Road Noise on 16" Wheels

[icebun]

So I road tested a new Golf VII today and was surprised at the amount of road noise it made at motorway speeds, albeit on 17" wheels.

As I have a preference for the 1.4 150 BHP engine, the only other option is to have this in a Audi A3 SE instead so I can run this on smaller wheels.

Just wanted some comments on those on 16" wheels what their opinion is on the amount of noise at 70 MPH or thereabouts.

[Heathwood]

IMHO 16" wheels do no favours to the A3

:o

[james_tiger_woo]

I think road noise on the A3 is pretty bad - I have 17s and it's not great unless on a billiard table smooth surface. Which, let's be honest, we don't have a lot of...

[Heathwood]

I can't give you any direct experience, unfortunately. I will be moving to an A3 from a BMW 1 series.

FWIW I can't say I have been bothered by the road noise from mine, PIRELLI 17" P7 runflats.

Out of interest how do you find the SatNav on your A3.

:o

[james_tiger_woo]

I like my SatNav - I'm getting used to it. I've even worked out how to add in a stop en route - It isn't all that intuitive and I do find myself swearing at it a lot :)

[Heathwood]

Thanks for this James.

I think I might go for SatNav at a later date, ie once I have actually acquired the car.

At least you don't have to shell out for it up front.

:o

[james_tiger_woo]

I didn't have to shell out at all as I ordered the car blind and it was, then, free in the Sportback model :)

Just a point though - Even though it's not brilliant, it does work seamlessly with the car. The directions appear both in front of you AND in the MMI screen. The controls for it are very good and it won't ever need to be hidden away.

I'd go and have a look first as I don't think adding it after ordering is possible given how tightly wound up it is in with the car - A "Tom tom" device aside, of course.

Just don't bother with the "storage" pack. It's utterly pointless.

[Heathwood]

Thanks again James.

As a point of note, this is the reply from Audi when I queried them about SatNavs:

"Having spoken to our Parts Department on your behalf, they have advised that the Audi A3 in SE trim comes with Satellite Navigation preparation, which can be activated at a later date .

The current cost of this is 159.66 gbp plus vat, plus coding, the cost of which would need to be discussed with your preferred Audi Centre.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and I hope the above proves helpful. If you wish to discuss this further, or have any other questions, please call me on the details below.

Kind regards"

However the £159.66 price is very misleading and the "coding" adds on another slice. About £500 is more like the total price.

I may have to buy the car "blind" as well, our local dealer can't come up with an 8v demonstrater in Auto mode.

Regards

John

:(

[james_tiger_woo]

Plus the cost of the SD card, etc - I reckon it'll be just over the factory cost...

The Audi configurator is pretty good - Have a play, I did and specd a ludicrously priced car! :)

[icebun]

I think road noise on the A3 is pretty bad - I have 17s and it's not great unless on a billiard table smooth surface. Which, let's be honest, we don't have a lot of...

Hey James,

Would you say the level of road noise is on par to the Golf VI on 18" wheels?

[james_tiger_woo]

Its only slightly better - I'll be honest, I was expecting a lot better, but its disappointing in just how much noise there is.

When new it was noisy enough which was bad, but now I currently have 3 different brands of tyres on the car which definitely isn't helping.