To MOD or save for S3?

SaulK · Jan 21, 2017

Hey guys, few months ago I've bought my 2007 Sline Sportback 1.8tfsi with 160k km (100k miles) on it and i'm loving it. Retro fitted FL rear lights, wrapped roof, did led conversions, serviced and detailed the car good and put rs tuning style grill to make it pop more and put a hefty ammount of money into good winter tyres (cont wintercontact ts 860). Since spending 6k € on a car and putting 1.5k more into it in few months i started to wonder should i mod it to the point of no return or should I save up to get like a 100k mileage S3 for 12k € ?

To be clear mods i want to do are: retrofit bixenons, full magnaflow exhaust, stage 1 tune, air intake, dv+ upgrade, Bilstein B12 kit, new wheels + new summer tyres. These will cost me atleast 4k €, possibly even more. But I'm afraid if i buy an S3 it might be a potential money pit?

All opinions are greatly appreciated. :shrug:

S. · Jan 21, 2017

S3 would eventually become money pit when the modding bug catches.
Xenons retrofit and new wheels could easily cost you over 2k which you might get with s3 (you will get xenon but you might not like the wheels on it).
Also you'll get better suspension on s3 ( you might want to change it at some point but thats up to you), quattro, better brakes, and all your modding plans for your 1.8tfsi wouldn't come close to stock s3 power of 265bhp. So that's about 4+k that you can put towards s3.
So in my opinion if you can find a good example, that has been taken care of, with service history, and all work done i would say go for s3.
I got my s3 for 8 years now and i still love it and don't think i will change it soon.

S3Alex · Jan 21, 2017

S. said:
S3 would eventually become money pit when the modding bug catches.
Xenons retrofit and new wheels could easily cost you over 2k which you might get with s3 (you will get xenon but you might not like the wheels on it).
Also you'll get better suspension on s3 ( you might want to change it at some point but thats up to you), quattro, better brakes, and all your modding plans for your 1.8tfsi wouldn't come close to stock s3 power of 265bhp. So that's about 4+k that you can put towards s3.
So in my opinion if you can find a good example, that has been taken care of, with service history, and all work done i would say go for s3.
I got my s3 for 8 years now and i still love it and don't think i will change it soon.

Same advice here....

samuelh_888 · Jan 21, 2017

Hi @SaulK, I purchased a MY09 Sportback 1.8 tfsi in September last year and have already traded up to the S3. Is spent close to £2k on extras including full detail with paint, intake, new brakes, RNS-E etc. The to-do list was an additional couple of K after which it would still be 40hp down on a standard S3. So the trade up happened. Admittedly I could have selected a cheaper S3 but I now have a MY61 Black Edition with all the extras I'd retro fitted. My advice from recent experience is put the money to an S3 - it's a totally different car.

SaulK · Jan 22, 2017

Oh boy, how will I be able to save up when my inner me is constantly telling me to mod :sos:

. I hope I'll be able to get an S3 till this autumn.

FOURRINGS7 · Jan 22, 2017

Hi Saul, I got an A3 four months ago, a diesel (I do long commutes) and it's a 58 plate. Been saving up for ages to get it and start modifying it.

But as I've had the car, I've realised it's best to keep the car as it is and just save up some more for an S3. Like I can do all the mods etc to get a power increase and all but getting an S3 would "undo" my own work if that makes sense. Plus with the S3 there is so much more you can do, some guys on here have some crazy S3's and it has definitely inspired me to get one. I'd definitely check them out.

And in terms of a money pit, S3's hold value like crazy as I'm sure you know and even if you do decide to sell you can turn it back to standard and sell on parts etc (just check out the classifieds on here).

I've become attached to the A3 and feel the only way of getting rid of it is by upgrading to an S3.

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To MOD or save for S3?

SaulK

Registered User

S.

Save the manuals

S3Alex

Rarely neutral

samuelh_888

Registered User

SaulK

Registered User

FOURRINGS7

Registered User

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