8.5Y RS3

[HM3P]

Yeah those seats will be for the publicity car only.
OMG they have made an awful steering wheel even worse !!!!
What on earth is going on in Audi with steering wheels on the RS3 ?

Isn’t it just……

Stand by for the Auto Trader adverts……

For sale Uk first facelift RS3…….85k .

No more power
Horrid French steering wheel
Even more horrible performance wheels

And no you English people aren’t getting the nice buckets.

Followed by

Can I remap it
Can I take the OPF’s off it

 

[Jsimba]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who isn't a fan of the performance wheels!

I know quite a few people will like them, but I can't see the appeal

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[JKP]

OMG they have made an awful steering wheel even worse !!!!
What on earth is going on in Audi with steering wheels on the RS3 ?

The new wheel is a disaster in every possible way except the rim finish options. But what was wrong with the old wheel? The same wheel Audi's been using in various other models too and I've never seen anybody say a bad word about it before. Personally I think it's one of the best steering wheel designs out there (the one with the round center cap). Only it's been around for a long while so I see why they felt it must be changed. Only too bad what they came up with.

 

[alps26]

Yeah those seats will be for the publicity car only.
OMG they have made an awful steering wheel even worse !!!!
What on earth is going on in Audi with steering wheels on the RS3 ?

Allegro steering wheel

 

[Snake Pliskin]

The new wheel is a disaster in every possible way except the rim finish options. But what was wrong with the old wheel? The same wheel Audi's been using in various other models too and I've never seen anybody say a bad word about it before. Personally I think it's one of the best steering wheel designs out there (the one with the round center cap). Only it's been around for a long while so I see why they felt it must be changed. Only too bad what they came up with.

No issue at all with the carbon edition "flat bottom" steering wheel but the vorsprung wheel has had MANY negative comments about its aesthetic appearance.
It was enough to stop me getting a vorsprung as I knew it would have bugged me albeit I know many owners are fine with it, just not me & quite a few others.

 

[JKP]

Must be this wheel then, right?

I don't think it's aesthetically unbearable but much prefer the one with the rounded center. Also I've driven few Audis with that wheel and was surprised how disturbing the sun reflections from the silver part were.

 

[Jsimba]

Must be this wheel then, right?
View attachment 277754

I don't think it's aesthetically unbearable but much prefer the one with the rounded center. Also I've driven few Audis with that wheel and was surprised how disturbing the sun reflections from the silver part were.

I think the new one might even be worse, but I'm undecided on which I dislike more Especially as it's got haptic buttons instead of physical ones. But then at least there's a flat bottom to it and they've got rid of some chrome!

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[flybynite]

Especially as it's got haptic buttons instead of physical ones.

You might be lucky, the Golf has the new steering buttons, the whole thing moves and clicks. It just tilts 6 ways. Halfway house compromise, not real buttons but better than haptic crap.

Problem is the base golf got the new button(s) so does the GTI but the R does not because either they could not be bothered to do one with the R button or they have too many haptic ones to get rid of and their top of the range car got the short end of the stick. Either way....go figure!

 

[alps26]

They look like the same buttons my Dad has in his Q4. If so, they're touch AND physical press buttons. What the purpose of having both is, I dont know!

 

[JKP]

One piece of plastic for all the buttons instead of separate ones must be cheaper to make I guess. And the styling is more in line with the recent higher level new Audi models like A5 and A6...?

I can't decide which is worse, the flattened top part of the wheel (anybody ever hear of a wheel with four corners?!) or the haptic buttons. Both make the wheel worse to use in normal driving. The flat bottom I get somehow, you still have the same arc for another hand in most driving situations and maybe more room for legs in low driving position, but there's absolutely no reason but forced looks to flatten the top.

 

[Jsimba]

Not listened too much to the commentary, but this looks to be a reasonably useful visual comparison between the two



View: https://youtu.be/BFMmAfJMTvI?si=TW34oCFYa_SVA8DQ

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[HM3P]

One piece of plastic for all the buttons instead of separate ones must be cheaper to make I guess. And the styling is more in line with the recent higher level new Audi models like A5 and A6...?

I can't decide which is worse, the flattened top part of the wheel (anybody ever hear of a wheel with four corners?!) or the haptic buttons. Both make the wheel worse to use in normal driving. The flat bottom I get somehow, you still have the same arc for another hand in most driving situations and maybe more room for legs in low driving position, but there's absolutely no reason but forced looks to flatten the top.

Steering wheel looks really odd, there was nothing wrong with the round airbag, flat bottomed version, peak Audi wheelage if you ask me.

All they've done is redesign the front / Rear bumper and moved the chequered LED cluster from the bottom to a strip at the top

That rear bumper just makes it look like all these sad case cars with the crappy F1 brake light mod (even though it's just a reflector)

Zero extra power, so this says to me Audi aren't confident in warranting any more power (remember it's had 2 chances now to turn up the wick and haven't) or they just can't be bothered developing this engine any more, in light of whats coming.

Current car is locked up good and proper, which suggests they didn't want anyone else messing with it either.

Those seats we in the UK will never get I'm 99.9% sure of.

Those wheels are awful, i had the standard wheels on mine and in silver they looked miles better than these abominations on the FL.

What's most telling is the fact they've felt a need to go to brake vectoring again, so you've got a rear end that'll be shuffling power around trying to shove you where the car thinks you want to go, but now you'll also have a squirrelling front end also braking on the front wheels, as it tries to get the car to rotate in line with what the rear is doing.......it's laughable and you can bet these You tubers/Instacrap are now foaming at the mouth to make endless crap content with the car drifting......

And a VS edition for more or less 70k looooooooooool for that money you are knocking on the door of far better cars.......

 

[Splathead]

Well, I quite like it - apart from the steering wheel and the money and the carbon rear wing.
I filled in the "request a callback" form on the website for my local dealer. They called back about 30 mins later but I was in a meeting. I then received a generic follow up email.
I replied to the mail this morning to arrange a chat but received a "we're sorry to see you go" generic email.

 

[JKP]

Now that I've seen enough photos and videos, I can say that exterior wise I actually like it a lot. You can always nit pick on details but overally it's very nice and better than the original which I already liked. No problem with the interior either - except for the steering wheel. I'm waiting to see if you can still select a round one in the configurator.

Too bad it's gonna cost a million in Finland if it's even going to be available here. I think there are like 4 or 5 pre-FL 8Y RS3s here and at least one I know is imported from Germany by the owner himself. Even the S3 is ridiculously more expensive than regular A3 in here, the CO2 tax progression is insane. Guess the new RS3 will be around 100k€. If you want performance here, it means astronomical number on money spent.

 

[VeeDubDan]

Can anyone remind me what the UK pricing structure was (base/carbon black/vorsprung) of the pre-facelift before they closed the order books on them? Trying to understand the price differential between pre-facelift and facelift.

 

[Spinstorm]

The Vorsprung Saloon on launch was around. £59,000

Yes, the new Carbon Vorsprung is £69,000.

The only thing to remember is that the RS3 had two price increases so until recently the top saloon trim was around. £64,000.

But for someone who ordered at launch for the 8Y this facelift is £10,000 more expensive.

The only thing I would say is on the German configurator adding Carbon to all the exterior areas costs just over €5,000. So if the U.K. CV trim has that included then technically it’s actually the same price as the last price increase with the cost of the Carbon which is included on top.

I would say in my personal opinion that if the new model does include all that carbon then it will make it look much more special. The M2 has a carbon option and other than the mirrors and that spoiler the U.K. Carbon versions of the RS3 did not look as special to me. (Not debating which looks better, just comparing the carbon on M2 to the small amount on the RS3).

 

[furious_iPod]

as for me:
front – good (event without the rs3 badge, i don't need to be flashy with it);
back – very bad, destroyed the harmony preFL had;
steering wheel – horrendous.
And this badging problem where new style on the back combines w old style on engine details and other departments, like where were the marketing guys?

 

[evolaco]

 

[Santiago]

as for me:
front – good (event without the rs3 badge, i don't need to be flashy with it);
back – very bad, destroyed the harmony preFL had;
steering wheel – horrendous.
And this badging problem where new style on the back combines w old style on engine details and other departments, like where were the marketing guys?

Basically agree, although I think they should have retained the front RS3 badge.
The rear just looks odd; like the rear diffuser has been designed on a different scale to the rest of the car.
Steering wheel: Could it be much worse? Silly-looking square design with dodgy haptic (?) buttons*. I don't think I could live with that, even with the "dynamica" (alcantara?) upgrade.
Alloy wheels: way too fussy for me. Looks like a cleaning nightmare.

*If the steering wheel buttons are like those on the new Golf R you do apparently have to press down to activate (i.e. they are no longer touch sensitive) but even so..
In any event, they will probably not have the same lovely tactile feel as standard VW/Audi switchgear.

 

[Jsimba]

I suppose this is where the beauty lies in a model's facelift. In the 8V gen, I much preferred my FL over the pre-FL, although I'm sure many others felt the opposite.

Clearly it's the same with the 8Y. There are a few elements of the FL I like or that I'm indifferent to, but other elements I don't like compared to my pre-FL. I'm sure as many people will prefer the FL as there will be others who like the pre-FL instead.

If someone is willing to pay the likely higher price for those then great, but I'm on the fence as to whether it's materially better to the extent that I'd swap...

 

[evolaco]

Now the standard wheels are the matte ones from the 8Y. The others are optional.

 

[doncarlyon]

Far too much money, everything has gone up but this is madness. I believe the invoice price on my 2022 8Y was £52k.

If a cheap lease deal came up I'd probably have one, but if not, I'd be trying something else. I like the car but it's a bit of a 1 trick pony and hasn't lived up to the "dream".

 

[HM3P]

Far too much money, everything has gone up but this is madness. I believe the invoice price on my 2022 8Y was £52k.

If a cheap lease deal came up I'd probably have one, but if not, I'd be trying something else. I like the car but it's a bit of a 1 trick pony and hasn't lived up to the "dream".

There’s a dealer on the FB groups already touting an ‘early’ build slot.
Limited to 10 slots

This Facelift must already be a hard sell at these prices, plenty of people on there saying the same thing. 70k for a fast A3….. no thanks.

 

[VeeDubDan]

The pedantic amongst us (me) could argue here is another inconsistency. Not only is the RS3 logo on the bucket seat the old style, the honeycomb stitching matches the old grill, not the new grill.

View attachment 277805

 

[Jsimba]

The pedantic amongst us (me) could argue here is another inconsistency. Not only is the RS3 logo on the bucket seat the old style, the honeycomb stitching matches the old grill, not the new grill.

I also noticed similar - I thought the RS3 logo on the seats is the old/previous style font too, but the badge on the rear looks very much like it's the new style font, which is a bit more rounded and less compressed. You'd hope that's just a mistake in the photos, but then again...

 

[kayemill]

Looking at the UK site the buckets are actually in the official UK site photo's. I can't remember if that has ever happed in the past. I know we've always seen them in the press cars. They may dissapear once the configurator goes live.

Also notice a Technology pack to get Matrix Led's. Was that the case with ours? I can't remember

 

[Daggerit]

Looking at the UK site the buckets are actually in the official UK site photo's. I can't remember if that has ever happed in the past. I know we've always seen them in the press cars. They may dissapear once the configurator goes live.

Also notice a Technology pack to get Matrix Led's. Was that the case with ours? I can't remember

I’m not going to get my hopes up, I imagine they’re just carried over from the Euro spec car publicity shots. Given that you get electric memory seats with the Vorsprung it means it can’t have the buckets.

I think that the matrix lights were standard on Carbon and VS cars before, but not an option for base models.


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[kayemill]

I’m not going to get my hopes up, I imagine they’re just carried over from the Euro spec car publicity shots. Given that you get electric memory seats with the Vorsprung it means it can’t have the buckets.

I think that the matrix lights were standard on Carbon and VS cars before, but not an option for base models.


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On second look, even though it's the UK site it's still left hand drive.

 

[HM3P]

Looking at the UK site the buckets are actually in the official UK site photo's. I can't remember if that has ever happed in the past. I know we've always seen them in the press cars. They may dissapear once the configurator goes live.

Also notice a Technology pack to get Matrix Led's. Was that the case with ours? I can't remember

If you look at the webpage there's a *models shown not UK specification

 

[Daggerit]

If you look at the webpage there's a *models shown not UK specification

So they show us the good spec ones then sell the stripped back versions in the UK... I can't believe after the amount of feedback on here and in general that they haven't allowed for more options for our market.

 

[Snake Pliskin]

So they show us the good spec ones then sell the stripped back versions in the UK... I can't believe after the amount of feedback on here and in general that they haven't allowed for more options for our market.

So it looks likely the UK will have no contrast stitching or jazzy seats again - just boggo standard cars.
Probably no chance of the interior upgrade either that gives you the flat bottom alcantara steering wheel.

 

[Daggerit]

So it looks likely the UK will have no contrast stitching or jazzy seats again - just boggo standard cars.
Probably no chance of the interior upgrade either that gives you the flat bottom alcantara steering wheel.

Sounds familiar...

 

[HM3P]

Sounds familiar...

There 's a guy who enquired about them with Audi and received this reply

 

[HM3P]

So it looks likely the UK will have no contrast stitching or jazzy seats again - just boggo standard cars.
Probably no chance of the interior upgrade either that gives you the flat bottom alcantara steering wheel.

On the Audi site they are showing it with Pirelli PZero 'R' tyres which aren't available here yet either.....

 

[Daggerit]

There 's a guy who enquired about them with Audi and received this reply
View attachment 277874

Just saw that too. It’s a ridiculous excuse because the change of kit could be outlined by an asterisk when you tick the box for the bucket seats.

Interesting they say they’ll put them in for you if you agree to the reduced kit level though.


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[HM3P]

Just saw that too. It’s a ridiculous excuse because the change of kit could be outlined by an asterisk when you tick the box for the bucket seats.

Interesting they say they’ll put them in for you if you agree to the reduced kit level though.


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I reckon thats BS from Audi, you can bet the minute they ask the factory they'll say no, too much hassle, WLTP blah blah

 

[Daggerit]

I reckon thats BS from Audi, you can bet the minute they ask the factory they'll say no, too much hassle, WLTP blah blah

Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest!


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[kayemill]

I reckon thats BS from Audi, you can bet the minute they ask the factory they'll say no, too much hassle, WLTP blah blah

Never going to happen unless you have bottomless pockets. It's hard enough to get a car you can spec from them.

 

[ipd56]

From the UK press release I see we getting the accents on the interior black, green or red on the FL that's a upgrade we should of had on PFL .

Dark interior with double-flattened steering wheel and front sport seats
In the interior, too, which is dominated by dark colour tones, everything is geared for performance, with the new steering wheel, RS sport seats, and sporty displays. Flattened above and below, the perforated leather steering wheel has a substantially sportier look. Meanwhile, the RS sport seats give even better support. The seat centre panel with RS honeycomb stitching is made of Fine Nappa leather, with Dinamica microfibre accents and contrasting stitching in black, express red or micrommata green.

https://press.audi.co.uk/en-gb/releases/904

 

[HM3P]

This is the UK interior looooooool