Audi A3 3.2 quattro s-line

[gaz1234]

my mate has just bought one, any good?

[baz1985]

I have one...my profile has a report.

[The Hypno-Toad]

In 12 years in the motor trade it was by miles the best demo I ever had. (I'm not just saying as now I'm out of the motor trade I've just bought an Audi Coupe!)

Seriously good car, I had the DSG and it was just superb. The only problem is that one of my fellow salesman sold it to some silly b**** who lives in my village and I have to see it drive past nearly every day and she never washes it.

I'll never forget my journey to Birmingham Airport with another fellow salesman and the look on his face as I sped along to try and stop us from being late. When we got there about 20mins later a pair from another garage came saying.
"I thought we doing okay and then we had this black A3 go past us at light speed and thought we'd better hurry up,"
"yep mate that was us,"

Happy daysgreat car

[jamesson]

Have you not thought of asking your mate what it's like?

[Dr G]

These little things are more fun than a barrel of monkeys - ultimately there's mild understeer but you have noise, torque, noise, torque and more noise to keep you happy.

There's that lovely feeling of being slightly over-engined too.

[AngryS3Owner]

A better looking R32 with a nicer interior basically.

[baz1985]

AngryS3Owner said:

A better looking R32 with a nicer interior basically.

and cheaper to buy (although depreciation is much worse!)

[brisel]

baz1985 said:

and cheaper to buy (although depreciation is much worse!)

Eh? if you compare the A3 with an R32 with the same spec I think you'll find that the Audi is a couple of grand more expensive. The R32 is pretty high spec in standard format.

Spot on about the depreciation

A3 does have the better interior & more classy feel though.

[mel]

DSG is lovely, manual is a bit of a pig to drive in traffic/pottering about.

[Dr G]

mel said:

DSG is lovely, manual is a bit of a pig to drive in traffic/pottering about.

Only if you're used to auto/DSG - if you're referring to the sensitive throttle pedal then it takes a matter of minutes to get used to.

[mel]

Neither really, it's a personal opinion based on having driven one a fair bit, my business partner used to have one (now changed) and at the time I had an S3 manual and then an S4 tiptronic, as is normal we often end up nicking each others cars for various reasons and durations and I can honestly say I hated his manual 3.2, when compared to my S3 which gave a similar performance level but just delivered it in such a much more user friendly fashion, the S3 could be driven round town like a little old ladies escort then light up the turbos and away you go, the 3.2 always seemed lumpy and lurchy in traffic and was generally hard work in heavy traffic. By comparison I had a 3.2 TT on demo for a few days with a DSG box and just found it lovely to drive, masses of power that would arrive with just a firm thrust in the back and a huge torque curve, IMO the DSG box is a must on the 3.2 engine.

[TeaVR]

AngryS3Owner said:

A better looking R32 with a nicer interior basically.

Without the R32 exhaust note!

[baz1985]

brisel said:

baz1985 said:

and cheaper to buy (although depreciation is much worse!)

Eh? if you compare the A3 with an R32 with the same spec I think you'll find that the Audi is a couple of grand more expensive. The R32 is pretty high spec in standard format.

Spot on about the depreciation

A3 does have the better interior & more classy feel though.

Only dearer in terms of list and buying new.

My 8P 3.2 is worth £18.5k, an equivalent MKV R32 is worth £21k.

Exhaust/induction note is almost identical to the R32....er its the same car.

[brisel]

Exhaust/induction note is almost identical to the R32....er its the same car.

Not quite

Different exhaust system on the A3. Much quieter & more understated, like the rest of the car really when compared to the R32.

No bad thing if that's what you want.

[Meditative]

I have an A3 3.2 and there are good points and bad points to its ownership. The good points are its an Audi, the interior is well made and good looking and the engine sounds absolutely AMAZING!!! The bad points are the gearbox and clutch are not nice to use and can be very jerky round town, the throttle response is wrong with all the response in the 1st 1mm of travel, the ride is hard at slow speeds but it rolls a lot at high speed (?!?) and it understeers quite a bit.
It may sound like i don't like my car but with new suspension and a re-map (helps the throttle response a bit) it is much better. To be honest I love my car so i would recommend test driving one if you want to get one.
My next planned mod is to uprate the Quattro system to reduce the understeer and the car will be perfoct for what I want.

[brisel]

Nice one.

Where did you get your remap & suspension mods done?

A Haldex controller upgrade will make all the difference to the handling & understeer. Fitting a PP controller to my MK 4 R32 helped considerably.

[gaz1234]

jamesson said:

Have you not thought of asking your mate what it's like?

not got it yet!

[Meditative]

brisel said:

Nice one.

Where did you get your remap & suspension mods done?

A Haldex controller upgrade will make all the difference to the handling & understeer. Fitting a PP controller to my MK 4 R32 helped considerably.

The guys at Chipped UK did the re-map and it has been brilliant, from 2000rpm to 4000rpm the motor expolodes. It's going on the rolling road at Dyno Demon on Sunday so I'll find out actually how good the re-map is then.
The suspension was done by Demon Tweeks, but it was a nightmare as they kept on ordering the wrong kit, but would only realise once I got there!!!
I read up about the Haldex upgrade and i can't wait to get one fitted. Should have it done in time to enjoy North Wales in the summer! Nice.