"Storage pack" rant

[james_tiger_woo]

I've complained about storage before, but here's a new one - I really, really wish my storage pack was better. Or of any use. At all:



I have nets behind the front seats as part of the storage pack - which just about EVERY OTHER CAR IN THE HISTORY OF ALL CARS HAS
A front storage net in the passenger footwell - which NOTHING fits in
A draw under the drivers seat - which is TINY
A "slot" between the rear site under the bench - which NOTHING fits in
A storage net in the boot - which, after 2 years of ownership, the upper fold out clips no longer hold up


Oh and these:



An absolutely giant space under the passenger seat where a large draw COULD fit, but there isn't one
A glovebox that once you put the car's manual in - you can't get much in to it
And the fact that the glovebox doesn't lock - or any other internal storage that locks. A fact that has since cost me an iPod AND a tablet which were subsequently stolen from my car


I'll not mention the surprisingly small boot and the pointless ability to lower the boot floor - I lowered it the moment I got the car and haven't raised it since.

Sorry am done there - Am I alone in these problems??

[M1tchy]

At the end of the day, you own an A3. A very nice, but small, car. If you want masses of storage buy a bigger car - or see if there is a way of incorporating Mary Poppins' handbag into your car?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[james_tiger_woo]

I wanted to keep my vehicle choice to something this small but the storage seems worse than my departed Mk6 Golf which surprised me - I thought the storage pack option might be better than it was though.

On the plus side, we don't need the kids' stroller any more and I have roof bars/box for those longer journeys (like the recent 1000 mile+ jaunt to France - Don't get me started on the small fuel tank)

[Max-Power]

There was a lot of reduction in space between this generation of A3 and the previous one, not to mention it's a heavy car! I think there's probably more space in a VW Polo...

[james_tiger_woo]

There's definitely more space in a Honda Jazz ;)

[Kar Krazy]

There may be more space inside a Honda Jazz but have you seen the outside? :puke:

[james_tiger_woo]

Well, quite :)

It's not all that bad if you wring it to death :D

[Kar Krazy]

I suppose if you sit on the inside of a Honda Jazz it prevents you seeing the outside. But isn't the Jazz the car that gave the world instrument lights that are on when the outside lights are all off, leading to people all over the world driving without lights in the dark?

Anyway, back to your original topic, my last A3 had the Storage Pack. I put my laptop bag behind the driver's seat and that dratted net on the back of the seat kept tangling it up. Not a patch on the lovely leather pockets that Mercedes fit. And I had to line the under-seat bins with sticky-backed felt to stop rattles when I put my torch & stuff in it. The hooks under the parcel shelf were good at stopping the shopping bags from falling over, when I remembered they were there.

My current A3 doesn't have the Storage Pack, and I only really miss the driver's underseat bin. The passenger seat has one though???

Some say the A3 is small, but it's just the right size for me - I've downsized from a Mk3 Mondeo (about the size of an A4 or A6) now that the kids have their own cars and houses. My A3 has carried loads of stuff for them on various house moves and it overtakes like the clappers even four up and with stuff in the boot.

[james_tiger_woo]

The net on the back is a **** poor design affair - I had a Golf and that had pockets that at least were "secure" and could hide things in.

My parcel hooks now no longer work properly which is really, really annoying, but the net, when stretched across, holds my toolkit in it.

Can anyone else confirm (or otherwise) whether the passenger side has a storage draw?

Oh, and where the effing hell are the rear cupholders - once mocked and derided, but useful for kids' drinks...

[Kar Krazy]

My new A3 has probably got the storage drawer that should be in yours!

My driver's seat has a whopping gap where the drawer would be - I put this down to the space taken up by the motors for the full electric adjustment, but thinking about it, surely the storage pack should still be available for cars with full electric seats - so maybe you've got my driver's seat drawer!

Rear cupholders - pull down the centre rear armrest, then press in the front edge and the cupholders will whizz out.

It's a bit of an art putting them away again, though!

[james_tiger_woo]

I've got manual seats says so I've nothing fancy there - and I don't have the centre armrest :(

[Kar Krazy]

Oh, sorry.

Will the cups fit in the seatback nets?

[blodwen715]

My new A3 has probably got the storage drawer that should be in yours!

Rear cupholders - pull down the centre rear armrest, then press in the front edge and the cupholders will whizz out.

It's a bit of an art putting them away again, though!

The first thing my wife asked about when ordering our new car was the rear cupholders....***!!! She who never sits in the back, we rarely have anyone in the back seats and I wouldn't let anyone have drinks anyway....:aargh4:

I am changing from an Octavia which is simply huge in storage compared to the Audi.. a shame as it has been useful at times to have a huge boot.

[james_tiger_woo]

I'd rather not have drinks in the car, but with kids, it's necessary - Bottles fit nicely in the nets, but sometimes it's just handy to have them to hand.

I do wish I had the fold down armrest in the back though - was that an option at all?

[Kar Krazy]

The first thing my wife asked about when ordering our new car was the rear cupholders....***!!! She who never sits in the back, we rarely have anyone in the back seats and I wouldn't let anyone have drinks anyway....:aargh4:

I am changing from an Octavia which is simply huge in storage compared to the Audi.. a shame as it has been useful at times to have a huge boot.

Lol - after 2 years complaining to me about the Audi sat nave only accepting part of the UK postcode, my mrs balked at the cost of a new-shape one and persuaded me to get the old shape again!!!

Yes, I downsized from a Mk3 Mondeo Titanium X with a massive boot after the kids moved out, but I was careful to get nearly as many toys in the A3 as were in the Mondy. It was stupid driving a big motorway cruiser 2.6 miles to work and finding the parking spaces too small and impossible to get out of because of the ridiculously large turning circle.

[Kar Krazy]

I'd rather not have drinks in the car, but with kids, it's necessary - Bottles fit nicely in the nets, but sometimes it's just handy to have them to hand.

I do wish I had the fold down armrest in the back though - was that an option at all?

Children + Cars + Drinks = Unsuccessful attempts to get the upholstery and carpets clean. :(

The rear armrest might be part of the S-Line standard pack, rather than an option. It was also in my last car, an A3 S-Line.

[james_tiger_woo]

My daughter - I love her, I really do, but she pushed it when she spilt half a pint of milk in the back of my last car, a Golf, that also didn't have easily accessible rear - she didn't bloody use them! At least now she has a valid reason though.....

It took 3 weeks of cleaning and bicarb of soda to clean that lot out and get rid of the smell. IN SUMMER. Grr.

[Kar Krazy]

My dad never allowed us to have any food or drink in the car. You can see why.

I let mine have bottled water, but nothing with any flavouring or sugar. Spilt water just evaporates and leaves nothing behind.

Milk - oh boy: whose idea was that?

[Kar Krazy]

At the end of the day, you own an A3. A very nice, but small, car.

It's interesting how our points of view change over time. The other day I saw a Mk3 Cortina, and thought it looked a lot smaller than I remember my dad's 2000E in the 1970's. The Cortina was an average family car in its time. I went online and compared the dimensions of the Cortina with my A3. Guess what - my "small" A3 is one inch longer and 2.5 inches wider than an average family car of the 1970's. So the A3 is not a small car after all, it's just that cars have grown over the years. The current Polo is larger than the Mk1 Golf, its bigger brother. The current Land Rover Discovery is the size of a lorry of the 1960's. Give us another decade and we'll be calling today's Hummers small! :D

[james_tiger_woo]

I remember being 4 up, in a mini in 1980 something in Germany - driving from RAF Bruggen to Paris with luggage for 3 weeks....

And the milk idea was, tragically, mine following a McDonalds trip: "Is the lid on the bottle?" "Yes" "Is the bottle in the cup holder" "Yes". Neither answer was true.

[Peter T]

Aaaah - the joys of parenthood !!!