I am now the proud owner of a new A3 Sportback S-Line 1.4 COD S-Tronic and can I say, this car is leaps and bounds nicer than my previous A1 S-Line 1.6 TDI.
Picking up was a little strange, my sales rep called me up on Thursday evening saying he was working late due to lots of paper work and knew I was excited to get it so I could go in and pick it up that evening. Down went everything and I had to call up the insurance on the way there to get it moved earlier! Fortunately the insurance was all sorted in time ready to collect. I paid for GAP insurance with Audi and they've thrown in Tyre, Smart and Key insurance for free as well! Which is nice.
The car looked amazing in the dusk lighting when I noticed it had been cleaned
which I asked them not to do. The cleaners had left one small minor scratch on the passenger door... nothing a polish wont remove and the sales rep was more than courteous and ready to do anything to get it sorted. He's tried to arrange for it to be sorted by their team but as my detailer is prepping it in a few days I'll let him do it as I know he has OCD and I've used him many times before. I would definitely trust my detailer to do it over their guy. They've also offered a full tank of fuel as an apology which is nice. Do you think I should ask for more?
With the negative out of the way lets look at the positives! What an engine the COD 1.4 is... it pulls nicely considering its a good size car with a smallish engine. With the S-Tronic gearbox I have to be careful with my speed as I've not been prepared to reach the speed limit as quickly as I have. Usually relying a bit on the gear changes as an indication of speed, the gear changes are almost inconceivable and I pass the limit without noticing
. I can see overtaking is going to be a breeze!
The ride quality even on the Conti Sport Contact 5s is quiet (drove along A41 which has that stupid gravel surface and is normally really loud) and comfortable. With all the bad reviews that the Conti's have had with being loud have been put to rest in my opinion. I reckon Audi can afford to put those tyres on and benefit from the grip as the noise levels in the A3 are so good anyway. Sure you'll notice the difference if you change tyres but I don't think it's anywhere near loud enough to justify a change based on noise alone.
That being said I did order the B&O which is lovely... this is much louder than any noise coming from the road! The bass could be better but this could be down to the shelf dampening the sound. Standing outside the car the bass can be heard clearly. The clarity of the sound is amazing... you can increase the volume and not realise how loud you have it... until you exit the car and can't hear anything... and feel blood running down your cheeks. I had the *** in the A1 which I thought was great... but it's no match against the B&O. I'd like to hear the *** in the A3 though as a fair comparison.
The S-Tronic is all new to me. I've driven an A6 and Q3 as courteously cars with S-Tronic but only to work and back to the garage. I think the S-Tronic is superb, it changes gear for you and normally at the right time. I've yet to put it into sequential mode, I'll wait until I've put a few more miles on her before I have a better thrash around. I need to learn all of the S-Tronic tricks such as kick down? any advice?
Anyway, thats my few pennies worth I'll try and get some pictures up soon and also give more feedback for everyone further down the line.
Picking up was a little strange, my sales rep called me up on Thursday evening saying he was working late due to lots of paper work and knew I was excited to get it so I could go in and pick it up that evening. Down went everything and I had to call up the insurance on the way there to get it moved earlier! Fortunately the insurance was all sorted in time ready to collect. I paid for GAP insurance with Audi and they've thrown in Tyre, Smart and Key insurance for free as well! Which is nice.
The car looked amazing in the dusk lighting when I noticed it had been cleaned
which I asked them not to do. The cleaners had left one small minor scratch on the passenger door... nothing a polish wont remove and the sales rep was more than courteous and ready to do anything to get it sorted. He's tried to arrange for it to be sorted by their team but as my detailer is prepping it in a few days I'll let him do it as I know he has OCD and I've used him many times before. I would definitely trust my detailer to do it over their guy. They've also offered a full tank of fuel as an apology which is nice. Do you think I should ask for more? With the negative out of the way lets look at the positives! What an engine the COD 1.4 is... it pulls nicely considering its a good size car with a smallish engine. With the S-Tronic gearbox I have to be careful with my speed as I've not been prepared to reach the speed limit as quickly as I have. Usually relying a bit on the gear changes as an indication of speed, the gear changes are almost inconceivable and I pass the limit without noticing
. I can see overtaking is going to be a breeze! The ride quality even on the Conti Sport Contact 5s is quiet (drove along A41 which has that stupid gravel surface and is normally really loud) and comfortable. With all the bad reviews that the Conti's have had with being loud have been put to rest in my opinion. I reckon Audi can afford to put those tyres on and benefit from the grip as the noise levels in the A3 are so good anyway. Sure you'll notice the difference if you change tyres but I don't think it's anywhere near loud enough to justify a change based on noise alone.
That being said I did order the B&O which is lovely... this is much louder than any noise coming from the road! The bass could be better but this could be down to the shelf dampening the sound. Standing outside the car the bass can be heard clearly. The clarity of the sound is amazing... you can increase the volume and not realise how loud you have it... until you exit the car and can't hear anything... and feel blood running down your cheeks. I had the *** in the A1 which I thought was great... but it's no match against the B&O. I'd like to hear the *** in the A3 though as a fair comparison.
The S-Tronic is all new to me. I've driven an A6 and Q3 as courteously cars with S-Tronic but only to work and back to the garage. I think the S-Tronic is superb, it changes gear for you and normally at the right time. I've yet to put it into sequential mode, I'll wait until I've put a few more miles on her before I have a better thrash around. I need to learn all of the S-Tronic tricks such as kick down? any advice?
Anyway, thats my few pennies worth
I'll try and get some pictures up soon and also give more feedback for everyone further down the line.
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