Itchy feet - new car time???

Howdy,

Don't get me wrong, I love my A6 BE bitdi, it's a very very capable motor, it was bought to help me get to and from work (50 mile round trip) in comfort, with a very decent turn of speed..... it was also bought with the expanding family in mind and to lug around the unreal amount of clobber you get with 2 kids under 3!!

However due to the fact that I bought my wife a CMAX at the beginning of the year, we use that as our workhorse now and the Audi isn't getting used as much as first expected. Plus I have a loan on it that's costing me £500 a month.

So - that made me think, I could do with downsizing, maybe go PCP etc and immediately thought of an S3, however this was flagged up to me recently.....



Ok - it's a basic 3 door with manual transmission, you can fiddle around with the configurator and spec it as you want, and spec'd as I would want it - pro nav, better sounds, auto, metallic etc, it's still around the £28k mark. To spec the S3 how I'd want it is approx £36k - allow 10% discount gets me to £32.5k.

I know this is an Audi forum and it's going to be somewhat biased (i.e. Please don't flame me!!!) but, for that money I'd be crazy not to at least give it some consideration.....

Thoughts?

Cheers all, yeah, I've had a couple of beemers in my life too, E60 M5 and a current shape active hybrid (basically a 535i with another 40 hp of electricity) - the M5 was a heck of a lot of fun, but painfully jerky when not giving it the beans, (oh and the 14mpg in town was a bit harsh too) 535 AH was the best car I've ever had, but the battery pack rendered the boot too small even for a buggy! So the RWD side of things doesn't bother me.

There was a time if I could get the S3 for the same amount of money it would be a no brainer, but the reviews are strong for the 1 series, plus it looks at the minute you can finance (admittidly bog std) them for £299 down and £299 a month over 4 years.......

DrEskimo - I was 100% with you in the look of the 1 series, but the facelift has def helped with the looks of the thing in my eyes.

Sandra - will have a look at the golfs definitely, but the R gets into silly money when you add leather and pro nav...... but will see what lease deals are out there.

Another option : I may also just sell mine and do something silly with the £10k equity I have in it......

*gets on the auto trader app and types Boxster

Yeah, it was a brilliant car, but god it just swallowed ££££ like it was going out of fashion!

Crazyfool said:

If you don't mind a compact car, the 1 series is fine, but you won't get much in it. My father carried the boys birthday present in the boot of his Eos with the roof down. It was then transferred to my brother in laws 1 series and it had to go in the back of the car with three adults! As you say you have the C-Max for lugging things around.

I couldn't cope with the bland interior of a BMW, but I bet it's a blast to drive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I know what you mean, although the same could be said for an S3 which is still in contention..... however I have just had a think back to the last thing I've carried in the boot (outside of the 1500 mile summer holiday touring Ireland) and it's basically a sports bag - and that's about it in about 6 months!

I'm travelling a bit with work over the next few weeks, so will get settled down after that and get the thinking cap on - do some test drives (golf / BMW / S3..... I see the new S4 has been released at last - that could be an interesting distraction too, although the monthlies may be leaving me exactly in the same £ position as I am now, albeit with a heafty lump to pay at the end) and see what happens.

Edit: ignore the S4 comment, I'm like a kid in a sweet shop when I've made my mind up for a change...... downsizing and downbudgeting are the order of today.....