I picked up a new S3 saloon Stronic last month. I've put about 900 miles on it, and have a couple of concerns that I'd like to get peoples opinions on. I don't know if it's at all relevant, but there is a fault with the battery monitoring device, but that shouldn't affect anything here I don't think.
First, I have noticed what seems to be a knock/thud coming from under the car when going over bumps. It often seems to be smaller bumps in the road that cause it, rather than things like speed bumps. If I had to guess, it sounds like the exhaust bumping the chassis. Has anyone else had this issue?
Second, the performance of the car seems a little sedate to me. I've had fast cars before, and this seems a little slow. I've noticed that in first gear, only 5 or 6 lights on the boost gauge light up. In second, it slowly builds to 7, sometimes lighting up all 8 just before red line. In any gear above that, all 8 light will be lit at full throttle as low as 2500 rpm. Is this normal? I've looked at acceleration videos and it seems that the boost gauge should fully light in all gears when pushed hard.
Third, the fuel economy seems poor. I'm not expecting 40mpg average, but i'm struggling to get above 27mpg, and that's taking it very steady. At one point it was at less than 22, though there were a lot of short trips to work and back. If I take it on an A road and sit at 50mph in 6th, it'll do about 37 mpg. I can't see any way to get better than that, but I see in other threads people getting over 40mpg. This could of course be linked to issues in point two above.
She's going in for the battery monitoring device tomorrow night, I'd like to have a better idea of whether or not these are issues, or whether it's just me.
Thanks in advance.
First, I have noticed what seems to be a knock/thud coming from under the car when going over bumps. It often seems to be smaller bumps in the road that cause it, rather than things like speed bumps. If I had to guess, it sounds like the exhaust bumping the chassis. Has anyone else had this issue?
Second, the performance of the car seems a little sedate to me. I've had fast cars before, and this seems a little slow. I've noticed that in first gear, only 5 or 6 lights on the boost gauge light up. In second, it slowly builds to 7, sometimes lighting up all 8 just before red line. In any gear above that, all 8 light will be lit at full throttle as low as 2500 rpm. Is this normal? I've looked at acceleration videos and it seems that the boost gauge should fully light in all gears when pushed hard.
Third, the fuel economy seems poor. I'm not expecting 40mpg average, but i'm struggling to get above 27mpg, and that's taking it very steady. At one point it was at less than 22, though there were a lot of short trips to work and back. If I take it on an A road and sit at 50mph in 6th, it'll do about 37 mpg. I can't see any way to get better than that, but I see in other threads people getting over 40mpg. This could of course be linked to issues in point two above.
She's going in for the battery monitoring device tomorrow night, I'd like to have a better idea of whether or not these are issues, or whether it's just me.
Thanks in advance.