Well I've had my first test drive in a new A3. It was a 2.0TDI-150 S-Line s-tronic. Whilst I was not keen on the S-Line suspension it was much better than I thought it would be. The sports seats were also more comfortable than I remember previous sports seats. I will be trying a 2.0TDI-150 SE, probably next week, but it will be a manual and as I have not driven a manual for over 8 years I think I will let my wife be the driver. She has a manual A1.
I did notice the slight drop in power from my current 170 to the test cars 150 but it had only done 750 miles. Quite often I found myself one gear lower than I would normally. Strangely as I drive in tiptronic mode all the time I found myself using the centre lever more than normal because it is set quite a bit higher and comes to hand more easily. I also much prefer the top hinged pedals to my current bottom hinged accelerator.
Using the MMI was no trouble as I did not use it at all whilst driving. When I did try the radio and an SD card I used the controls on the multi-function steering wheel. All the various controls were much the same in feel and Audi quality. I also noticed than if I switched off the Rain Sensor using the MMI the control on the wiper stork became a normal variable interval wiper, so you get the best of both worlds. The rain sensor did seem to work better on the new car as well.
The fog light switches, although different to the current setup, do still cancel whenever the ignition is turned off and with the two individual switches for front and rear fog lights you can have just the rear fog light on without also having to have the front fog lights on.
So will I be changing. I think the answer is no, at least not yet. Having driven the new Skoda Octavia, new Golf and the A3 for a day each when I do change it will be for another A3, but I don't think there is enough about the new A3 to make me want to change early. I do actually still prefer my existing one. I also want to try a new 184ps version and the new A3 Saloon before making any decision. I'm still glad I bought my current A3 when I did.
I did notice the slight drop in power from my current 170 to the test cars 150 but it had only done 750 miles. Quite often I found myself one gear lower than I would normally. Strangely as I drive in tiptronic mode all the time I found myself using the centre lever more than normal because it is set quite a bit higher and comes to hand more easily. I also much prefer the top hinged pedals to my current bottom hinged accelerator.
Using the MMI was no trouble as I did not use it at all whilst driving. When I did try the radio and an SD card I used the controls on the multi-function steering wheel. All the various controls were much the same in feel and Audi quality. I also noticed than if I switched off the Rain Sensor using the MMI the control on the wiper stork became a normal variable interval wiper, so you get the best of both worlds. The rain sensor did seem to work better on the new car as well.
The fog light switches, although different to the current setup, do still cancel whenever the ignition is turned off and with the two individual switches for front and rear fog lights you can have just the rear fog light on without also having to have the front fog lights on.
So will I be changing. I think the answer is no, at least not yet. Having driven the new Skoda Octavia, new Golf and the A3 for a day each when I do change it will be for another A3, but I don't think there is enough about the new A3 to make me want to change early. I do actually still prefer my existing one. I also want to try a new 184ps version and the new A3 Saloon before making any decision. I'm still glad I bought my current A3 when I did.
