1 Calendar month and 850 miles in my ownership today – review
Before getting into the review, some background into the purchase of my new car which began on the 5th May, with collection 12th May just 7 days later.
I was visiting a friend on Friday 4th May to fit my recently purchased HG Motorsport intake pipe to my car, he had also recently purchased a new RS3 sportback just 2 weeks earlier and I just needed an excuse to go take a look .
He had moved on from a PFL RS3 with MRC stage2 which ran Santa Pod 1/4m in 11.71 seconds. We went out for a run in his car (and this was the very first time in a FL for me) and I was pretty much immediately blown away with the whole package and noticeable improvements over a (stock) PFL car. Furthermore, the sound -which I have seen people very quickly to complain about- was incredible from a tone, pitch, volume and bass perspective with some really nice burbles, bare in mind he had around 600miles on the clock to my recollection. There was clearly a more defined 5 cylinder note to it than previously and climbing the revs produced a sublime note with bass, burble and volume which was, clearly, different to the PFL but did not take anything from the new car. Zero complaints about the sound from me and I was super surprised after seeing all the complaints by many others that (imo) is undeserved.
Moving on to the next day, curiosity now has a grip on me and I decided to go visit my sales exec, whom I purchased my orange beast, to chat about the FL but still really had no commitment to buying one as the spec (on par with mine) was at this point in time a little out of my price range.
A bit of a shock came to find out Jason had recently left due to health reasons, he was a fairly young chap I would say, in his 20’s but was diagnosed with MS – with hearing that I really had no interest in talking cars with anyone else there, but another sales exec who I also knew from back in 2015 when I bought my PFL was talking to me about Jason and that he was actually doing really well with good outlook on his condition and life as he kept in touch with him on FB. This inevitably moved on to why I was in Audi that day and so did get to talking about the FL RS3. Moving to his desk, we went over some book order specs, some cars they had arriving soon including and ones they already had – most of which had alu styling pack (no thank you) and one particular car *wink wink* which was on the display ramp outside which was way out of my price bracket with OTR price a little over 54k….
Some further chatting blah blah blah etc etc and then the Business Manager walked by and recognised me from my PFL purchase (after all, Glutorange RS3 in 2015 was a buzz in the dealership ever since I placed my order in April 2015 and took delivery in November) and again we talked about Jason and my interest in replacing my car with a FL RS3. It must have been around 1 – 1.5 hours before we got down to serious talk about placing orders and deposits (most of it was just chewing the fat about cars, modding- as they knew the extent of my PFL mods- and of course, Jason) and Dean (BM) asked me what I was prepared to commit to… I explained I was prepared to place a factory order with deposit today if he would be prepared to negotiate a returning customer discount. He came back with an initial figure on a factory order, which I said was a fair offer, and also against the Floret Silver sitting on the ramp outside – I said I was prepared to place a deposit on a factory order (lower than ideal spec) with his discount offer BUT was also interested in the Floret outside as it was on par spec to my current car but would not put a deposit on that car as it was just a little out of my price range. He looked me in the eye and said “Let me get this straight, you will place a deposit today on a car with OTR price of 50k factory order, but not the 54k car outside because you need time to sell your car and due to available funds etc, is that correct?”, “Correct” I replied. He then got up, walked away and I though I had insulted him or something, literally 20 seconds later he returned sat down with his hand held out and said “okay, lets shake on the Floret outside at 50k, you can have it next week”
This was all the Business Manager, I didn’t try to force a discount on that particular car as I already said it was way above my price, but they obviously preferred to sell that car than take a factory order expected in September for delivery. The remainder of the week did not go as I would have liked when expecting to collect a new car (I will NOT go into all the detail and nitty gritty about the stress caused, excuses, ******** and utter lack of interest) from the sales exec the minute I paid my deposit – I suspect any decent money he was to make from the sale of my car went down the toilet with the offer from Dean
– to put it this way, the car was originally booked for collection Friday afternoon, I sat at his desk Thursday and confirmed this 3 times which he assured me would happen – I called mid-day Friday to hear the car was still on the display ramp outside for their “Special Sales Weekend”, at which point I unloaded on the sales exec who just wanted me off the phone as he said he was sitting with other customer, I shouted at him tough **** and made the conversation really difficult for him to hide that he was in an argument on the phone, infront of his customers sat at his desk, I told him I AM YOUR CUSTOMER with a sale and arranged collection that afternoon and he was putting further potential sales before me, he had done nothing towards getting the car ready – but as we know, new sales are more important than one already done with discount - I finally pushed to get his **** into gear to get the car ready for the next morning. This again made me think about 2015 dealing with Jason which was an absolute pleasure and effortless over the almost 8 months waiting time. Portsmouth Audi have lost a ****** good sales exec. I really hope he finds a way to see the better side of life with his illness.
Anyhoo.. onto the car starting with the Spec:
Floret Silver
Black Styling Pack w/black door mirrors
SSS with grey stitch
Extended interior upholstery pack
Black roof rails
Red brake calipers
Comfort and Sound Pack
Carbon interior trim
Folding/heated door mirrors
Pano roof
Privacy glass
RS Sports exhaust
RS Mag Ride suspension
255 front tyres with gloss anthracite black wheels
boot protection mat, double sided/folding
Along with all the standard bells and whistles
Collection was the following Saturday morning 9am, I drove away a little before 10 with a gigantic smile on my face.
I did say in my OP there were glaringly obvious differences, firstly - one of which I have already mentioned towards the beginning of this post, the sound, and yes, from inside the cabin, so well insulated it takes any drama of engine/exhaust note completely away from the drivers seat but DOES NOT take it away from the outside, imo the car sounds equally or dare I say, mildly better outside of the car. In reality, the loud pops bangs and cracks are missing, but I can get those from what sounds like every single chav corsa, fiesta or focus (all variants LOL) with what sounds like a straight through exhaust that drives by has taken to the extreme – these have become a must have, including the rather obnoxious crackle maps, for all car “enthusiasts” by all accounts and I now believe a better exhaust note with low bass and burbles which emphasise the audi 5pot to perfection is the way forward.
IMO of course.
Secondly, the most obvious difference was the quality of handling, this was immediately noticeable with the same tyres as my PFL which also had H&R rear ARB, this new car felt leagues above that, even above the level when adding the rear ARB to my PFL which took that leagues above stock for turn in. The car cuts into corners more and more the tighter you turn and adding some throttle just forces it to cut in even more, just astounding what Audi have done.
Thirdly, the other obvious difference was the display, yeah I know, clearly obvious, but I found that it did not distract away from the road/driving in any way, as if it was a natural digital display that always belonged in the dash, clear, concise, functional. And beautiful.
So the obvious done, a little more on the rest:
General: Looks- well it’s still a sportback with the sportback shape, same wheels, same pano roof, same privacy glass, same seats etc etc etc.. front styling appears to be a little more aggressive in black pack and the rear is pretty identical to my previous car (I had FL lights and Milltek exhaust with black tips) so in general, I know what I was gonna get so no complaints.
Lights- (non-matrix) though not immediate to me as it was a gorgeous sunny day when I collected, the new LED headlights are no doubt a hugely massive improvement over the 1st generation LED headlights. I remember going back to Audi with my PFL complaining that the light weren’t set or levelled correctly as their dispersion and output was very poor, only to be told they we set correctly. Disappoint. These new LED’s are, imo, better than the Xenon lights fitted to my S3 8v and even better than the best lights I have ever had in a car, HID fitted to my 2002 and 2006 Honda S2000. These give a perfect dispersion, output and spread with immense illumination.
I coded my PFL headlights to give a rated output from 100% to a maximum 127% - though not a world changing improvement, did give better dispersion and illumination. Xenon are much better than the 1st gen LED headlights.
Engine / performance- Not gonna even pretend to know the ins-and-outs of the new engine, but I do know the way this engine responds and the way the transmission and haldex react along with the engine, this feels like a modified PFL car – duh yeah, you say, it had more power – but seriously, it feels like a modified PFL car! Bum dyno ftw
– though the car will see SRR in two weeks to see what it outputs stock and 1000 (give or take by then) miles on the clock.
Start up noise, not really an issue for 20 seconds, but can be overcome by leaving the ADS in dynamic. I have found the noise is gone and not needed to cycle back to dynamic. Not sure if this is standard to what others experience, bit deffo in my experience.
VC- yeah, already said, this is a very natural display to look at and it does not invite you to stare in awe at it whilst driving, almost as if it has always belonged and cars have had these full digital displays for years. Amazing with the full nav with google earth overlay and (as I’ve begun to learn) very configurable to suit your individual preference. I still utilise the MMI pop up screen for nav as it’s what I’m used too, but sure the natural move to doing nav and controls form the VC will come with time.
Controls (steering wheel)- these have changed – the stalks have been redesigned to an extent they have more squared edges than the PFL which make them feel a little cheap and tacky, you really feel the edges of the stalks push into your fingers when using the wipers/indicator which makes them a very minor negative. PFL wins for tactile feel of the controls
Alcantara- steering wheel change to 3 and 9 positions-
need I say more. PFL wins again here.
Carbon interior trim- I’ve mentioned this before but just to re-iterate, save your money, stick with the no cost option 3D titanium – equally as nice, Audi dropped the ball here as previously there wasn’t the 3D titanium option (to my knowledge) but to make this available on the FL really devalues the carbon at £850. Madness.
Music- I have said the car spec included Comfort and Sound Pack but another obvious difference to me when driving the car is that my music sounds a little odd, I couldn’t quite place it at first until it dawned on me – I can actually hear it properly hahahahahahaha – yes another dig at the cabin sound which is very quiet as you do not get the exhaust drama as a constant backing track – but please remember and always tell yourself – outside the car, it sounds immense.
Overall-
Well this is always going to be subjective and moving from a PFL to FL RS3 is something people want to understand if it is really worth it, the whole package as a car it is easily defined as being better – the handling and engine support this and, again, subjective the exhaust which is not to be considered a step down, no even a side step, everything put together is easily a step up.
First time owners into an RS3 can easily say it is an outstanding package that delivers what was promised - those moving from PFL to FL can also say it is an outstanding package that has made enough improvements over the PFL to differentiate those improvements into a positive purchase, but only if you can justify the cost and by that I mean the cost in selling the PFL (hopefully with positive equity) and how much you want to spec/spend on the new car –
Selling my Glutornage with positive equity and a very decent discount (for me and my financial choices it was) made me take that leap and I believe I was very lucky to find a brand new car with next to near perfect spec just sitting there waiting for me in the dealership that day, so for me this was definitely a right choice and logical move.
