Whats your other hates ? Just curious
Well... It might have been my expectations to be honest, so perhaps don't judge the car too harshly. But I hate or dislike the following:
- Steering - it's lack of feel is very well documented in the motoring press, but it's very unnerving in the wet when your 'pushing on' and you can't really tell how much grip there is, you really have to judge it and feel from your *** (Lauda style).
- S-Tronic box and throttle response is a bit annoying in other modes outside of sport, so in Eco, Auto and Comfort modes it has a lot of travel to make progress. The box insists on changing down from S7 to S6 on the motorway if you even look at the throttle and it's not as smooth as I thought it would be, especially when pulling off, it's very easy to Kangaroo when you keep a steady throttle when pulling away I've found.
- MMi system is very dated and a clunky interface, it's built upon menu after menu. The Sat Nav is fantastic imo and the wheel control is easy to use. Love the VC in my car aswell, but I do find Apple CarPlay doesn't work very well with the wheel control which is annoying but to be expected.
- Super sport seats should be a bit more supportive, would be nice to have had adjustable bolsters tbh, I'm probably too skinny but find you can be thrown around a bit. Not as hugging as my old Recaro's in the ST that's for sure.
- Ride in Dynamic can be bouncy, which is something I've recently noticed. You look like a nodding dog when just plodding about sometimes, it's also rock hard and not very absorbent of our crappy roads. I was hoping the Magnetic ride would help matters here, but I just tend to keep it in Individual mode with everything on max but the ride in comfort.
Otherwise it's great lol. For me, it lacks excitement and and that final level of involvement that you want from a performance car. It really only comes alive at serious speeds, which you can't really do on the public roads. I can forgive the S-Tronic box a bit because DSG type boxes are not as smooth as a TC and I've never owned an Auto before, but when mixed with the other bits, I find it tiresome sometimes. I have had some good drives in the S3 and it is a practical, very quick and fairly economical car to own, lovely interior and well built (with a few exceptions)... I just haven't gelled with it as much as I was hoping to compared to my old ST which I loved (had so much character). I'm hoping to swap to an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio in the latter half of next year, so still got the S3 for another 18-20 months yet... just need more fizz and fun.
