The only other A/S3 I have tried pricing up is the Cabrio and I found the pricing on those to be even further out of whack than the Saloon. Insurance worked out cheaper for me on a Cabrio tho...
Normally when buying anything I just rock up and ask for the best price else I will go to another place but I tested the whole Carwow thing this time around and found pricing to be a little odd. Hatfield, Finchley Road, Watford and Whetstone Audi dealerships (same group) were very very different. When I first sat down with my salesman of 7 years now (Hatfield) the first deal was not good so I opened up my carwow results and then put my phone on the desk while pretending to forget to lock it... everything changed and after that and he spent a lot of time talking to his head of business lol.
Insurance is just a complete joke. We are about the same age, you live in London near the river and I live in London between Radio One DJ's and most of the Eastenders cast and my insurance cost is double. Hmmm maybe because "Billy" lives in the next road?
Anyway, back to the 2.0...
I may have only covered limited milage so far but overall the car seems a lot more refined than the 1.8 I had before, engine and build wise. Maybe the mag ride is playing a part in this, no idea for the moment but I have zero rattles and everything is 110% solid. The 2.0 lump is very very smooth so much so that I actually have to look at the dash in order to see if Stop / Start has kicked in or not. Power delivery is better also, with no real throttle lag but the noise is not so refined. The 1.8 sounded like a TDI from the outside and a petrol from the inside. The 2.0 sounds like a TDI full stop, quite on the inside but still tractor'ish
Power is there when you need it... Foot down and it goes, simple. Don't matter what gear, its off
Car had 18 miles on the clock when collected, 19 miles when I filled the rest of the tank, 239miles last time I finished driving it and it was showing half a tank left. For the most part I had S/S disabled and have not even tried ECO / Coasting mode yet. Working out better than my 1.8 did fuel wise.
I need to open her up when I get home so I can post a real review, but for the moment I can see there being nice stage 1 / 1+ tuning gains with this engine once the likes of Revo get one to test with. The weak point, as will all the A3's I have had mapped, will be the damn clutch