2 week ownership thoughts

[tapster]

Hi all,

I purchased a 2011 2.0tdi S-line Special edition Avant 2 weeks ago after coming from an 09 BMW 320d Touring. I thought I'd share my thoughts so far as it's the first Audi I've owned. The car has 67k mile, full Audi history and last serviced 7k ago in March

Negatives:
- The front end is very light, constant wheel spinning when setting off. Granted its winter and the roads are constantly damp. Forgot what it was like to drive front wheel drive having had BM's for he past 11 years. Its on Dunlop SportMax which I've had bad grip experiences of in the past. They're pretty new so will be staying on for a long while yet! There's no way I could do a fast traffic light start when the speed demon takes over
- Fuel consumption seems staggeringly low. With it being Christmas etc, I've not done a proper journey until today. I did 35 miles mostly motorway run and averaged 42mpg with average speed reading 44mph. Around town its below 30mpg. I'd be tempted to get a remap but I need to check with the extended warranty if it would invalidate anything first.
- Drivers door is noisey when opening when it clicks between the restrictor (Dont know the correct term for when the door opens so far then you need to push it passed the next restrictor) The bracket attached to the door looks like it could be loose. Going to nip it into the dealer to see if its all OK.

Positives:
- I was concerned about people saying the S-line with 19" wheels would be awful. Having come from 17" runflats, I'm really pleased with how it handles. It feels really solid.
- Its very comfortable to drive. Cant wait to go on a long drive.
- I initially thought the tech side of things seemed old compared to the iDrive on my old 320, but I keep finding new stuff. Granted making a phone call or setting the satnav was easier on the BM and I find myself comparing all the time rather than looking at it as something new. Slowing getting to grips with it though and looking forward to spending some time with it. I think its the original version so may get the MMI updated to the latest software. (Any advice on this?)

So to conclude, I'm 90% happy with it, I can understand why the reviews always say BM's are more of a drivers car, but as a cruiser, its sublime.

I'm looking forward to the better weather to sort the bodywork out. Its metallic dark blue with lots of swirl marks. Its looking flat at the moment, a good polish will sort that out though.

Thanks for reading

[lynalldiscovery]

Them tyres must be really carp if you think it is worse than any rwd car?
Rwd wet/snow just forget it bloody things.
Have you checked the pressures could be to hard?

[tapster]

Tyre pressures are as they should be.

I'm not talking about cornering, it's setting off that they spin. Front wheels trying to drag a heavy car forward as oppose to rear wheels pushing it. Front wheels would loose traction before rear wheels on any surface.

I struggled to get up a damp hill yesterday without spinning the fronts.


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[C6Allroad]

Tyre pressures are as they should be.

I'm not talking about cornering, it's setting off that they spin. Front wheels trying to drag a heavy car forward as oppose to rear wheels pushing it. Front wheels would loose traction before rear wheels on any surface.

I struggled to get up a damp hill yesterday without spinning the fronts.


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If you have had bad experience with these tyres before then these are the likley culprits. Summer tyres loose traction in cold weather AFAIK when the temps go below about 4degC the grip falls off quite quickly ( how old are they as well?). FWD cars are not very quick (not as quick as RWD) from a standing start esp a heavy A6 estate. The fronts shouldn't spin at all if ESP is not disabled BTW. Audi doesn't offer Quattro across the range for no reason - I could never go back to 2WD now.......

[tapster]

If you have had bad experience with these tyres before then these are the likley culprits. Summer tyres loose traction in cold weather AFAIK when the temps go below about 4degC the grip falls off quite quickly ( how old are they as well?). FWD cars are not very quick (not as quick as RWD) from a standing start esp a heavy A6 estate. The fronts shouldn't spin at all if ESP is not disabled BTW. Audi doesn't offer Quattro across the range for no reason - I could never go back to 2WD now.......

The tyres are not old. 6-7mm of tread according to the pdi when I purchased.

I can't wait till summer

The esp does kick in but not straight away it will spin for half a second first.

2 week of owning and not done that many miles yet so still learning.


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[Lukenkarl]

I've done the opposite to you. Changed from C6 to bmw. I always had problems with my fwd A6 spinning from set off if you booted it. It even got stuck on a level car park with1 inch of snow on it. That was running on 19's too. Was a lot better when I had the winters on tho (17's)
The bm's a F11 so rear wheel drive not xdrive and that spins occasionally and it has brand new goodyears on. The wide tyres are poor in the ice snow etc.
Your door could have a loose mechanism but may just need some grease on it.

still finding my way around the idrive, I suppose it's what your used to, the Audi mmi was pretty easy to use.

I can't comment on the mpg as mine was 2.7 but I did get 44-50 on a run, and 38-40 ish around town.

Still have the winters if you need em. PM me

[tapster]

Thanks for all your replies. I think the comments are right. Winter tyres would be the way to go. Probably not worth it this year now though, 2 months and we'll be into spring. I live near the coast so don't get really cold days often, just damp, certainly not much snow. The last time we had significant snow was about 1993.

As for the door. The bottom bolt on the bottom hinge was lose. Been tightened now, all seems OK.

I new thing I've just noticed though is on the drivers door, looking at it from the inside, the bottom right corner has some white fluffy mould growing on the inside. When raising and lowering the window, that side is most definitely damp leaving a wet streak on the glass. The passenger window looks the same, although nothing growing. A common issue?

[lynalldiscovery]

Tyre pressures are as they should be.

I'm not talking about cornering, it's setting off that they spin. Front wheels trying to drag a heavy car forward as oppose to rear wheels pushing it. Front wheels would loose traction before rear wheels on any surface.

I struggled to get up a damp hill yesterday without spinning the fronts.


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I realised you were not on about cornering.
We have owned many large engined (smallest 3.2 v6) rwd cars and the winter was always a pita, never an issue with any fwd car we had owned up until that point.
After the last lot of snow a few years ago we made the decision to never buy anything 2wd ever again, easy for me as I have 3 landrovers, of course since then we have not had any snow!
Winter tyres made the rwd sort of useable with a few bags of gravel in the boot.

What pressure are you running?

[tapster]

I never had an issue with my 320d and never changed the tyres through the seasons. They were 17" runflats.

The tyres are right according to the sticker on the drivers door frame. Off the top of my head I think it was 2.1bar back 2.4bar fronts.

I just need to adapt my driving style. I could put my foot to the floor on set off in the beemer without it loosing traction, I have to be very light on this one though. Even in 3rd gear it can still loose traction on acceleration. There's no chance of pulling out of a junction quickly without looking like a boy racer, that's for sure. ��

I had some Dunlops on a previous car years ago and I remember them being slippy, so I'm putting a lot down to the tyres and will go for something different when its time to change.

[lynalldiscovery]

We did try some tyres that were midway between winters and summer tyres, they were quite good and she ran them all year round and reckoned they made the car much better especially when pulling out into fast traffic, they werent expensive from memory, nokian (spelling ?) rings a bell.
One of the advantages of the quattro set up is you can run any old crap and it will still dig in and go.