Buying an S-line - help on colours - Pics would be good :-)

J

jamiekip

Guest
Hi Everyone,

I'm about to sell my S3 and upgrade to a brand spanking new S-line special edition quattro 3 door. So having never bought a car from new before I'm in the nice position of speccing the car just as I want it to be.

So, a little help on colour. I think i've narrowed it down to:
- Avus Silver
- Akoya silver
- Lava Grey
- Dolphin Grey

I test drove a phantom black with the optional 14(?) spoke BBS alloys (not the split rims!) and it looked pretty damn good, but popped back to the garage today after it had rained and all the dust that had stuck to it made it look quite messy. So talked myself out of that colour. Was really impressed with the car though, not that much slower than my S3, but has a much wider torque band!

I am deffo going for the 14 spoke wheels to be different though and wondered if anyone had any of the above colours with those wheels on it so I could see what I think looks best for me. Pics would be really helpful!!!

2nd question, I have a budget and wondered what you guys who have owned these cars feel are the best options to get.
I'm thinking:
- No charge optional 14 spoke wheels
- No charge optional piano black trim
- Symphony stereo
- BOSE speaker
- Front centre armrest
- Xenons

The other things i-d like to have, but think I may struggle to afford are:
- Heated seats
- Light pack
- Multi function steering wheel
- Sat Nav.... hmmm at £2100 plus the need for a 6cd changer at £350 i'm having a laugh here!!! The demo car I drove had it, and it looks awesome!

Anyway, really looking forward to getting the car, just want to get the right colour.

Appreciate your help and looking forward to joining the new A3 forum.

Thanks,

James
 
I think you're right to avoid black - my sb is black and I now think it's a boring colour and too common. Personally I'd go for Dolphin or Avus- both look expensive and look good clean or grubby. Also I'd avoid 14 spoke wheels like the plague unless you want to spend hours and hours cleaning them...
 
Good piece of feedback Horchsense - thanks for the comment on the colour - that's it, i'm taking black off the list, you've confirmed my worries. Well, i'm sure the 14 spoke wheels will be harderto keep clean, but I'm sure autoglym clean wheels will help!!! I fancy getting a wheel that's different that's all, the 5 spoke, though arguably does look better, there are a lot of people with them.
Thanks for the message
 
Well Jamie - take it or leave it - but you'll be using a toothbrush to keep those wheels looking bright and shiny - and when they get grubby they'll look dreadful. IMHO the standard 5 spokes will look much better and will stay looking much better - good luck...
 
Audis colour coding is pretty abysmal and the bumpers on silver cars often dont match the body. Personally dont like drab Grey or Silver but each to their own.

White looks great if you are brave enough to buy it
 
Hey Co55ie, I did think about the white (after seeing the new press S3 in a few of the mags), but like you say it's been brave enough to try it :)
My worry is i'll be keeping the car for 4 years and I'm worried about whether or not the 'whites the new black' fad will still be true. The silver S3 I have appears in my eyes (admittedly I can't see my hand in front of my face i'm that blind!) to have a good match.

In reply to Horchsense comment about the 14 spoke alloys - anyone on here had any experiences with them not lasting the test of time? Would really appreciate any experiences!

Thanks for your comments chaps.
 
Here's mine - 170 TDI in Dolphin Grey with the 20 spoke wheels. They're actually not that bad to keep clean and I wanted something different:


 
Colour your call,

options,


- No charge optional piano black trim
I have this in mine, nice but not sure if I would go for Ali next time around

- BOSE speaker
They are alright, nothing breath taking.

- Front centre armrest
Yeah it gets in the way, but so what it looks great and is nice for the long motor way runs

- Light pack
Really, really like my light pack. Dimming mirrors alround, like having shades on at night no dazzle

- Multi function steering wheel

If you are going to have a IPOD link as well get this, as you are always skipping tracks, or at least I am
 
I wouldn't be without my Xenons - worth every penny. The Sat Nav can be retrofitted for less than a quarter of the price (see http://www.navplus.us for inspiration). Of the others, the light pack and centre front armrest are standard on my SE and they're mighty useful too!
 
Colour is very subjective, personally I love it and don't object to keeping it clean.

Regarding the wheels I love the 14 spoke, will they last the test of time? As good as the other will!

J.
 
Colour? What about Misano Red - it's exclusive to S-Line cars, which is one of the reasons I went for it. And IMHO it looks great with the contrasting black trim ;)
 
jamiekip said:
So, a little help on colour. I think i've narrowed it down to:
- Avus Silver
- Akoya silver
- Lava Grey
- Dolphin Grey
Click to expand...
Of those I'd probably go with Avus or Akoya. I had a look at a Lava Grey one and it can look a bit brown from some angles. You really HAVE to see a car a colour before ordering it. Personally I went with Phantom Black - I know it looks a mess when dirty but when it's clean all is forgiven :)
- No charge optional 14 spoke wheels
Click to expand...
I really don't like the 14s. If you want to be different (to the standard 5-spoke RS6s) then pay the extra £200 for the 20-spokes.
- No charge optional piano black trim
Click to expand...
Stick with the standard Aluminium
- Symphony stereo
Click to expand...
If no satnav then yes, Symphony at a minimum
- BOSE speaker
Click to expand...
Yep, not brilliant but not half bad and a useful upgrade from the standard system
- Front centre armrest
Click to expand...
Absolute MUST! Gets in the way when changing gear but I just fold mine up when driving around town - pays dividends when on the motorway though
- Xenons
Click to expand...
If you have money to burn then go for it. Unless you do a lot of night-time driving then it's a lot of money that could be better spent elsewhere IMO.
The other things i-d like to have, but think I may struggle to afford are:
- Heated seats
Click to expand...
Pointless unless you're having full leather
- Light pack
Click to expand...
Well worth it
- Multi function steering wheel
Click to expand...
Pretty handy to have
- Sat Nav.... hmmm at £2100 plus the need for a 6cd changer at £350 i'm having a laugh here!!! The demo car I drove had it, and it looks awesome!
Click to expand...
It is awesome which is why I've specced it on my next car. BTW you don't need the CD changer as with two SD card slots to load with MP3s, who on earth wants to resort to CDs?
 
I would pretty much go with what Vertigo1 said apart form the centre armrest which I didnt order and dont miss at all, I would say if your buying new then xenons are a must(you wont miss them if youve never had them but you wouldnt be without them if you have. No matter how much night driving you do). As for piano trim it looks lovely new but after only 8 months it has scratches on it from cleaning cloths.
 
For my two-pence worth I would say not to worry about any concerns cleaning the 14-spokes. Well worth it imo and rewarding when clean. Not a fan of the two-piece wheels myself, they look a bit ott. I don't find it too bad and there is a hosepipe ban where I live so no pressure washing allowed :3sadwalk:

I would definitely recommend Xenons. Personally I never went for the armrest; the demo car I drove had it and it did nothing for me, don't miss it at all.

I have heated seats and love them.

I would also suggest to forget Bose option, the standard stereo is fine. My brother has just specc'd a 2007 Boxster S, the Bose option here is definitely not worth the extra, bass is weak (always seems to be?!) so he'll be sorting his own solution in time.

The satnav, although looking the nuts, is a complete ripoff.

As for colour, I think out of your choice I prefer either of the grey's. But I wouldn't base my choice on what the car might look like dirty - if you like a colour then go for it.

Definitely avoid any red... I've not seen another like mine anywhere so lets keep it that way eh. :)

a36.jpg

(click image for large size)
 
Hey thanks everyone for your replies - all very useful hearing it from actual owners. Going to have a think about the spec.
But I do a lot of night time motorway miles, so the xenons and the armrest are in. And the 14 spoke wheels are staying - powerplay - I think your car looks really good!
Would love to see pics of any lava grey, Avus silver and Akoya silver cars if anyone can post??

I'm going to have to look in to the light pack and have a good think about the black piano inserts....

Think I'll go with the symphony stereo for now, and maybe retrofit the sat nav when I can afford - thanks for the link benw123.

A big help all of this - thanks again.
 
jamiekip said:
Think I'll go with the symphony stereo for now, and maybe retrofit the sat nav when I can afford - thanks for the link benw123.
Click to expand...
As a footnote on this, going for Symphony II is a good idea. It will make an RNS-E retrofit more straightforward, because you'll already have the double-DIN cage ready to accept it. You'll only need a wiring adapter and someone with VAG-COM after swapping your Symphony unit out.
 
jamiekip said:
Think I'll go with the symphony stereo for now, and maybe retrofit the sat nav when I can afford.
Click to expand...

Good call here - get the Symphony at a minimum. There is a guy on here - CraigyB I think - that has a good reputation and does a retro fit for about £1k, so you can always go down this road later if funds permit. Just don't buy a single DIN stereo or you'll have a lot, lot more effort to fit the nav at a later date.

Coming from an S3 like you, I miss the Xenons big time - so if you can afford it I'd definetely put these on the list too. I'm looking at an aftermarket kit at the moment as the standard headlights are such a disappointment IMO.

As for the colour, I love the brilliant red on mine. Misano is a bit more 'orange' in certain light, but brillant red is deep and bright. I came from a black S3 and moving over to this color was kinda refreshing! Its not to everyones taste but I think it suits the car very well especially in S-Line guise. Its a bit different from the colours you are considering but its not too late to change you know!!!!

Good luck :)
 
Here is our Lava grey car. Im really happy with the colour and would order it again.

Front1.jpg

Frontside.jpg

Back.jpg
 
C_Audiboy said:
As for the colour, I love the brilliant red on mine. Its not to everyones taste but I think it suits the car very well especially in S-Line guise.
Good luck :)
Click to expand...

Mines brilliant red to and I think it suits the car which is surprising as red is one of my least favourite colours for a car but I really liked it on the A3 SLine and it was a no extra cost choice :yes:
 
You don't mention leather/half leather. This is a must IMO both for keeping the interior feeling and looking/smelling new and for easy resale.
Also Cruise (maybe standard on that model), if you've never had it then you wouldn't think of spec'ing it but it's a real licence saver on the motorway.
 
Well, seems i've had my head in the clouds a little bit. Just got a quote through for the car (it's going to be a company car by the way!) and I ahve a capped allowance. They canme back with:
A3 2.0TFSI Quattro s-line special edition with:
Pearl paint
Front centre armrest
Strage pack

And that's it!!!
So I need to think very carefully about what I do here!

Initial thoughts are A3 2.0TFSI Quattro s-line special edition with:
White paint (no cost)
Xenons
Symphony stereo
14 spoke wheels (no charge)

I can retrofit the armrest so not to worried about that, but losing the BOSE which I really quite fancied.... but honestly guys, would I miss it?

My other alternative is t go 2wd, but after having 4wd on the S3 i'm a bit reluctant to go this route, but it would allow me to have:
Pearl paint
Bose
Symphony
Xenons
Light pack
Multi function steering wheel
14 spoke wheels (no charge).
All in all, a nicely specced car!!!!

So, question is, what would you do????????
I'm going to try and beg and plead tomorrow and see if I could get the white quattor specced car with Bose too!

All these decisions!!!!!
 
By the way - thanks to everyone who has helped so far.... it's all really appreciated.
:)
 
Looks like you've been caught out with the options which is very easy to do. The thing you have to remember with lease cars is that, when pricing it all up, they don't attach any residual value to options.

This is a little unfair really as they're basically saying that, at the end of the term, the car will be worth exactly the same as a similar model minus the options but that's how they do it. You're effectively paying the total cost of the options over the term of the lease.

When I sent my spec off to various lease companies for quotes, one guy specifically asked me whether I realised how much all the options would hike the price by as apparently loads of people get caught out by this. They see a good price for the model they want then add a few options and it goes through the roof.

As for your spec, I think you're going to have to drop the Quattro or even go back to Sport from S-Line if you want the options. Also, how did you arrive at the list of options you could get if you dropped Quattro? It looks like you've deducted the £1400 Quattro costs and spent it on options which may well not work. It's very possible that they will treat the Quattro as part of the model rather than an option and thus attach some residual value to it. If this is the case then £1400 worth of options will come out at more than £1400 of Quattro.
 
Your right, I hadn't thought about that! Damn it!
Well, my intention is to buy the car at the end of the term, so I'm going to try and push them in to letting me add some of my own budget to get the basic options I really want....
Symphony
Bose
Xenons
Pearl paint would be a bonus, but the white is kind of growing on me.... perhaps i'm just talking myself in to it!!!!
Thanks for pointing out my error vertigo1..... back to the drawing board!
 
If you're looking to buy it at the end then putting some cash up front is definitely an option. You can effectively buy some options outright at the beginning of the term, keeping the monthly rental the same as if those options weren't specified. Obviously if you did this on a lease car which was to be returned at the end of the term then you'd lose the money but if you're buying it anyway then the fact that these options won't be factored into the residual value actually works in your favour as they shouldn't add to the price you have to pay to buy it from them.
 
hi jamiekip
I was in the same boat as you regards company car allowance. I ended up opting out of the company car scheme, taking the money and bought the car using personal finance. This allowed me to underwrite the risk of devaluing the car by exceeding milage limits, which reduced the monthly payments, also got a better rate of interest than via PCP or HP...
 
... also means you can shop around and get a better deal on the price of the car if you do it personally. check out autoebid.com - managed to get almost £3k off list price of an A3 S line 170bhp TDI.
 
'Granny' - Cool username :)

I opted out and took the cash too, it meant I could get the car I wanted.

And whos to say you'll still be with the same company in 3 years time?? A lot can change in 3 years - i know I've never worked for the same employer for this long. Means that if you were to put 'extra' money to get the options you want it could all be ****** down the drain if you move to another company.

Take the cash (if you have the option) and buy it yourself.

Just a thought.......
 
Black all the way.

The comments about loads of Black A3’s on the road are so last year. All I see is shed loads of gray or dark gray A3's because everyone has had the same idea to be different.

I have only seen two black 2007 S-line A3 since ownership and they where both 170 TDI's with the 5 spoke wheels!

If you want exclusivity go for the 20 Spokes as you can only get them on an S-Line spec car.

If you can stretch to Sat nav get it, the navigation is pretty good and has up to 8GB of mp3 storage!


A couple of pics of mine:
vbpgimage.php


vbpgimage.php
 
Oh forgot to say:

Also lose these options:

Pearl paint- Go for brillient black and save yourself £500 or if you got the ball s the white does look really really nice and SOOOOO rare!

Xenons - Waste of money! Get a BMW if you want these (They look really cool if you turn them on during the day, why do people do that!?)

Multi function steering wheel - Only worth it if you get the telephone prep as well. Other wise you will have usless buttons on the right hand side of the steering wheel.

Symphony II radio: Who uses CD's in there car still?

TOTAL SAVED £1605



Spend the money instead on:

Auto-Lights and wipers!
20 Spoke Wheels
Front centre armrest
Heated front seats
iPod connection
30GB Ipod

That leaves you with about £500 spare!
 
A3_3.2_S-Line said:
Xenons - Waste of money! Get a BMW if you want these (They look really cool if you turn them on during the day, why do people do that!?)
Click to expand...
Finally, someone agrees with me!

I'm constantly stunned by the fervour surrounding Xenons. No-one is disputing that they're better than the standard halogens but they are in no way "essential", even if you do a lot of night driving and if you mainly drive during the day then they're just a waste.

They're also 700 ****** quid!! I laugh at the number of people who say the RNS-E nav unit is a ripoff at £2k but who think £700 is fine for some "better lights". I realise everyone has different priorities but please realise that some of us prefer to spend £700 on other things when buying a car.

Symphony II radio: Who uses CD's in there car still?

Spend the money instead on:

iPod connection
30GB Ipod
Click to expand...
Certainly an option I'd not considered.

On my current car I was supposed to have the Symphony unit but the boss screwed the order up so I ended up with bog standard Concert II. After 3 years of CD-swapping hell I'm so looking forward to the RNS-E :)
 
Colour is so difficult. There aren’t that many A3’s around so why worry what everyone else has got, just go get what you like most.

Sheesh you sure can kiss goodbye to loads of dosh on extras. I can think of better ways to lose £700 than on Xenons. Why are they so expensive. As for £2k on a Sat Nav - fast women are less expensive!
 
Vertigo1 said:
They're also 700 ****** quid!! I laugh at the number of people who say the RNS-E nav unit is a ripoff at £2k but who think £700 is fine for some "better lights". I realise everyone has different priorities but please realise that some of us prefer to spend £700 on other things when buying a car.
Click to expand...
The difference is the RNS-E unit can be easily retrofitted for around £500 (a quarter of the price new) whereas you try finding genuine Xenon lighting for an 8P. When you do, it'll be between £500-£750 including the necessary mods to the front bumper (or even a whole new one) for the washers and the self-levelling sensors. So not a worthy retrofit.

Indeed, don't forget the auto-levelling and headlamp washers that come with it, which must form a bulk of the option cost.
 
Question to A3 3.2 sline - I'm guessing with your comment on brilliant black that your car is brilliant black?
If so, how on earth did you get it to shine so well???? It looks great!
So brilliant black or white???? Now that's a tough call.
Hand up who thinks the 80's retro come back of the colour white will be around in 3 years time?
 
benw123 said:
The difference is the RNS-E unit can be easily retrofitted for around £500 (a quarter of the price new) whereas you try finding genuine Xenon lighting for an 8P. When you do, it'll be between £500-£750 including the necessary mods to the front bumper (or even a whole new one) for the washers and the self-levelling sensors. So not a worthy retrofit.
Click to expand...
A valid point but consider that retrofitting an RNS-E is highly dodgy on a lease car as you don't own it. If any warranty problems arose down the line as a result of fitting such a unit and this got back to the lease company you could get in all sorts of bother.

Granted, some don't care about this and there's a good chance you'd get away with it but the risk is still real.
 
I wish to feck I'd ordered Xenons,as the standard lights are shockingly bad over Scottish B-roads.
Really,really bad.
Changing the bulbs and fiddling with the level does improve matters,but they're still the worst lights I've had in a car.
I am,of course,assuming the xenons are better as I haven't tried a car fitted with them.

The wife's new Clio's lights are way better,and they're standard.
They've got these extra bulbs that come on when you turn the wheel,to light up around corners.
Sounds gimicky but is,in fact,brilliant.
 
jamiekip said:
Question to A3 3.2 sline - I'm guessing with your comment on brilliant black that your car is brilliant black?
If so, how on earth did you get it to shine so well???? It looks great!
So brilliant black or white???? Now that's a tough call.
Hand up who thinks the 80's retro come back of the colour white will be around in 3 years time?
Click to expand...

Yeap it is brilliant black, I dont use anything special to make the car shine like that...

...Well I dont think the eastern europeans at my local hand car wash do anyways. :yahoo: (boy its a hard life)
 
Well I've ordered my A3 Sportback 170TDi Sport in Ibis White. It's on a 12 week delivery :3sadwalk: and so not due until 20th December, just in time for Christmas. As a company car driver on a lowly grade I am not allowed any extras at all - pah! Have I made a good choice or boobed big time? I love the white on S-lines (which mine isn't) but will have the car for three years!
 
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