Which options!!!!

[ QUOTE ]
I've been to test drive the new A4 2.0TDi S-Line and I was VERY impressed but I need to choose a few options (a man thing I think).

I'm thinking of going for...

heated front seats
arm rest
auto dim rear mirror
split rear seats
xenon plus lights

Is there any thing listed here that you think a waist of cash? I have noticed that the lights are now a "reflector" type. Are they a lot better than the old A4's (these are shocking)?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/book.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Everyone's going to have a point of view on this one. Bearing in mind these are extra cost options that add to the price but not the value, you've got to ask yourself whether they're just "nice-to-haves" or whether they will actually add anything to your ownership & driving experience. The ones you've listed don't seem to add much, IMHO.

I've got an arm rest & split-fold rear seats in mine & they're handy, but I wouldn't pay money to pick them if they weren't already there (mine was 2nd hand).

I might pay extra for heated seats & xenon lights (depending how much), but no way would I pay for an auto-dimming mirror! I mean, how dumb to we need to be to notice a dazzling light in the mirror & not be able to do something about it?!

I would deffinately go for the xenon lights, not impressed with the standard ones (see my post in the b7 forum) and am looking to upgrade / change them.

Just choice I guess, but salespeople seem to say that some options you might get back some of the cash when you get rid, most you don't.

Ones that seem to be commonly touted for the A4 are front centre armrest (I didn't and regret it). Leather, obviously and if you go for leather get the heated seats (I think essential in the winter). The other thing mentioned was the concert II stereo, though I don't know why.

I think DIS should be standard on the A4, so if the one you choose doesn't have it I personally would have it. You buy the 2.0 TDI for economy really, and being able to track properly how you are doing is deffinately a bonus.

Edit: You don't say if its saloon or avant, if its the saloon get the rear parking sensors or at least try some reverse parking before you buy without it. Mine were faulty when I got the car and it was a nightmare without.

Imvho you don't need them in the avant, but again its personal preference.

(BTW I have the 2.0 TDI S-line in black perl, leather, DIS, storage, lighting, Bose, 18" rs6 rims, parking sensor etc, and I love it.)

Cautionary note: Anyone getting the S-line pack with the sports spring setup and 18's had better drive one to make sure you are happy with the ride. I love it how it is, I know a lot of people who have been passengers who think its way too harsh. There is a lot of difference between the sports suspension with the standard size wheels and the 18's. Some people say they can't tell the difference, you so can though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I would say ditch the auto-dip mirror. I've had a police car behind me at night, and not even notice because the ****** mirror had dipped.

Leather is obviously a much more expensive option, but on the other hand, it is one that adds significantly to the ownership experience, IMHO.

Be warned when the salesman tells you that you'll get your money back on some options at re-sale. After all, he's not exactly impartial, is he?

What you may find is that a few well-chosen options (like leather & cruise control, for example) will make the car more attractive and therefore easier to sell, but not necessarily for more money. If there is any enhancement to the resale value (as distinct from attractiveness to buyers) it will be marginal relative to the original outlay.

Leather is always a fully active option. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'd definately go for the Leather with the Zenons if you can afford it.

A man after my own heart!

I need to go on a course to learn how to wait for things, I am *SO* /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/swear.gif'ed off I didn't get the bi-xenons /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I would go for leather over xenons (did actually). Agree with rear parking sensors...they are a must. Auto dimming mirror waste of cash and heated seats are very nice during most of the winter...mind you it's a diesel so the heating takes a couple of miles to come...
Also...and i know this is a waste of 100 pounds...the colour DIS option looks sooooo much better than the stock red affair...

Don't know if you've got kids or planning to have but we went for the side and rear sunblinds. So much more convenient than the stick on Mothercare ones.

Storage pack is also handy and not expensive.

I wish I'd gone for the comfort pack as we're forever adjusting the drivers seat between me and my wife. It was just a stupidly expensive option although it did include the folding mirrors that we chose separately.

For info the options we chose over the Sport spec were

Leather - won't be without it.
Xenons - as above
Heated seats. handy in winter but not really necessary
Symphony. Had to have a CD changer and it sounds pretty good
Front & Rear parking sensors. Only the rears are really necessary
Light Pack. Cheap option so just went for it.
Storage Pack. Handy underseat drawers and cheap
Aluminium trim inside and out. A must have with a dark exterior colour and a black interior.
Folding mirrors. A bit gimmicky but has been useful
Electric rear and manual side sunblinds. Handy with a baby
ISOFIX. Very useful especially when the other car has it too. No more messing around with seatbelts to mount the car seat.

Also wish we'd gone for Quattro as the tyre life on the FWD diesel is appalling. I think Quattro would pay for itself in tyre changes after about 40k miles. Since we're planning on keeping the car for a while it would have been worth it.

Obviously we spent quite a bit on options but we wanted the car to be right for us and at the end of the day we still saved about £4k off list when we bought it.

HTH
Dave

Leather & Cruise are the only essentials.
Leather for the smell, it will always feel like a new car everytime to get in it. Also a must if you have kids, doesn't wear at all which will make it easier to sell and will add value as you'll be able to get nearer your top value for the car as it ill appeal to more buyers as it's not something easily added afterwards. Go for half leather/alcantara in the same colour as then you don't need heated seats and it'll hold you better. Also no more electric shocks off the bodywork when you get out of the car.
Cruise, again is a must if you do any sort of motorway driving and value your licence. I never rated it before I had it, and now wouldn't be without it. Again great for fuel economy as well.
Armrest - waste of time and gets in the way.
Heated seats - what without leather are you mad? (just wear incontinence pants and wet yourself if you like that sensation).
Auto dip mirror - how lazy? Can't even remember the last time I dipped my mirror.
Parking sensors - how to ruin the lines of the car while advertising the incompetence of the driver.
Most options won't add any value as they're a personal preference, but leather is the only one that definately will and is worth every penny.

[ QUOTE ]
Parking sensors - how to ruin the lines of the car while advertising the incompetence of the driver.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't agree with you on that. The A4 is a pig to judge the rear and I'd rather have sensors than damaged paintwork. They're also pretty discreet on the A4 unlike some cars

Well with sensors you'll never master the art of parking. That's my one beef with the use of technology in cars & on the roads. The manufacturers are constantly taking away the skills necessary to drive a vehicle, so the driver becomes less of a participant and less competent behind the wheel. This ultimately leads to what we see everyday on our roads which is the majority of drivers having very little clue what they are doing, because we pander to the lowest common denominator. Rather than introduce a stricter driving test with continuous retesting in an attempt to make the standard of UK driving better, we just try to dumb it down for everyone and end up with a whole bunch of new problems which penalise the competent drivers. The best example is the proliferation of full time traffic lights on roundabouts. Roundabouts were introduced to replace traffic light junctions, now we have the worst of both worlds, congestion actually on the roundabout (when a roundabout only works when there's free flowing traffic) and the majority of drivers not knowing what to do when they encounter a proper roundabout without lights. And that's progress!
I'm sorry but unless you have a vehicle with no rear visibility like a transit, then being able to judge the vehicles length in order to park properly should be a mandatory requirement not an option that we just handover to technology as we become more & more unskilled behind the wheel.
Driving a car is the only opportunity most of us have of killing someone unintentionally, it should not be easy to do and should require a degree of skill and competence.

My new A4 has got parking sensors, and they're OK, but I would never rely on them totally. In fact, the manual tells you why you shouldn't. Thankfully, i learned to reverse park a quarter of a century ago.

On the wider issue, though, I'm with Andymac on this one all the way. Technology is being used to replace driver skill, in much the same way that pocket calculators have replaced the ability to add up and subtract, and word processing software with spoolchock has repalced the ability to spell proplee. The difference, like Andymac says, is that you can kill people with a car.

If only I were famous. Then I'd be invited onto BBC2's Grumpy Old Men to to give my opinions on how the world has gone to hell in an S4.

Unsurprisingly I love that show, maybe there should be a GOM section on here?
If there's anything they should be dumbing down it should be politics.
I think most people in the UK can agree on the basics, reduce crime, improve NHS, improve transport etc etc.
OK I know there's a whole dirth of other factors, but they could replace voting with just a simple top 20 requirements. People vote on what is most important to them, then they compile the final list and put it out to the political parties, whoever comes back with the best solution gets awarded the contract. And it is a contract, so if they then fail they have to provide compensation. And not just a fine, they have to provide the customer i.e. us, with compensation based around the issue they've failed on. So if it is health then they have to fund a free private dental week, or congestion then they have to fund half price petrol week , road safety, then they have to scrap all outstanding NIP's and have a no speed limit on the motorway day etc etc. Otherwise how on earth are the great British Public able to make a decision on who to vote for? It's a full time job just keeping up with the news, so people just switch off and don't participate.
Sorry to hijack the thread but my manifesto on transport would be:
Mopeds - scrapped, get a mountain bike you lazy, annoying low life chavs
M'bikes - under 125cc scrapped, if you can't pass the test you can't ride a bike (god it's so obvious)
Any vehicle 10 years+ = big expensive super-MOT, get all the £500 scrap off the roads
Petrol tax - capped, so that if oil goes up it has very little effect at the pumps.
HGV's - the cause of all major death on the roads - can only use inside lane at peak times, (it works in Germany), no lorries barely overtaking lorries on dual carriageways
Once a month a no speed limit on the motorway day (for cars 1.8 litre+), so we can track if this is anyway linked to accidents.
Traffic lights - can be ignored after 10pm (works in Italy), and you can run a red 24/7 when turning left if conditions permit.
Breakdown cover is mandatory - linked to insurance
Accidents - you get fined and penalty points for any reasonable accident - linked to insurance
Parking - you can park anywhere for free for 2 hours
Driving test - rigorous including skid pan & motorway driving (as all BMW drivers will spend most of their time either hogging the fast lane or skidding into a ditch)
Driving retest - every 5 years, every year for drivers over 65.
Drink driving - roadside ban if over the limit, no court case, no mitigating circumstances, just banned there & then, duration based on blood alcohol level. Car you are in at the time crushed at the roadside as a warning to other drivers.
Train travel - free (mandatory £200 yearly tax on everyone) - we've got to do something radical to get people out of their cars, more carrot less stick please.
Oh it really is so obvious when you start to think about it.
What worries me in the future about the technology in cars is really things like the auto braking feature they showcased on the Mercedes (where it crashed into the other car at full speed on the demo). OK they'll get it working properly eventually, with all the necessary safeguards, but then it'll get watered down and start appearing in Fords & Micra's with cheaper components and less safeguards and become as reliable as Windows 2000 running on a £300 laptop. Would you put your loved ones safety in the hands of Bill Gates?

Yawn, jeez guys, go post your depressing rantings in the general section, and stick to the subject on this post.

heated front seats - only if you're getting leather
arm rest - only if you're getting an auto 'box
auto dim rear mirror - only if you're getting auto dimming wing mirrors too.
split rear seats - YES
xenon plus lights - YES
Go for the Symphony 6CD/radio, it will make it cheaper and easier to upgrade to the DVD sat nav if you decide to. Get Cruise control if you're doing motorway miles. Get isofix if you're planning on babies while you own the car.

Yes I think we'd kind of exhausted the subject of this post, but good to see people are still contributing/repeating the same ideas. Fascinating insight thanks.......

Here here AndyMac, at last somebody with a point of view on this country and its demise, although i didn't spot anything about bringing back the birch, or painfull physical punishment for criminals i.e the saudi way, finally once a month prisoners should be paraded through the town/city squares so we can all see/recognise what scum lie behind bars /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bravo.gif

Thanks Andy, glad someone appreciates a bit of light hearted (albeit depressing apparently) rant. I was strictly sticking to transport so hadn't got onto corporal punishment for Britains finest ASBO fodder.
What about that women who's gonna get done for assault for sorting out the little thugs who were in her garden giving her grief? I bet she'll get done as well, this country.........

[ QUOTE ]
I also disagree about the parking sensors. I had them on my last S3 and although I wasn't bothered about them when buying the car they certainly suprised me on how useful they were!

Now I've got a new A3 I haven't got the sensors and I really miss them. Thinking of retrofitting them in the next few months.

Very useful imo

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad someone agrees! I don't rely on them but I do value my paintwork. At the end of the day it's personal choice how you configure your car.

Well I've never had them and never will (already too many beeps running my life), and funnily enough never managed to scuff so much as a bumper. I guess some of us just have better spatial awareness than others.

[ QUOTE ]
Well I've never had them and never will (already too many beeps running my life), and funnily enough never managed to scuff so much as a bumper. I guess some of us just have better spatial awareness than others.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yawn

Guys...to end the parking sensor saga.....do you know how much it costs to have your local Audi stealer paint a bumper???

That should make the decision easier

[ QUOTE ]
Guys...to end the parking sensor saga.....do you know how much it costs to have your local Audi stealer paint a bumper???

That should make the decision easier

[/ QUOTE ]

Sensors would be cheaper than a repair by stealers

ABove all else get the BOSE upgrade best 400 quid ive spent.

got 4 a4s at work 2 with 2 without, the standard concert sounds pap unless backed up by the bose, then you get some nice bass.

Uve been warned.

Unsure if id get the lights, lights are lights after all alot of brass for the im rich effect. Lad at work has the active ones that turn into the corner, when you turn unsure if id spend 800 on them :/ brighter i must say but just use ya fogs

go for the more expensive leather if you can. black headliner is a must. xenons obviously!

also go for cruise if you can

Tobez said:

ABove all else get the BOSE upgrade best 400 quid ive spent.

got 4 a4s at work 2 with 2 without, the standard concert sounds pap unless backed up by the bose, then you get some nice bass.

Uve been warned.

Unsure if id get the lights, lights are lights after all alot of brass for the im rich effect. Lad at work has the active ones that turn into the corner, when you turn unsure if id spend 800 on them :/ brighter i must say but just use ya fogs

Click to expand...

Xenons great. I once owned two S4 Avants - one with BOSE and one without - and wouldn't pay for BOSE. Its vastly over-rated IMHO.

jdp1962 said:

On the wider issue, though, I'm with Andymac on this one all the way. Technology is being used to replace driver skill, in much the same way that pocket calculators have replaced the ability to add up and subtract, and word processing software with spoolchock has repalced the ability to spell proplee. The difference, like Andymac says, is that you can kill people with a car.

Click to expand...

The fact that you can kill people with a car is exactly why technological advances are so necessary in motor vehicles.

To take your point to an extreme I suppose ABS, EBD, ESP and TSC should all be scrapped as they are all things that can be controlled by a sufficiently skilled human? I agree that in general driving skill seems to be on the decline, but that is not something you can blame the vehicles for, these advances in technology make our roads safer places.

I have parking sensors on my current car, and have just ordered them on my next one, I never reversed into anything previously, but why not let the system double check your driving in much the same way that a spell checker double checks your spelling.

I borrowed a new Honda CR-V for a week recently, it had the adaptive cruise control which I must confess I was uneasy with as it feels alien trusting a computer with such responsibilty. A by-product of this system was the auto braking mentioned in the thread with reference to Mercedez Benz. On the Honda this is a passive system which only kicked in if the driver didn't respond in time, which I have no problem with, after all we all make mistakes, even the best drivers sometimes!

All in all I feel such comments lack 'Vorprung durch technik'.

Just my opinion