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james_tiger_woo
04-09-2013, 11:22 AM
It seems to have taken me a while to get to 5000 miles - I've been working from home a lot and in London a fair bit so my mileage is down.

It's been a positive experience on balance with a few niggles that I need to either deal or come to terms with:

Positive:

Economy is improving from about 46 to about 50 now - That, of course, depends on driving styles. 75 (actual) is about 52 mpg
It's quick :)
It's quiet
It's comfortable - The ride, while firm, is good. I'm not sure if the Sport/S Line would be too hard. (Handling isn't as good as my GT Golf was, but that's missing the point of me purposefully choosing the SE)
The car holds, for a few seconds, on a slope when I stop with the foot brake. Useful to the point where I don't think I'd need autohold - If I stop, I'll put the handbrake on
The stereo is very good and interfaces nicely with my iPod, Galaxy S3 and SD card. I've not tried the CD player yet
I love the MMI interface and where it is. It is in very easy reach for me to not need to take my hands off the steering wheel - It truly adds to the car
Visibility is good - Unlike the V40, for example, I can see the rear quarters fine
The NAV is good - I've learnt how to use it more, but I've posted about a few odd things about it before. Some of that was user error though :)
The driving position is good - although I think I'd like more vertical travel in the steering wheel. That's probably a personal thing though
The rear child locks & windows being activated/deactivated with a press of a button in the front - Perfect
Rear legroom is very good


Negative: This is what we're all interested in isn't it :)


The MMI screen creaks. A lot. On my own, I don't notice it, but when others are in the car or when the stereo is down, it's noticeable. I've contacted Audi on this and am waiting a response
Storage isn't good - There's no real, proper, storage in the front: The armrest bin doesn't hold much, there's limited pockets in the front, the cupholder and storage behind is aren't that great, the glovebox doesn't hold the manual properly and there isn't a "by my knee" pocket that was in the Golf.
What is annoying is that I opted for the "Storage" pack - Which gives me a pocket in the back (in the rear seat base), a draw under the driver's seat, a storage net in the front and a storage net in the back. The pockets are useless and not big enough to hold anything really but the nets are useful
There's no clock displayed in front of you - I know it's on the MMI, but sometimes I stow that away
The rear seats aren't comfortable - I have that on good authority. For the kids it's fine, but my partner was in the back with my daughter and complained that the rear seats were too hard and too upright. That, however, may be subjective. Almost offsets the amount of foot-space there is :)
The stereo auto-quiets the music if it's too bass-y - I understand why but it's bloody annoying
There's a rattle in the back that I just can't find
Boot space is disappointing - You can drop the boot floor (which I have done) but I don't see a point in time that I'll ever raise it again. That it's smaller than my Mk6 golf was a surprise (and my own fault for not checking)


Unsure as to positive or negative:

I'm not sure if this is good or bad yet - Cruise control doesn't disengage when you press the clutch. Which, when you approach a corner and drop a gear for, there's a moment where speed falls away and then "suddenly" re-engages. Something I'm adjusting to
I thought I had adaptive corner lights (fogs that come on when I turn) but I don't - Useful to a point on the Golf


Wish list: A couple of things I wish I'd opted for:

DAB - I miss having LW. I had it in the golf with my aftermarket stereo
Sunroof - Just because it looks nice (I wouldn't spec it though, it's expensive!)
Folding mirrors - The A3 is wide enough for it to be handy in carparks
Dipping mirrors - When I park, it was handy for the mirrors to dip when I put the car in reverse. Something I no longer have
I'm in two minds as to whether I should have gone for the sport - The car looks better a little lower. While the 17s look better than the 16s (in my opinion), it sitting lower looks nicer. Again - that's my view. And if I had, I probably would have regretted it :)


If you compare this with my 1000 mile report, you'll see that I'm adjusting to the car - I no longer wish for Lumbar, a 500 mile round trip to Legoland, the surrounding area and back attests to this.

I'm sure there's more there, but that was what I was thinking of this morning and over the past couple of days

Guest 2
04-09-2013, 11:55 AM
I look forward to your updates and enjoy reading them as it helps if potentially looking at a 8V later on.

I'll pick up on a few points -
Dipping mirrors can be enabled with VCDS, not sure if this is something you have or not.

Cornering fogs, again should be standard (:confused:),, make sure your dipped beam is on and I think they only come on <20mph.

Auto volume - go into your stereo settings and turn GALA off, should solve it.

Clock - can you not change the lower display of your DIS to show this? But suppose I'd rather have fuel range than time tbh!

Cruise - my A3 does that, some A6s do and some don't, must be firmware related.

I'm at 76k on my 8P now, due a service at 80k surprisingly the only thing that's went wrong in 49k miles apart from normal servicing was a DPF sensor which I'm happy about!!

james_tiger_woo
04-09-2013, 12:00 PM
Thanks for that:

Dipped mirrors - No, I don't have VCDS :(
I'll check the cornering fogs again when it's dark but I looked out for this and didn't see them come on
I've tried the GALA settings. I think... Will try again later. Rather annoying when I want to play Bob Marley very loud :)
The display only goes to "date" (not very useful)
I'll ask Audi about the cruise

I am enjoying the A3 - In the right spec, it's great. I'm happy with my spec on the whole, but if money were no object, I would have gone for a lot more :) (Who wouldn't ;) )