A3 - worth the money?

[julians]

I think the s3 is pretty decent value when you compare to the competition, especially when you look at the banding for emissions, I think audi have been pretty clever (or lucky!) to pitch it in band f, when most of the competition is in band G. Service costs and intervals and insurance costs also figured highly in my purchasing descision.

It was between a used M3 , a used z4m coupe, or a new S3 for me. The s3 won because I just couldnt face £1000 service bills every year (although I guess theres no guarantees that wont happen with the s3), and being raped by the govt in car tax and future emissions based taxes that they havent thought of yet (I keep my cars a while these days).

edited to add: I wouldnt spec one up to silly amounts of money though (£30k+ IMO), and I wouldnt pay list price for one, but those both go for any type of car. As a general rule, any extras you add are worth nothing at trade in time.

 

[phantom]

Actually the scooby/evo are more expencive!

New evo starts at 27.5k and the new Scoob STI WRX starts at 26.6k, acutally thought it was more than that, not bad value, pig ugly though.

Beat me to it , was just about to say not brand new you can't.

The STI you need to add the Prodrive wheels at 3k as the Std 17's make it look like a T reg 1.6 Focus!

EDIT i think the STI has just gone up 1.5k after all the good reviews!

p

 

[Deleted member 22276]

Tiff didn't like the sti at all!

 

[bacardi]

The A3, and all VAG cars are very highly engineered. You may compare an A3 to a focus or Astra for example but it's in a different league. There are so many things that have been designed into VAG cars that 'lesser' brands have not. One example being when a bulb blows not only will the car tell you but it'll also kill the power to that bulb for safety. There a loads of things like that on our cars, most we don't even know about.

Is it worth the difference in price from a Golf or Leon? Yeah damn right! Ok they're built on the same chassis with the same engines but I think the A3 is the best looking car of all of them.

The interior is miles ahead of the Golf and Leon. I didn't realise this until I drove my mates R32 last year but I thought it looked cheap. I have read a few articles on other cars where when they talk about the interior they say "It's no Audi" or "their designers should take a look at an Audi one day".

So you have a good looking, very well engineered, very well built car with the best interior you can get in the class so you expect to pay extra for that. They may not be the fastest or best handling cars but 99% of the time you're doing less than 100 mph in a straight line so they don't need to be the best. What matters is how you feel when you're in it, and I feel great.

Interiors are good, I'll agree


highly engineered? Not at all

In my experience, my A3 has been the most amazingly overpriced, unreliable piece of tat - with a dealer and head office support network so stuck up its own **** that, if referred to as value for money, would have you locked up in the looney bin




so, no, not worth it, not by a mile

 

[phantom]

Tiff didn't like the sti at all!

EVO Mag would rather have the STI than the Evo X .

There's a test Vid on youtube of the pair going at it and the STI beats it hands down! recorded 0-60 was 4.5 book figure is 5.5

p

 

[S3-N]

my D3 was £28k.
quote]

That seems a lot of money for a not very quick diesel with a max power bodykit but that's just my opinion

 

[PaulAr]

Interiors are good, I'll agree


highly engineered? Not at all

In my experience, my A3 has been the most amazingly overpriced, unreliable piece of tat - with a dealer and head office support network so stuck up its own **** that, if referred to as value for money, would have you locked up in the looney bin




so, no, not worth it, not by a mile

So where would your money go next? another AUDI (A4,A5 etc) or a different brand altogether?

I had a bit of a crap experience with my Golf with regards to reliability but after doing some homework I turned out to be in the minority. On that basis and the fact it was brilliant to drive and pretty much every other dept, I would actually take a chance on another Golf.

cheers
Paul

 

[Spin140]

I was nearly put off buying a GTi due to some of the rants on forums but mine was absolutely faultless in my 12 months ownership, the interior is not in the same league as the Audi but pretty good all the same. The wife runs a high spec Jetta as an opt out company car covering 30K per year and that too has been really good apart from one minor issue with an emmisions light fixed under warranty.

I too would have another Golf but whilst I can afford the Audi it wins my vote.

 

[h5djr]

Value for money - it depends on your definition. I've owned 6 A3 and loved them all - 4 8L 1.8Ts, an 8P 2.0TDI-140 DSG and my current 2.0TDI-170 DSG. All have been purchased with my own money. They have all very reliable, always had excellent service from my dealer both on the sales and service side. Always had a very reasonable trade-in value of between 55% and 60% of the original value, plus a discount on the new car.

I love the A3 to drive, I love the S-tronic, I love the interior, I love the finish, I love the image and I like Audi.

As I'm now retired I will possibly keep my current A3 for 4 rather than 3 years as I do less miles and providing Audi don't do anything to ruin the A3's design, I'm fairly sure my next car will be another A3. I don't see anything else on the market at the moment that I would prefer. Value for money - I could buy a cheaper car that would provide some of what I like but as I can easily afford an A3 I would much rather have an A3.

 

[phantom]

So where would your money go next? another AUDI (A4,A5 etc) or a different brand altogether?

I had a bit of a crap experience with my Golf with regards to reliability but after doing some homework I turned out to be in the minority. On that basis and the fact it was brilliant to drive and pretty much every other dept, I would actually take a chance on another Golf.

cheers
Paul

If i couldn't have the S3 and had my 26k again i'd maybe go for a used e46 M3 should get a nice example for that money.

Or spend around 14k on a Clio V6 or R32 mkiv

p

 

[Spin140]

Well said. I've had 3 to date with no issues and would consider another.

 

[Dandle]

Interiors are good, I'll agree


highly engineered? Not at all

In my experience, my A3 has been the most amazingly overpriced, unreliable piece of tat - with a dealer and head office support network so stuck up its own **** that, if referred to as value for money, would have you locked up in the looney bin


so, no, not worth it, not by a mile

I tend to have the same opinion, although mine wasnt unreliable(only broke down once) it just wasnt very good quality.

As for resale I paid £27k for mine with 8% off at 18months old and with 13k the most I could get on a part ex was 18k(it went back on an Audi forcourt for 22k), so thats not as great as alot of people seem to think.

 

[Spin140]

My S3 only cost me £3k in 12 months and 6,500 miles, thats good depreciation in my book but its all subjective as it depends entirely on what car you are Px against.

 

[davemk]

The poor p/x figures that people are quoting - I wonder whether there was a discount on the new car, which was taken from the p/x allowance? Robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will.

 

[davemk]

Value for money - it depends on your definition. I've owned 6 A3 and loved them all - 4 8L 1.8Ts, an 8P 2.0TDI-140 DSG and my current 2.0TDI-170 DSG. All have been purchased with my own money. They have all very reliable, always had excellent service from my dealer both on the sales and service side. Always had a very reasonable trade-in value of between 55% and 60% of the original value, plus a discount on the new car.

I love the A3 to drive, I love the S-tronic, I love the interior, I love the finish, I love the image and I like Audi.

My criteria is fairly similar.

I narrowed my choices of a new car to A3, Golf, Civic or Focus. I knew I'd never be happy with the Focus. I like the new Civic but there's something about the rear light cluster that I just can't warm to. The Golf, as I've said before, has a poor interior for the money in my opinion which leaves the A3 SB, where my heart lies! It also seems to make more financial sense in terms of cost of ownership. Okay, the intial outlay is considerably more but the resale will be better, I think.

The Audi A3 SB has everything I'm looking for - 5 doors (I have a daughter), dual a/c, looks and a quality interior.

 

[Spin140]

Yo've answered your own question - go find one and enjoy

 

[davemk]

Yes I suppose deep down the decision had already been made but sometimes I come on this forum and Audi seems to get slated so I guess I was after some reassurance!

 

[marriedblonde]

Surely thats not the norm?; get yourself a 10-12% discount on list, not mental mileage, look after it & sell it. Did you think it was a Vauxhall when it came to selling it?!

Of course I got a discount when I bought it new, I got 10 or 11% off. When it came to trade in time it was only worth £14.5K Nope didn't get confused with a vauxhall thanks.

It was in perfect condition (Gti Jazz blue will confirm as he bought it) nicely spec'd. It had 40K on it. IT just was only worth £14.5K trade in and a litt more privately.

J.

 

[marriedblonde]

Did you really? High miles?

Not overly, it had 40K and full audi history, perfect condition.

J.

 

[Dandle]

The poor p/x figures that people are quoting - I wonder whether there was a discount on the new car, which was taken from the p/x allowance? Robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will.

No there wasnt I was getting part ex prices from various dealers(must have been about 9 within about 70 miles of me)without an exact car i was doing a deal on. They all phoned their independant dealers for a price and most of them didnt want it as it was too new, so then they got quotes from the Audi dealers they delt with(quotes ranged from 16.5-18k). The dealer i bought from gave me 17.5k on paper for the A3 but knocked another £500 off the price I had negotiated for the new car.

 

[marriedblonde]

Well mine didn't go back to audi and I paid cash so if they couldn't check the finance on it/price paid. It just was only worth £14.5K trade in end off!

The figures I was given for the value for the car where the glasses guide ones as well as I managed to get them checked.

J.

 

[davemk]

No there wasnt I was getting part ex prices from various dealers(must have been about 9 within about 70 miles of me)without an exact car i was doing a deal on. They all phoned their independant dealers for a price and most of them didnt want it as it was too new, so then they got quotes from the Audi dealers they delt with(quotes ranged from 16.5-18k). The dealer i bought from gave me 17.5k on paper for the A3 but knocked another £500 off the price I had negotiated for the new car.

Not overly, it had 40K and full audi history, perfect condition.

J.

I notice that you both part ex'd at BMW dealers...maybe that's why? I suppose 40k is quite a bit above average for 2 years although it's still low miles.

 

[marriedblonde]

The poor p/x figures that people are quoting - I wonder whether there was a discount on the new car, which was taken from the p/x allowance? Robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will.

The value was pretty much the same from everywhere, I didn't get another Audi so didn't even bother taking the car back to them. But I am assuming that the trade in figures from the likes of glasses guide take in to account the widely available discounts on models.

J.

 

[marriedblonde]

I notice that you both part ex'd at BMW dealers...maybe that's why? I suppose 40k is quite a bit above average for 2 years although it's still low miles.

No I got figures from all over the place not only BMW. they where all in the same ball park.

J.

 

[Dandle]

Everyone buying new looses some money, it just alot of people dont realise how much. I bought my BMW at 8 months old with 2230miles on the clock and saved over 13k off list price. With depretiation like that you have to be a bit mad to buy a new one but loads of people do.

The only normal car ive seen with what I class as good residuals is the Mini and they are dropping now(its had a good run though).

 

[marriedblonde]

I've just bought Claire an ML, with all the options it it was very highly spec'd, 6 months old I paid over £12K less than list. Ok fair enough I could have got about £3K off a new one but thats still a big loss in the first 6 months!

J.

 

[PaulAr]

40K is high miles for a 2yr old car.

The Motor trade and Insurance companies work on the basis of 10K per yr.

Higher than average miles will always have a negative impact on the cars resale/trade in value.

 

[h5djr]

It's a good job some of us do buy new as there would be no used cars available!

The reason I buy new is that I'm quite happy to pay the price to get EXACTLY the car I want with all the options I want, in my choice of colour and my choice of interior. Over the past few changes I've had to find around 9-10k to change my car after 3 years. That's around 3-3.5k per year for exactly the car I want.

I wonder how many A3 Sportbacks there are in this country that would EXACTLY match my spec. Very few if any I would guess.

 

[bacardi]

So where would your money go next? another AUDI (A4,A5 etc) or a different brand altogether?

I had a bit of a crap experience with my Golf with regards to reliability but after doing some homework I turned out to be in the minority. On that basis and the fact it was brilliant to drive and pretty much every other dept, I would actually take a chance on another Golf.

cheers
Paul

that's the biggest problem I'm facing (well in 6 months!)

The thing my next car has to have is DSG, which limits the choice somewhat

I do agree with you, my issues seem to be in the minority - I may consider an A4 or similar, unless other manufacturers bring out something with DSG, which would be my preferred choice to be honest

 

[mister.c.]

Of course I got a discount when I bought it new, I got 10 or 11% off. When it came to trade in time it was only worth £14.5K Nope didn't get confused with a vauxhall thanks.

It was in perfect condition (Gti Jazz blue will confirm as he bought it) nicely spec'd. It had 40K on it. IT just was only worth £14.5K trade in and a litt more privately.

J.

Tooled up with options that as debated in other threads don't add to the residual value?

 

[sat1983]

No Paul it's 12K. Besides 40K for a 2 year old diesel is nothing!! You do buy a diesel if you're piling on the miles.

 

[h5djr]

Yes I suppose deep down the decision had already been made but sometimes I come on this forum and Audi seems to get slated so I guess I was after some reassurance!

Also remember that Audi sold around 18,000 A3s in the UK during 2007 alone. This forum only a very small number of those cars. How representative it is I've no idea.

 

[marriedblonde]

DSG was about the only option that would have added anything to resale.

 

[a3norwich]

I would say that asking that questioned here is rather like asking Prince Philip if we need a royal family?

Yes, the A3 is expensive. The alleged build quality is debatable (how many threads on breaking this and noisey that). Residuals are questionable.

I'm not sure any car is "worth the money" in the real world and that rings true as everyday goes by with increased fuel costs (£1.50 a litre for September they say - that's 8 quid a gallon!) and the laughable VED price increases next year.

Bottom line is, if you like it, you want it and you can afford it, get one; it shouldn't matter what someone else thinks! You're a long time dead...

 

[davemk]

I would say that asking that questioned here is rather like asking Prince Philip do we need a royal family?

Yes, I appreciate that.

Also remember that Audi sold around 18,000 A3s in the UK during 2007 alone. This forum only a very small number of those cars. How representative it is I've no idea.

Yes, I know it's only a small percentage of the total number sold. It's also fair to say that people rarely post about how fault free their cars are! :icon_thumright:

 

[h5djr]

Of course I got a discount when I bought it new, I got 10 or 11% off. When it came to trade in time it was only worth £14.5K Nope didn't get confused with a vauxhall thanks.

It was in perfect condition (Gti Jazz blue will confirm as he bought it) nicely spec'd. It had 40K on it. IT just was only worth £14.5K trade in and a litt more privately.

J.

You do tend to loose more in the first couple of years. I traded-in my A3 2.0TDI-140 with 37,000 miles when it was almost 3 years old and got £12,250, saved £500 by not having to do the 2nd AVS and DSG oil change service and got a 10% discount off the list price for my new A3.

 

[PaulAr]

No Paul it's 12K. Besides 40K for a 2 year old diesel is nothing!! You do buy a diesel if you're piling on the miles.

Try telling that to your insurance company when you come to claim a write off! they work on the basis of 10K, Ive already had that very expensive debate a few yrs back.

Also, when you are trading in at a dealers, ask them what they consider average miles, they will maintain its 10K too.

Ive had personal experience with both, although I agree 12K is a more sensible figure.

I also agree 40K isnt high in relative terms for a derv, but in terms of effected value at trade in/resale, rightly or wrongly, you will be penalised, no doubt about it.

cheers
Paul

 

[dsl55]

Also remember that Audi sold around 18,000 A3s in the UK during 2007 alone. T

i don't know why but that doesn't sound very many? they are everywhere where I live, i only do about 8 miles going into the office but must see easily 20, and the majority are sportbacks now

never seen one broken down by the side of the road yet

 

[Staz]

never seen one broken down by the side of the road yet

We that just has to prove how well they are made. Yes some break down but then so do space shuttles and they've had billions spent on them.

When I say about them being highly engineered I don't really mean their reliability or performance and handling, I'm talking about the thought that has gone into them and the attention to detail.

How many 'lesser' cars automatically turn off the interior lights when you have left them on too long? In fact how many have interior lights that fade rather than just switch off dead? How many cars will turn off unnecessary electronics when it detects that you have a low battery?

There are so many of these features on Audis and other VAG cars that you just won't find on similar spec Astras or Focuses (note: some of the above features may appear on those cars, I don't know, I'm just using them as examples to convey my point).

You only have to look at the list of options on a VAG.COM to realise how intelligent these cars are.

 

[Amchlolor]

I wonder how many A3 Sportbacks there are in this country that would EXACTLY match my spec. Very few if any I would guess.

This 'bespoke' thing can have a negative effect on the used market, in my opinion.
I've never really liked it, or agreed with it.
I prefer cars that come in certain spec levels, and that's that.
You know what you're getting then.
I've looked at used A3's on Autotrader loads of times, and finding one which would suit me is difficult.
They've either got stuff I wouldn't want, or don't have stuff I would want.
Much easier if the only variable was colour, IMO.
I wasn't able to 'bespoke' my D3, apart from colour, but that didn't bother me at all.
Four trims levels would be fine.
Base, SE, Sport, S-line
As it is, everything is blurred.
Christ, even Audi get mixed up!
They can't tell one 'special edition' from another!