What one to buy?

[Gazzab]

Hi everyone. 

I am thinking of getting a new car and fancy an A3 but not sure on which one to go for? 

Narrowed it down a bit and it’s between 1.8 tfsi or 2.0 tfsi. Also not sure about Quattro? The fuel economy looks rubbish on honest John, is this accurate?

Other decision is manual or auto? And is the black edition worth the extra £££?

Will be doing around 6000 miles a year and not really in any bad traffic of that helps and also going to be the sportback.

hope you can help me 

thanks!

 

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Gary :) 

You'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :) 

Good choice on the a3 but in terms of gearbox it's personal preference. You will pay more for an auto box though and it's very important that you check that the gears change smoothly both in manual and auto modes and that the oil has been changed at the correct intervals. 

Quattro is another personal preference but again make sure it works as it should. Any shudders under hard acceleration could signify an issue with it. The Quattro system is also very sensitive and can be damaged by simple things like uneven Tyre wear. Ideally the tyres should match on the axel. 

As with any car make sure everything works as certain parts such as air con pumps etc can be expensive to fix. Obviously make sure the air con isn't blowing warm when on the cold setting. Also check to see when the cambelt and water pump was last changed as this will be expensive to change. 

Ideally you want a car with fsh and if you can try and get an independent inspection carried out. Companies such as the AA and RAC offer this service. If the seller is reluctant or refuses then you have to wonder what they or the car has to hide! 

Here's a YouTube video which may help you:

Hope I'v helped :) 

Cheers

Steve 

[Shortie1979]

As Steve has said above, for me though i would not worry about the quattro system unless you live in an area where you think it would be useful (like Scotland) The extra cost in Car Tax and fuel bills are really worth it unless you need it. In terms of Auto or Manual, this is really a preference thing, i personally love automatics, but i'm not a fan of the DSG box as basically this is a clutchless manual, good if your racing everywhere, but in normal day to day running i find it a bit clunky and clumsy, especially at lower speeds. I'm not sure when they came out but Audi did do a normal automatic box which i think was called Servetronic, for me this was a much better gearbox in terms of automatic (i had one on a A3 1.6tdi i had and i much preferred it over the DSG box). So much smoother and probably less fragile than the DSG one. From memory the Black edition didnt come with much (if any) extra equipment over the standard S Line just some different Black bits! I would say get out and drive a few, especailly if your not sure on engine or gearbox, and both are really a preference thing.