Hi, I have a limited budget and was wondering if you had the choice would you go for leather (brown my preferred choice) or the xenon headlights. I am looking at the sport model.
Advice: xenon headlights or leather
- Thread starter jrgraville
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Xenons !!!!!!!!!!!!
Leather is cold in winter and burns your *** in summer ! It also scuffs easy and has to be maintained unless you want it to crack. Just my experience
Only go for leather if they are heated. Xenons are superb, they just pee all over standard halogen lamps.
Brown leather!!!!!! Urgh !
You could always save up and fit leathers at a later date. Easier than retrofitting xenons
Leather is cold in winter and burns your *** in summer ! It also scuffs easy and has to be maintained unless you want it to crack. Just my experience
Only go for leather if they are heated. Xenons are superb, they just pee all over standard halogen lamps.
Brown leather!!!!!! Urgh !
You could always save up and fit leathers at a later date. Easier than retrofitting xenons
Thanks for the advice, I may look at the alcantara option as well. But it look like xenon are getting the positive comments.
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Now you mention Alcantara it's a different proposition. My wife has the half leather and Alcantara in her A3 and its superb.
No skidding about in the seat, looks great, easy to clean and is desirable. Still think xenons though as her headlights are crap !
The half leather Sline seats you get in a black edition are also superb. Not sure they would look good in brown though ;-)
Alcantara
Sline half leather and material
No skidding about in the seat, looks great, easy to clean and is desirable. Still think xenons though as her headlights are crap !
The half leather Sline seats you get in a black edition are also superb. Not sure they would look good in brown though ;-)
Alcantara
Sline half leather and material
A3sportbackMark
Registered User
Zenons light package for me, no contest. After seeking advice from the guys on the this forum, no one would go back to halogens after having zenons. You also get the interior light package which I think looks great, plus the DRL.
You get DRLs with both (they are required by law now on new models), but they are just standard bulbs in the halogen lights, if you want the 'eyebrows' as people call them you need the xenons
Leather/Alcantara is better and you'll appreciate them all the time. Xenons only at night, standard Halogens are good enough. I've had both.
Deffo Xenons. As I've said before on here, I feel that leather is an affectation. It's worthwhile if you want seats that are easy to clean, due to kids etc, but otherwise it's not very practical - cold in winter, hot in summer and doesn't grip you very well.
Alcantara is far better and is what I have, but I'd still go for Xenons over it.
Alcantara is far better and is what I have, but I'd still go for Xenons over it.
One of the reasons I was so happy to get my 8v was that I no longer had to put up with full leather seats. My 8p was full leather and as someone else said, you stick to them in summer and the freeze you in winter. Love the half leather/material s-line seats and LOVE the xenons.
Thanks for all the comments, the leather looks really good- especially in the brochure, but I have not seen any real life or pics of the Brown leather so it may not look as good. Need to do the sums on Alcantara (Grey or Black!!!) and Xenon headlights, may need to drop the reversing camera.
manmoth
Registered User
Reversing cameras are for people who can't park
very good point Vertigo, totally agree, but I used to say that about rear parking sensors and would be lost without them now and I am sure we will be saying the same about hold assist and people's inability to have any clutch control in a few years ......says the man who has ordered the very same hold assist option.
A friend of mine is a driving instructor and the driving examiner people are now in all sorts of conversations on what driving aids should be allowed or not. on driving tests as all these type of options become more common.
manmoth
Registered User
I think parking sensors are more usefull on some cars than others. The A3 has good visibility and is small enough to be reletively easy to put into any parking space but I had an A6 avant which is a monster with terrible side mirror visibility so sensors are a must.
I think there's a difference between basic parking sensors which are just a minor aid or warning system and cameras which allow you to see behind the car, certainly when it comes to driving tests and what should be allowed.
I started a thread a while back I think about this very subject with regards to electro-mechanical parking brakes as it makes it impossible to perform a proper hill start test. What happens if you take your lessons and test in a car so equipped and thus never learn how to do a hill start then find yourself in a car with an old style brake lever? They have separate tests for automatics for this reason.
Tests these days are far too easy already. There's more to them but the pass level has dropped. This is a fact - I've seen people who've passed tests with 'minors' which are the exact things I failed my first test on 28 years ago. Driving standards in this country are a joke.
I started a thread a while back I think about this very subject with regards to electro-mechanical parking brakes as it makes it impossible to perform a proper hill start test. What happens if you take your lessons and test in a car so equipped and thus never learn how to do a hill start then find yourself in a car with an old style brake lever? They have separate tests for automatics for this reason.
Tests these days are far too easy already. There's more to them but the pass level has dropped. This is a fact - I've seen people who've passed tests with 'minors' which are the exact things I failed my first test on 28 years ago. Driving standards in this country are a joke.
Reversing cameras are for people who can't park
Don't get me started on Park Assist....
Takes me back to the 'girly button' that Fiat marketed a number of years ago to lighten the power steering. Maybe some of these options should be gender specific!
I find the rear parking sensors quite useful but I don't think I would want any of the other parking options.
With regards to driving standards, the items in the papers recently about the police being giving the powers fine 'middle lane hogers' and 'mobile phone users' with £100 on-the-spot files would be OK if there were ever any poilce around on the motorway in the first place. I've even seen police patrol cars driving along in the middle lane with nothing on the inside of them. Perhaps a better move would be to allow overtaking on either side on a motorway as quite a number of other countries. At least it might help with some of the congestion.
With regards to driving standards, the items in the papers recently about the police being giving the powers fine 'middle lane hogers' and 'mobile phone users' with £100 on-the-spot files would be OK if there were ever any poilce around on the motorway in the first place. I've even seen police patrol cars driving along in the middle lane with nothing on the inside of them. Perhaps a better move would be to allow overtaking on either side on a motorway as quite a number of other countries. At least it might help with some of the congestion.
I saw the same article and it's about time.
The police need to stop taking the easy option of setting up speed traps and fining everyone doing 31 in a 30 and instead start concentrating on general driving standards.
Camp out on roundabouts instead and give everyone who cuts across lanes without indicating a fixed penalty. They'll soon get the message!
The police need to stop taking the easy option of setting up speed traps and fining everyone doing 31 in a 30 and instead start concentrating on general driving standards.
Camp out on roundabouts instead and give everyone who cuts across lanes without indicating a fixed penalty. They'll soon get the message!
and would get a fair number caught on their phones at the same time.
also think overtaking on either side would be a great idea.
Overtaking on the left isn't a problem in itself, it's the issue of changing to it.
At present, far too many people will pull into a nearside lane without looking, assuming that nothing will be coming up in that lane faster than they're going. That obviously isn't the case if you allow overtaking on the left. It'd cause a huge number of accidents until everyone was used to it.
At present, far too many people will pull into a nearside lane without looking, assuming that nothing will be coming up in that lane faster than they're going. That obviously isn't the case if you allow overtaking on the left. It'd cause a huge number of accidents until everyone was used to it.
Problem at present is that people do not expect to be passed on the inside as the rules say you should not but once allowed people would be more aware and would look out for it or move over sooner.
I think if it were introduced there would be some initial getting used to it and perhaps a short term spike in accidents but in medium and long term it would reduce the total number of accidents.
So true.
Apparently it's due to reductions in police numbers. I blame it on Subway.... if ever you need a police officer in an emergency, head for the local Subway.
I have to admit to 'pretending' to undertake on my daily commute. It really winds me up when people hog the outside lane when the inner one is clear. After sitting in observation for four of five miles I lose patience. I will often move in and speed up slightly as if I'm going to 'do it' (even though I never have). I reckon seven times out of ten they move across, so I'm not sure it's a case of drivers not observing.... just being ****** minded that you're not going to pass them. Maybe it's the British obsession with queueing filtering through to the roads.
I used to suffer the same nonsense as a biker. You could be filtering carefully through slow moving traffic and the number of idiots that would make a point of moving over to 'block' your path was unbelievable.
/RANT OVER.... I'm off to take my tablets now....
Doesn't the highway code state you can undertake if traffic travelling in the outside lane is moving slower than you. I believe this is designed to cover roadworks and motorway hold-ups, but I guess it's down to interpretation. Would rush hour be considered congested conditions?
Rule 268. https://www.gov.uk/motorways-253-to-273/overtaking-267-to-269
I think the general idea is that, if the lane outside of you slows down to the point where you're travelling faster, you're not expected to slow down to match their speed and can overtake on the inside at your current speed.
EDIT: Just actually read the link you provided and seems that's the case
EDIT: Just actually read the link you provided and seems that's the case
Reversing cameras are for people who can't park
I disagree - having reverse parallel parked my car with a glider trailer attached before now, and parallel parking every day at work, I have no problem doing these, but if you can use technology to make it easier, less likely to hit a small child (as happened at some county show or something last week - killed them), less likely to hit a post you didn't see, or whatever, then it's worth going for. You'll notice I have both that and the park assist on my car, I intend to use them, and I'm not going to be bothered by anyone with the attitude of "people shouldn't have technology to help themselves because it's not manly enough" - all Luddites who I'm sure would be the first to complain as soon as you give them a car that needs to be hand cranked, no power steering etc
Also, I have no problem undertaking (or with people that do) - it's the people being undertaken that are in the wrong - that's why being undertaken is an instant fail in a driving test. If you have been undertaken, it means you are in the wrong lane and should have moved over, simple as that. When I'm driving in a lane, I drive with respect to the people to my left, and ensure I'm either going faster than them (and not just by .1mph), or finding a gap to move back in. I don't care or should have to care what the people to my right are doing - if they are in the overtaking lane then it's their responsibility to be doing the same thing - going faster than the lanes to their left, or moving in. I don't care if they are going faster, slower, the same - all I care about is what is happening on my left generally.
I disagree - having reverse parallel parked my car with a glider trailer attached before now, and parallel parking every day at work, I have no problem doing these, but if you can use technology to make it easier, less likely to hit a small child (as happened at some county show or something last week - killed them), less likely to hit a post you didn't see, or whatever, then it's worth going for. You'll notice I have both that and the park assist on my car, I intend to use them, and I'm not going to be bothered by anyone with the attitude of "people shouldn't have technology to help themselves because it's not manly enough" - all Luddites who I'm sure would be the first to complain as soon as you give them a car that needs to be hand cranked, no power steering etc
I would certainly consider the Reversing camera if I could purchase just that at £275. It does give you a view of low objects which you cannot see with any of the mirrors or by looking out of the back window. The only problem is that the option can only be added if you also have one of three other options the cheapest of which is £595 making the total cost £870. The cost does come down to £525 if you also spec the Comfort Pack option. You have to weight up if you thing that is good value or not.
Which option is that? I must have already added it when I came to putting the reversing camera on as it didn't make me choose anything else
According to the Pricing and Specification Guide the option KA2 Reversing camera is available "Only in combination with Audi parking system plus,front and rear with selective display (7X2), Audi parking system plus,with park assist (7X5) or Drivers assistance package (PCE)".
The 7X2 costs £595 (£250 with Comfort package), the 7X5 costs £835 (£490 with CP) and the PCE costs £1,450.
Perhaps you had already chosen one of the necessary options.
