning, obviously I couldn't but I'm not too fussed. I organised to have him reduce my PCP figures so that I'm travelling 5,000 miles per year rather than 10,000. I'll let people know what savings I get by doing so!
 
Just had a build week confirmed as 45!

Tried to call the dealer to see if I could change spec this morning, obviously I couldn't but I'm not too fussed. I organised to have him reduce my PCP figures so that I'm travelling 5,000 miles per year rather than 10,000. I'll let people know what savings I get by doing so!

There will be no saving as such, just a lower monthly payment. Anything 'saved' will be bolted on to the balloon payment (gfv) at the end of the pcp contract. There is a risk that if you are going more than double the estimated mileage that you might go into negative equity.You will probably just scrape by but won't have much of a deposit for your next vehicle. You pay the same overall, just a question of when.
 
Negative equity assuming you want to just hand the vehicle back, but who does that really? Mileage is only important if you intend on doing this, but you'd lose out either way as the GFVs are always very conservative.
 
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If you went over the agreed mileage and wanted to hand the car back at the end of the term you would be hit by excess mileage charges as well don't forget. You might well go into negative equity even on a trade-in if you have grossly under-estimated the annual mileage. You will probably be fine on a private sale, but as I said you won,t have much left over by the time you have settled the balance.
 
There will be no saving as such, just a lower monthly payment. Anything 'saved' will be bolted on to the balloon payment (gfv) at the end of the pcp contract. There is a risk that if you are going more than double the estimated mileage that you might go into negative equity.You will probably just scrape by but won't have much of a deposit for your next vehicle. You pay the same overall, just a question of when.

I think Paul already knows this as I have been in discussion about how much I reduced my monthly payment by reducing the mileage allowance to a more realistic figure. I'm trading in a two year old car that has only done 8.5k so 5k a year is fine for myself.
 
If you went over the agreed mileage and wanted to hand the car back at the end of the term you would be hit by excess mileage charges as well don't forget. You might well go into negative equity even on a trade-in if you have grossly under-estimated the annual mileage. You will probably be fine on a private sale, but as I said you won,t have much left over by the time you have settled the balance.

Yes but like I said, why on earth would you hand the car back when you'd almost always get a better value trading in or selling privately? In my experience the GFVs are very conservative and the car value is usually quite a lot over it. They have to do it like that, because they are taking the risk in guaranteeing that value.
 
Yes I understand all the potential pitfalls of reducing the estimated mileage & am happy to reduce the amount of equity held in the car at the end of the term. I don't do that many miles so I'm not overly worried. My daily commute is a mere 4 miles & some simple math showed I'm allowed to travel just under 100 miles a week on an estimated 5k.
 
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All,

When placing an order for a new S3 via an Audi dealer, does one have to pay a deposit up front and if so what size....or do you just sign a purchase agreement?

I'm planning to purchase an S3 saloon next year.

Also....does anyone know whether the engine in the new S3 is an interference engine...(will there be a huge bill if a belt goes)...assuming the engine uses belts....maybe there's a chain?

Would an S3 be happy running around as a regular short trip commute with occasional weekend blasts or does the engine need very regular blasts to stay happy?

Is the Auto box likely to be more kind to the clutch than a manual or is clutch life unlikely to be an issue within 8 year ownership?
 
All,

When placing an order for a new S3 via an Audi dealer, does one have to pay a deposit up front and if so what size....or do you just sign a purchase agreement?

Hi welcome to the forum.

For my last two A3's I have paid a £1000 refundable deposit, in my experience Audi want this level of deposit to give them at least some sense of commitment to the purchase.

With regard your clutch question it really depends on how much you abuse it irrespective of it being a manual or auto.

Whether a shorter commute is good for the engine IMO is the same irrespective of what you buy. For example, if 5 days a week you are only driving it 3 miles up the road to work it is likely to have a detrimental effect on the engine performance long term as the car rarely gets to standard operating temperature under these conditions.
 
Had confirmation this morning my S3 is built and about to make its way to the UK. So I'm guessing 2-3 weeks from now
 
what to people think of sat nav, a must in the S3? im looking to keep the car next to standard but dont want to cause issue come trade in.
 
Had confirmation this morning my S3 is built and about to make its way to the UK. So I'm guessing 2-3 weeks from now

What build week was yours? I think mine should be getting built now although the salesman is on his hols and im working in the middle east for a while, so hoping i have a nice new car to come home too :).
 
Spoke to my dealer today, he says the car is about to leave Germany in the next day or so, he then said it's possible all being well to take delivery early next week. Is this possible given the car is still not in ze country?

Cheers!
 
Mine has landed in the uk and is going to be transported to the dealer this week ready for collection next week I hope!
 
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