Saturday, March 14th saw me finally collect my new A3 after a four month (to the day!!) wait. I've been an absolute nightmare to live with, be friends with and work with as I've been thoroughly insufferable during the wait. Despite the wait, once it got to the build week (BW9) my dealer seemed to move heaven and earth to get it to me.
Roll round collection and I'd asked him not to prep the vehicle and dutifully he had not - it even still had the wax writing on the windscreen from the port! I asked them to tidy that up, which they did, and off I drove with my new pride and joy. No real goodies to speak of, but I did get a couple of dealer key rings, a yellow AMI lead and a full tank of petrol.
So far I've completed 800 miles, mainly motorway miles, and I'm grinning from ear to ear. My spec is in my signature, but the model is the A3 Sportback 1.4 CoD S-Line. For context, my previous car was a Y plate Ford Focus 1.6 petrol.
Some of the stuff that's blowing me away will come as no surprise considering what I've upgraded from:
- Xenon headlamps - probably the single biggest upgrade as my nighttime vision isn't as good as it could be.
- Adaptive Cruise Control - having had recent wrist surgery this, plus the S-Tronic gear box, has made my driving life so much easier.
- Bang & Olufsen sound system - simply incredible. I'm not convinced yet as to whether I've experienced the odd "crackle" or not. If I am it's far from consistent (less than 1% of tracks played) and I suspect it may be artefacts in the MP3 itself.
- "the MMI" - the intuitive nature of the system is a joy to use, even if the scrolling is backwards!
- the sat nav - showing the upcoming services, the integration with Google maps, its" fuzzy matching" to search terms, the traffic services, make this a very advanced system.
- the engine - it is incredibly smooth and I have yet to notice it drop into 2-cylinder mode without the DIS telling me.
There are a couple of negatives however:
- Stop/Start - when cutting back in again, it's a bit of a jolt when moving off. Something I can probably get used to, but I find it irritating.
- Rattles - these seem to be road surface dependent, and manifest behind my right ear and at the left side of the dash. Saying that, I think I've noticed it twice in 800 miles and it was on a particularly bad bit of road surface on the M40.
- Rear/Side visibility - very glad I specced the rear camera as I find the visibility a bit limited, and find the B-pillar, particularly with a passenger, to hinder my side visibility.
Everything else can be summed up simply as moving from a car which I knew like it was an extension of me, to a car that is still a little unfamiliar, both in terms of the physical space it occupies and my controlling it. Saying this, my ownership experience so far has been nothing short of incredible.
Irritatingly I've already kerbed one of the alloys - poxy high pavement and a nasty camber in the road. Someone scratched the rear bumper maliciously, although it's not massive, and I noticed a small chip in the paint whilst I was cleaning it. I'll be taking it to a pro-detailer in six months or so as I'd rather he worked his magic when I've had it a little while, rather than when I know I can make it gleam when no correction is required.
I'm on leave this week, so I got to spend the day properly washing and detailing the car, to the best of my limited abilities anyway. I ran out of daylight so the protection for the alloys and glass will have to wait until tomorrow. Pretty much everything I used is from Auto Finesse and I've put Desire over the top of Tough Coat to make my new baby shine
Here's some pics:
Roll round collection and I'd asked him not to prep the vehicle and dutifully he had not - it even still had the wax writing on the windscreen from the port! I asked them to tidy that up, which they did, and off I drove with my new pride and joy. No real goodies to speak of, but I did get a couple of dealer key rings, a yellow AMI lead and a full tank of petrol.
So far I've completed 800 miles, mainly motorway miles, and I'm grinning from ear to ear. My spec is in my signature, but the model is the A3 Sportback 1.4 CoD S-Line. For context, my previous car was a Y plate Ford Focus 1.6 petrol.
Some of the stuff that's blowing me away will come as no surprise considering what I've upgraded from:
- Xenon headlamps - probably the single biggest upgrade as my nighttime vision isn't as good as it could be.
- Adaptive Cruise Control - having had recent wrist surgery this, plus the S-Tronic gear box, has made my driving life so much easier.
- Bang & Olufsen sound system - simply incredible. I'm not convinced yet as to whether I've experienced the odd "crackle" or not. If I am it's far from consistent (less than 1% of tracks played) and I suspect it may be artefacts in the MP3 itself.
- "the MMI" - the intuitive nature of the system is a joy to use, even if the scrolling is backwards!
- the sat nav - showing the upcoming services, the integration with Google maps, its" fuzzy matching" to search terms, the traffic services, make this a very advanced system.
- the engine - it is incredibly smooth and I have yet to notice it drop into 2-cylinder mode without the DIS telling me.
There are a couple of negatives however:
- Stop/Start - when cutting back in again, it's a bit of a jolt when moving off. Something I can probably get used to, but I find it irritating.
- Rattles - these seem to be road surface dependent, and manifest behind my right ear and at the left side of the dash. Saying that, I think I've noticed it twice in 800 miles and it was on a particularly bad bit of road surface on the M40.
- Rear/Side visibility - very glad I specced the rear camera as I find the visibility a bit limited, and find the B-pillar, particularly with a passenger, to hinder my side visibility.
Everything else can be summed up simply as moving from a car which I knew like it was an extension of me, to a car that is still a little unfamiliar, both in terms of the physical space it occupies and my controlling it. Saying this, my ownership experience so far has been nothing short of incredible.
Irritatingly I've already kerbed one of the alloys - poxy high pavement and a nasty camber in the road. Someone scratched the rear bumper maliciously, although it's not massive, and I noticed a small chip in the paint whilst I was cleaning it. I'll be taking it to a pro-detailer in six months or so as I'd rather he worked his magic when I've had it a little while, rather than when I know I can make it gleam when no correction is required.
I'm on leave this week, so I got to spend the day properly washing and detailing the car, to the best of my limited abilities anyway. I ran out of daylight so the protection for the alloys and glass will have to wait until tomorrow. Pretty much everything I used is from Auto Finesse and I've put Desire over the top of Tough Coat to make my new baby shine
Here's some pics:
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hating the thought of that system. Nice I can override it without having to turn it off at the start each time
lol
