Audi A3 - Knowledge gained before purchase!

[kento]

Hi guys,

as a big VW fan i was extremely sceptical when my wife wanted to swap over to an Audi A3. Obviously Audi's are a little more expensive and i must be honest better quality than that of my VW Golf.

After reading what you guys say about Audi A3's i decided to go for an A3. the diesel engine is fantiastic and I do not regret the purchased one bit! Just a thank you to you guys really for sharing as much info as poss allowing me to buy with more knowledge behind me.

Plus, the dealership I purchased from were fantastic. they were also based in Leicester and can be found in Wigston they're called Jct-21 . I found that you can have a deal with them and they're customer service is fantastic!

thanks again

[andre 2000]

Glad youre pleased with the A3.

I run a 2.0 TDI which I quite like, but if I'm honest I don't quite subscribe to the view that Audi build quality is any better than other cars in the VW stable.

I'm sure others will have different experiences, mine are based on high mileage usage over short timescales; 40-50k per year.

I've had Passats, a Seat and and Audi, and whilst I have generally been pleased with them all, they have all had the same generic probs such as front wishbones, dual mass flywheel etc.

I would even go so far as to say out of all of them the A3 has had the most garage time. On the plus side nothing major, just niggles.

The Passat was my all time favourite, even with the old 1.9TDI engine.

I guess having made the leap to Audi my expectations were possibly too high, but the A3 Sport of '55 year lacks kit you get on basic Seats and Skodas [no cruise, no steering wheel controls, no auto lights, auto wipers, vanity mirrors not illuminated, no MP3 socket]
You can't say that the reason for this is better engineering because the componentry is the same.

For me what does differentiate them is their perceived image and the dealer network, but there is a price to pay for it.

Hope you continue to enjoy it though, a nice car to have on anyones motoring CV!

[kodkod.84]

If he means better interior quality then I agree he is right- Audi seem to use better quality plastics etc for their interiors which are quite rightly known to be the best in the business.