Three weeks of B8 Ownership

[21stCentury]

After three weeks of driving my new B8 I thought it time to review my impressions. I have a couple of minor gripes but they haven't dimisinished my overall enjoyment of the car. The driving experience has been a pleasure and great improvement on my old B6 1.8T.


The Gripes;

The gear-change suggestion is useless. Unless driving on a perfectly flat road or slight downward incline it encourages excessive labouring of the engine. To be of any use it would need to be linked to a vacuum sensor but the way it works suggests that it is not. It seems that the 'economy programme' has been developed on an er.. 'economy programme'!

I have mentioned this before in a another post - the standard sound system is totally spoilt by the tinny sound of the dash centre speaker which can only be toned down by biasing the fader heavily to the rear. I realise I should have ordered B&O but I didn't expect this particular problem.

I'm not sure if this is a gripe yet or not but I had hoped for better fuel consumption. The DIS2 average (which was rarely reset) on my old B6 1.8T generally read 28mpg. Factoring the this value against the official figures for the old car and the new one I expected to see 43mpg but I'm only seeing 38. Allowing for running-in and perhaps not a fully comparable set of driving conditions maybe this will improve but at the moment based on this and comments in other posts I'm sceptical about the relative accuracy of current and past official figures.


The Likes;

Everything else really. It's probably not fair to compare the driving experience of a B6 SE to a B8 Quattro S-Line except to say I've had the wrong model for 5 years! I'm really enjoying this.

Two weeks before ordering the car I fully expected to go for the 2.0T - I've slagged off diesels for years and have had to eat a lot of humble pie after ordering this but after test driving both I found myself quite impressed with the old lump - it's a bit like the switch from a 4-cylinder motorbike to a 2-cylinder. The best bit is the leisurely nature of high-speed cruising - it makes the petrol seem like it's revving it **** off.

The convenience key is a dream - weird at first, it feels like you've forgotten something every time you approach or leave the car but after a while it feels like living in a world where there's no need to bother locking your car.


Not Sures;

My headlights seem to be set too high. I notice that when starting the car in the dark the lights seem to cycle through a dip and rise to a preset position. I read somewhere that the xenon lights constantly adjust for level but I haven't noticed this whilst driving. When driving on the level the cut-off for dipped beam seems to be a long way ahead compared to any other car I have owned yet I haven't been flashed by any oncoming drivers - has anyone else noticed this?

In the first two weeks of driving I noticed that when the headlights switched on automatically whilst driving there was a definate flicker of the lights - perhaps two or three rapid on-off-on's before the lights stayed on permanently. I haven't noticed it in the last week - strange!

[Hippogriff]

Nice review.

I like the Advanced Key too. Find myself in trouble sometimes tapping the sensor on the handles, as I seem to want to grip the handle, and then it doesn't lock. Also, with the Start Engine button... at first I used to press it and hold it for a second or two... like it needed some help to actually start the engine, and I only released it when the engine was thrumming away... then I figured out that a quick stab at it works just as well.

Think the Xenons are fine... noticed the rise and dip cycle too... quite liked it.

[spellsinger]

.........I like the Advanced Key too. Find myself in trouble sometimes tapping the sensor on the handles, as I seem to want to grip the handle, and then it doesn't lock. Also, with the Start Engine button... at first I used to press it and hold it for a second or two.........

Three of my last four cars have now had keyless starting etc. and I can assure you that it was the one item I missed the most and to think my first car required you to "pump" a button to spray screen wash!

By the way, my wife has a Toyoyta IQ - it even has keyless starting now.

Mike

[Hippogriff]

Maybe 'tis only Audi who have the cheek to call it "Advanced Key", and charge that much for it, like it's summat really special. But, then again, it is special to me simply 'cos I've not had it before and all the scum that I hang around with (my girlfriend and suchlike) are all suitably impressed also... probably because they often find themselves using crowbars to get into nice cars.

It [the Advanced Key] used to be several hundred Pounds more in the previous A4... £800+ I think, so a good deal, considering.

[spellsinger]

[COLOR=black]Maybe 'tis only Audi who have the cheek to call it "Advanced Key".....

I think the best name is "Keyless Go" but Mercedes nabbed that one. Oh and one advantage, you can never lock yourself out of the car - like in the good old days of Ford Cortinas and such like, showing age now.

Mike