2010- 170 Quattro or Not?

[aterro]

This is a topic purely to get an idea whether i should pay the extra 1/2k on a car that has Quattro?

is it really that worth it, especially on the TDI 170 engine?

Or should i save my money and get a lower mileage 170 FWD?

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Not been on here for a long time

 

[Sayam]

I have the same car you're asking about...I promise you a million times over you need quattro.

Any hint of moisture on the road and anytime I go near the throttle the ESP has to come in. I must be honest - I haven't got amazing super duper tyres on but neither are they bad so...

If you will be removing the DPF and EGR in the future, which means you'll have to remap the car, again quattro will be best.

 

[a3 black]

QUATTRO ALL THE WAY

 

[kanecullen89]

Quattro. Simple

 

[Darren92]

if you want quattro then buy a proper torsen based quattro not a part time haldex!

 

[Allman45]

Quattro. No brainer

 

[Sayam]

I must say, though, I gave up quattro to have DSG. If you're looking for an auto A3 then it isn't an easy choice between DSG and Quattro...

 

[aterro]

Any car id buy would be manual

So, manual, quattro, 170. =Best spec for a TDI?

I keep getting tempted by S3's too

 

[Allman45]

Any car id buy would be manual

So, manual, quattro, 170. =Best spec for a TDI?

I keep getting tempted by S3's too

I have a manual S3 and my biggest regret is not getting DSG. Its amazing how fast it makes your car! Additionally you dont have to spend silly money on a half decent clutch to cope with torque.

 

[Allman45]

if you want quattro then buy a proper torsen based quattro not a part time haldex!

Nothing wrong with haldex. It works just fine!

 

[aterro]

How quick are the gear changes on a dsg box? ( any good videos)? ( do they have flappy paddles)?

If there on par with a evo X SST gear changes, i may even look at dsg, if i start looking at S3's that is.

If i get a TDI, id stick all day long with manual.

 

[Allman45]

How quick are the gear changes on a dsg box? ( any good videos)? ( do they have flappy paddles)?

If there on par with a evo X SST gear changes, i may even look at dsg, if i start looking at S3's that is.

If i get a TDI, id stick all day long with manual.

The DSG is probably the best on the market. Plenty videos on youtube, one of the DSG S3's on here runs a 12 sec 1/4 mile with stock turbo...

 

[Sayam]

As said DSG box is easily the best out there right now, and that has been my opinion since I 'discovered' the DSG box while I still had my Corolla diesel...hence why I was happy to sacrifice quattro for it.

Having driven the BMW auto box extensively too, the best way to describe it is that it's like the DSG box is plugged into your brain, and give you gears when you want them, holds them when you want them, it's just awesome!

To answer your question, manual, 170, quattro diesel would be the 'best' spec depending on how you weight DSG vs quattro...

 

[kanecullen89]

Nothing wrong with haldex. It works just fine!

Haldex is far from perfect. A quick search on here would show that it's far from ideal for a performance car, more suited to small 4x4's like the ford kuga and q3.

It can be pretty unreliable, unpredictable in its power delivery, pretty much part time so there has to be front wheel spin before the rears do anything useful, they overheat, they aren't recommended for towing, only a maximum of 50% power can be sent to rear wheels, no more and understeer is a big problem.
However I would still prefer it over fwd.

Torsen is the best Audi awd I've experienced. Fully mechanical, near instant reaction and rear bias during normal driving.
It's a shame Audi consider it too expensive and too complicated to fit into the A3/S3/RS3 chassis

 

[Allman45]

Haldex is far from perfect. A quick search on here would show that it's far from ideal for a performance car, more suited to small 4x4's like the ford kuga and q3.

It can be pretty unreliable, unpredictable in its power delivery, pretty much part time so there has to be front wheel spin before the rears do anything useful, they overheat, they aren't recommended for towing, only a maximum of 50% power can be sent to rear wheels, no more and understeer is a big problem.
However I would still prefer it over fwd.

Torsen is the best Audi awd I've experienced. Fully mechanical, near instant reaction and rear bias during normal driving.
It's a shame Audi consider it too expensive and too complicated to fit into the A3/S3/RS3 chassis

I've never had any of those problems. The power to the rear is done within a milli second so you can't notice.

If you are driving it to death and want to do track days then yea maybe it's worth having the other. But day to day it's spot on IMO

 

[Sayam]

I've never had any of those problems. The power to the rear is done within a milli second so you can't notice.

If you are driving it to death and want to do track days then yea maybe it's worth having the other. But day to day it's spot on IMO

Speaking of experience of a mk5 2.0tdi 4motion (effectively R32 underneath) the power to the rear is definitely noticeable and it's quite easy to catch the stock system out...a haldex controller in race mode...thats perfect!

 

[hollows wife]

im selling a quattro tdi 170 cr engine 09 plate , have to sell due to illness ,loosing my license to the dvla for 3 years due to epilepsy . pm if your interested.

 

[DriverN00B]

That car will be mint, hollow knows his stuff, I'd defo drop him a pm!

 

[bennyball]

I had the same decision to make and I chose the quattro and don't regret it for a second, although 2 1/2 years later I still wish I had quattro and DSG. Saying that the Haldex system isn't perfect so if I was in the market to buy again I'd seriously consider torsion based as mentioned above, an A5 3.0tdi quattro would be my preference, but then you are into another price bracket

 

[hollows wife]

car sold within 48 hours of been on sale. now what car do i buy the wife besides a tank from ww2

 

[DriverN00B]

How much it go for out of curiosity?

 

[Mike597]

The DSG is probably the best on the market. Plenty videos on youtube, one of the DSG S3's on here runs a 12 sec 1/4 mile with stock turbo...

There's a few pdk owners that might debate that...dsg is supposedly quicker at changes but pdk anticipates the next gear better and holds it better.

 

[Allman45]

There's a few pdk owners that might debate that...dsg is supposedly quicker at changes but pdk anticipates the next gear better and holds it better.

What is pdk?

 

[DriverN00B]

What is pdk?

Porches name for their dual clutch gearbox - 'Porsche DoppelKupplung'

 

[Allman45]

Porches name for their dual clutch gearbox - 'Porsche DoppelKupplung'

ah nice. no doubt that will be better then. Pound for pound though? DSG deserves some credit.

 

[DriverN00B]

ah nice. no doubt that will be better then. Pound for pound though? DSG deserves some credit.

Not sure about the assertion that PDK is better at 'holding gears' or 'anticipates gears better', would like to see this quantified? DAG definitely deserves credit

Although having said that, my 'PRNDS' started flashing this morning...

 

[Mike597]

Not sure about the assertion that PDK is better at 'holding gears' or 'anticipates gears better', would like to see this quantified? DAG definitely deserves credit

Although having said that, my 'PRNDS' started flashing this morning...

There's been plenty of comparisons, I'm sure a quick google will help in finding them. The basic summary appears to be that Audi DSG is a few 10ths quicker to complete a change but the software on the PDK is more tuned to someone driving in a 'sporty' manner, particularly when mated with sports chrono. eg. It won't change up mid corner, it blips the throttle on downshifts etc etc
I guess these are stablemate technology so they are clearly not going to be the same, they will be deliberately different in order to differentiate the brands. Personally I took issue with the statement 'best on the market'. Best according to what criteria, exactly? Almost all US cars are sold with slush boxes, they are the 'best on the market' apparently for the US driving style. Different boxes suit different driving styles 'best' so to blithely say one particular variant is 'best' is short-sighted at 'best', blind marketing-led naivety at worst.

Personally for me, Manual is 'best'.

off topic, apologies.