Why?! Why don't we get any of the halfway decent options for interiors? Mental.
8.5Y RS3
- Thread starter HereWeGo
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70K will 'nearly' get you into a 6 mounth old well specced M3 Touring, unfortunately I havent come across one with the indicator pack yet
Plus £70K would easily get you into a 2 year old 637hp (launch mode) RS GT Etron that has already lost 50% of it's value, I thought elec was the future?
I now see why someone earlier in this thread referred to it as a "French steering wheel".
I know very little about French cars, but I caught a TV ad for a Peugeot 308 (or some such thing) last night and the steering wheel looked very similar!
Funny enough @Mike.46 i had a test drive in one today. OMG they are quick and a really nice bit of kit, but being 1 year old and just over £80k I think I’ll pass as an alternative to my RS3 but Mrs Moz was keen to try the new Q6 etron.
This will probably make the sh*t hit the fan, but, I think the RS Etron GT is one of the best looking cars out there, much nicer looking than it's Taycan twin
I’d agree it’s a very good looking car. It was fully charged when I jumped in and was showing 220 mile range. For me that’s just not enough and I’m still one of those that has both range worry and think the infrastructure still isn’t where it needs to be. Short journeys would be OK, up to 100-150 miles with the knowledge that charges are working and available would ease that but seeing so many YouTubers turn up at chargers and they are either full or broken would just enhance the stress. I know the infrastructure is getting better so maybe another couple of years and I may find myself in one.
Slightly different to your circumstances and expected uses, but I had a chat with my mother about EVs recently and she's worried about the lack of infrastructure if she were to get one, despite being retired and only doing short joyrneys for errands, etc., so is averaging a very low number of miles.
She couldn't get her head around the idea that one joy of an EV is that you have the equivalent of a petrol station at home, so you'll always be leaving on a full tank - she had it in her head that she'd have to always go to a petrol station to charge the thing!
But completely agree that for anyone doing more frequent and longer journeys, the idea of prolonged stops to charge isn't ideal, especially if you're typically able to do longer stints without comfort breaks, etc.
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Those were my thoughts too. I switched from the RS3 to a Polestar 2 when my commute increased quite a lot and it has an actual range in the 250 miles ballpark and haven't had any issues. I charge overnight so when I get in it I have full range available and on loner trips the charging points have all been spot on. The apps now are very good and will tell you in advance which ones are broken or fully occupied and while they're not perfect, they are accurate the vast majority of the time.
Unless you know that you're going to be doing 200+ mile day trips without returning home on a regular basis then in reality electric cars are actually pretty worry free and ideal for commuting. With the cheaper overnight electricity rates I plan to put power hungry things like dishwashers and driers on over night and my electricity bill has actually gone down as a result, even with the extra charging of the car.
I'll caveat all of the above by saying if you can't charge at home on a cheaper tariff and have to rely on public fast chargers all the time then electric cars are a complete waste of money. They're too expensive for regular use.
EDIT: I'll just add as well, the '2 hours to charge' thing isn't reality. At a fast charger, you can honestly get from 15-80% charge in the time it takes to get a coffee and toastie from Starbucks, and then eat the toastie before unplugging.
Still no contrast stitching or vent accents even now? That just looks super drab.
Southampton Audi emailed me yesterday to say my car is in high demand and they would like to do a valuation to buy it back. Apparently they may even offer above market price "for the right car". I'm not surprised they're doing this if the FL is almost £20K more expensive - makes the original 8Y look like a bargain!
Apologies for going slightly off topic, but this is the new big problem with EVs: very rapid depreciation, which is significantly faster than conventional ICE cars. And very expensive ones like the Etron GT are amongst the worst in that respect. People seem to think that it's great that you can buy a 2 year old EV relatively cheaply, but it is not good for the EV market generally. People are already wising up in the US as the sales of new EVs is starting to decline. Reasons? All really due to rapidly developing battery tech (range, capacity). Unlike an ICE car, a 2-3 year old EV probably contains battery tech that is already considered out of date. And how long will those batteries last?
Huge depreciation is generally because for what ever reason they don't appeal to most people (EV SUV seem to be worst case) I agree we do not have the infrastructure or probably enough electricity to go around if everyone swapped to EV, plus battery tech and other fuel sources seem to be gaining momentum, it's a little like gambling on a Betamax, or even VHS for that matter when hard drives and solid state were just around the corner
New EV's are starting to level out against ICE cars now at the mid price segment.....
As for the Batteries, it's the one thing i hear over and over again, but it doesn't concern me at all really and we have 2 EV's now lol
EV has a big market share in sales now, other fuel sources like Hydrogen aren't even a consideration at the moment....
The fact is that the batteries do degrade, but speaking to owners of older EV cars (6-8 years old) the general consensus is that the loss is only in the region of 3-7% max, so it's not like it stops you using them. It's something to bear in mind for significantly older EV models or if you're planning on keeping one until it dies, but other than that I wouldn't worry about it.
Agreed, it's not worried me in the slightest, we go away all over the uk on holidays and the EV's have done nothing to dent that......
Saving £350-400 a month on fuel though in regular use, that's proved a big winner for us.
Costs peanuts to charge up at home/work......
That's exactly it. I saved £150 a month on car payments, £12 a month on insurance and then somewhere in the £200-300 range for fuel. But the fuel savings would've been double that had I not have gotten hold of the EV before my office moved. As an A to B commuter, electric cars are actually pretty good. I wouldn't recommend for constant long trips or for excitement though.
Like the way both ours drive tbf
Rear wheel Born is like a go cart and just the right amount of power.
Tesla M3P is insane in its power delivery lol, the RS3 would still be turning its flywheel / DSG cogs and thinking about things.
Speaking of RS3
View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-951qpI5d3/?igsh=MTk2OWtmajUzNGNudA==
I like the look but I just find these cars too big for many UK roads and parking spaces especially in places that people just love doing contact parking
A lot of current EV share is lease and fleet, it's private sales that have taken a bit of a dive. Not sure if that actually makes much difference to totals though.
HGVs and Plant are where the hydrogen adoption is highest. Slow revving plant and commercial diesels can run on Hydrogen with very little design changes.
I would love to make an EV work, and for our daily use it would be great but we could not load up the same car and do 6 hours non-stop to either of the 2 places we go that have no real charging for 20-30 odd miles. Can't leave it on a 13 amp as we do a lot of local running round when were are there. 2.0 EA888 wagon just does the lot, any time of year any weather.
Admittedly not many have the need but I think it will be a long time before an EV can tow 3.5 tonne for 600 miles without batting an eyelid like my 3.0TD V6
But for all this 'EV greatness' that you now love, plus you never seem to say a decent word about the RS3 on this 'RS3' forum your still here
Received an email the other day…made me think for a second. Tesla Model Y for £299.00 a month!!! 10k miles a year, 36 month deal, on the Road cash price of £44,990, £4,499 deposit. At that, I worked out on PCP payments and fuel, I’d legit save 700.00 a month.
The 8Y needs erasing from history…….But for all this 'EV greatness' that you now love, plus you never seem to say a decent word about the RS3 on this 'RS3' forum your still here
Audi need a reset, go back to the 8V and work from there lol.
Also I seem to remember several instances of yours ‘pizzzing’ you off…..
Sold ! LolBut don’t forget, if you buy an EV you sell your soul to the devil!
Having moved from the 8V to 8Y at the start of the year, I'd be inclined to agree with this. There are elements of the 8Y I prefer (the 8V was a little dated tech-wise) but there are plenty I preferred in it. Not least that it was a car you didn't feel the need to be delicate with.
I can't place what it is with the 8Y, but it feels terribly delicate in comparison, if that makes sense?
Thinking about it, perhaps that was harsh.
It needed more development if you ask me, design wise on the interior it’s always felt like 2 halves, passenger side air vents look fine, but it’s like the drivers half didn’t get the memo, or even forgot to include the vents lol, then someone realised and stuck them on the binnacle as an afterthought.
Removing the DSG lever, why ?? Because someone thought a nugget was better lol, and now it’s essentially a switch, sliding thingy.
Software was massively underdeveloped, granted not as bad as the M8Golf, but nothing earth shattering has been included.
The runway rev counter someone should’ve been fired for that backwards step, why mess with the good old central 1 dial that said everything and looked so cool, so much so they brought it back on the FL
App = crap no real functionality or 100% reliability, they need to look at Tesla’s approach on this, a solid app that works and is brilliant.
No bucket seat option = criminal
Options list that in the 3 trims makes no sense.
And no bump in power, why? the 5 pot can take a small increase everyone knows it can.
Agree either all of this completely.
The driver vents are truly atrocious. No matter how they're set up I just get cold hands because they're tucked so far behind the wheel. I don't know how that made it through design... It's the small things like that which really annoy me because they're also terribly obvious.
Likewise the display, completely agree. The runway graphic is dreadful at every level but especially because it goes down the display. In what world does an increasingly larger figure get represented by a falling graphic?! The central dial in the 8V was just perfect in my humble opinion.
Oh and before I forget……
The winter warm up is a joke, luckily it never affected me much as mine was garaged, but why does the 8Y not like rain? Whenever there was a downpour, the windscreen fogged up
And took ages to clear.
Never had that on any other car.
Mine has done a few odd things, Memory seat and not activating with key (mind of it's own still
) automatic activation of 'P' and handbrake with ignition off, plus I really dont like the first 50 metres when its cold and it's virtually saying 'f**k you I need to get cats and OPF functioning, do what you want with the accelerator pedal, I aint listening' plus the silly Audi Nanny mode closing the exhaust valves as soon as the car moves, *** (fixed with exhaust valve device) I'm also not 100% sold on the STronic either, pull a paddle and after a while it changes gear...But when I look what are the alternatives there really isnt that much about? I need a Hatch or estate or touring, thats Tesla out the window unless you go for the humungous Y model, I like the RS4 but hate the 'lets stick an Ipad in the middle of the dash look' I'd love an RS6 but not the fuel pump side of it, same with an M3 Touring plus I asked about servicing and the sales person said 'A normal BMW 'big' service is about £750 so an 'M' car will be double that.....
So I dont think theres much else out there that works for me, Plus points for me with the RS3 are :
Nicely sized car, Performance, fuel economy when required, sound of the 5 pot, Matrix headlights, and it's quite a pretty car
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That'll be the Audi Nanny brigade devision again..........
It sheilds the water pump untill the cylinder head gets to 70c (I watched it on VCDS) it then removes the sheild at 70c and all the hot cylinder head water gets circulated (and demists the screen), the head goes colder and I think around 50 c it again sheilds the water pump and the process repeats, of course depending on ambient temps I have seen the process repeat 3 times and it still blows cold air at you in between the roller coaster cylinder head temperature ride
I'll weigh in as someone that looked at the 8Y really hard but could not bring myself to make the jump. I agree with all of the gripes, UK poverty spec, interior design, loss of gear lever, that stupid dash, and the tech that didn't work. More worrying was each one I looked at had different faults, a real Pandora's box.
Two things really put me off, one is the 'sleeper' look the 8V had. There are many 'shouty' looking cars, and many just make them more 'shouty' the 8V was a bit of an antidote to that, just like a lot of previous RS cars and even some of the old 'M' cars I had , were just so understated unless you really know what you are looking for or you saw them take off.
IMHO the 8Y just tries too hard, 'design' for the sake of it (like that dash). I hate all the fake vents, but wouldn't want a black car just to hide them.
The second thing is to me the 8Y just felt 'cheap', in both look and feel, even if we had euro spec bits, you can only polish a **** so much. The 8V is a bit dated in some ways but it never feels cheap. I think it will date less than the 8Y in years to come.
Problem is that either way you look at it the 8Y is still the best of a bad bunch for many people and that is a sad reflection of where we are today.
I may be at the age where I am past having tech for the sake of it and start to value things that work over the latest stuff, but I do think the MIB2 generation of cars work well (we have 3 of them) and the 8V VC does all I need and more. It can put a map up on the screen in front of me, talk to my phone and play my media. The small pop up screen looks a little dated I admit but the TTRS does without it completely and better for it IMHO.
If I had my 25 year old M3 today I would still be happy to drive it daily (save for maybe a modern Bluetooth radio) If I still have the 8V in another 20 years I won't be unhappy. I still have a second phone that is a dumb Nokia, I know come hell or high water if I need to call someone that will just work and no OTA update will have bricked the thing over night. Same applies to a surprising number of cars today.
Two things really put me off, one is the 'sleeper' look the 8V had. There are many 'shouty' looking cars, and many just make them more 'shouty' the 8V was a bit of an antidote to that, just like a lot of previous RS cars and even some of the old 'M' cars I had , were just so understated unless you really know what you are looking for or you saw them take off.
IMHO the 8Y just tries too hard, 'design' for the sake of it (like that dash). I hate all the fake vents, but wouldn't want a black car just to hide them.
The second thing is to me the 8Y just felt 'cheap', in both look and feel, even if we had euro spec bits, you can only polish a **** so much. The 8V is a bit dated in some ways but it never feels cheap. I think it will date less than the 8Y in years to come.
Problem is that either way you look at it the 8Y is still the best of a bad bunch for many people and that is a sad reflection of where we are today.
I may be at the age where I am past having tech for the sake of it and start to value things that work over the latest stuff, but I do think the MIB2 generation of cars work well (we have 3 of them) and the 8V VC does all I need and more. It can put a map up on the screen in front of me, talk to my phone and play my media. The small pop up screen looks a little dated I admit but the TTRS does without it completely and better for it IMHO.
If I had my 25 year old M3 today I would still be happy to drive it daily (save for maybe a modern Bluetooth radio) If I still have the 8V in another 20 years I won't be unhappy. I still have a second phone that is a dumb Nokia, I know come hell or high water if I need to call someone that will just work and no OTA update will have bricked the thing over night. Same applies to a surprising number of cars today.
lol, you do remember I did a long post on this after using the JB4 app to monitor its behaviour when it was first mentioned.
You speak a lot of truths about the 8Y.
I agree the last great iteration of the RS3 was the Daza 2017-2018 cars.
There’s no buzz around the 8Y like there was for the 8V (even the PFL 2015 car was like nothing that came before, it’s sound defined the 5pot)
Probably a lot of this stems from Aldi and it’s bland interior, an ECU that took 3 years to crack and even now it’s by no means an easy task to turn up the wick on it, however with no DSG tune and a ‘patch’ in ECU software to fool it, why bother ?
It’s an expensive route as can be proven by the total lack of Uk cars having it done, along with the holy grail quest of creating more sound by removing OPF’s which, in my opinion is a good thing, as it stops some poor sap further down the line getting royally shafted at MOT time when it fails and is handed a massive bill,
All because the 1st owner wanted everyone to hear them going down the high st/dual carriage way, and for Instagram likes……
I remember when 8V was released, I was very impressed. Looked very cool, the dash look got nicely simpler than the 8P one was and it was even better to drive. But I was quite young back then and couldn't afford a new car, let alone new Audi... Years passed and I was planning to buy one of the last 8V's before the 8Y kicked in, since all the car magazines praised the quality of 8V. Well, took a test drive, after 8 years since the first time, and wasn't impressed at all. Harsh suspension, jerky DSG and very spartan equipment. Also the interior design had dated badly and the software graphics looked like it wasn't updated at all during the years. I had also driven the RS3 which was a nice fast car, but BMW M2 was on a whole different level. When 8Y came out it fixed all the downsides of 8V. The quality issues that even the new cars still have are intolerable but I don't understand at all how so many say it's far inferior car than the 8V, design and tech wise. Maybe I should have owned a 8V during the time it was still feeling new but afterwards I can't quite see the superiority of it. Still looking nice from outside but the 8Y looks even better in my eyes. And compared to what all the new cars are at the moment - is there a single car model that hasn't gone through the same cost cutting route as the 8Y?
I think the biggest critics of newer cars are the ones that have owned and lived with the previous iterations. It is the same across many cars, AMG, BMW M, Porsche etc etc, Some people go into a modern car not knowing what the previous cars were like. and from what they have driven before it may be a big step up.
Design and feel will always be subjective, and there are a lot of 'overdone' 'overdesigned' cars made today because people like and buy them. Unfortunately I neither like or buy them
For me there has been a step-change in quality just like there was 10 years ago and with BMW 10 years before that, however IMHO Covid and dieselgate hit VAG and their cars harder than most.
The 8V RS3 does take a while to get used to and people who only test drove them missed a lot. The crashy suspension was a thing but could easily be fixed and often was badly set up magride and poor tyre choice from the factory. The DSG just takes a while to get used to, I can make it jerk if I want to but mine has not done it for years now. I forgive it because the gearbox is bulletproof. I am not sure what 'equipment' it is missing? Multicoloured mood lighting may be important to some but, like I say I prefer mine to work. Last of the MQB cars were generally well sorted across the VAG range (like the Golf 7.5R etc).
The M2 is a different car for a different purpose. It is not a full 4-door, 4-seat, all-weather car. I have owned enough previous generation M-cars and still have a couple of RWD cars to know this. I also sit in with a mate in his F80 M3 on occasion and in the wet it is interesting to say the least. If the weather is bad it is the RS3 keys I reach for.
Appreciate your income to the discussion and your views, maybe I shouldn't even participate here since I'm quite far from owning an RS3, no matter how much I wanted to have one. I'm mostly talking about these cars in general, as I don't think there's much of a difference if we're talking about the basic A3 or an RS3 since design wise it all comes down to the basic car. At the time of 8V I was driving an 8P and after that a Golf mk 7.5. When I was thinking about buying the 8V I had the Golf and I didn't feel like I'd be getting any better car if I changed to the 8V. Most of those ones here didn't even have front parking sensors, so that's what I meant as spartan equipment. Nowadays I feel I should have bought that Golf with the best trim and engine available back then and I'd still be driving it. Or a factory order 8V equipped better than the stock cars but not sure what the cost would have been. Since I didn't do that I feel I've got a very nice car of the 8Y, despite the problems I've encountered with my two pieces. I've checked out all the possible rivals and feel they are very far behind what comes to design, ergonomics and quality feel - sadly, I'd say. So what comes to RS3 it's hard to me to understand how much hate it gets, while I feel the base car is great and it only gets better by the RS form. The UK spec seems to be the case completely it's own though.
Wish I still had my 2016 8v RS3 ... was such a joy to own / drive / listen to - probably why it was the only car I ever owned for 4 years and still enjoyed it to the last day.