Audi RS Q3 ?

[toppstuff]

Hi there.

Mrs TS insists on having a taller, SUV style car. After years of driving them she will never go back to a normal car.

As a result I am looking for a small SUV that she will tend to drive all week. But I tend to drive at weekends, so I wanted something that maybe had an alter-ego, another side to it.

I wondered if an RS Q3 might fit the bill. She can slot it in D and potter around while, come the weekend, I can hoon around and listen to the Quattro rally car sound track of the 5 cylinder engine in sport mode.

But the RS Q3 is not really spoken of much.

Any real world experience here and tips from people who have one? For example, the ride - if it has a rotten ride then its not worth trying I am afraid. The roads around my neck of the woods are not great. We had a previous generation X5 with M sport suspension and the ride on that car was awful. The little Audi would have to ride better than that...

Thanks

TS

[EricE]

We have one in the family, a pre-facelift model. I'm not a big fan of it.

Interior looks/feels surprisingly low rent, the sat nav and infotainment system seems prehistoric and very frustrating to use (no touch screen). Fortunately it has a manual folding display so it's out sight whenever I drive. The DSG gearbox has quick shift times but it's unresponsive in manual mode and sometimes jerks/clunks at low speeds in D mode.The ride quality on ours with damper control is acceptable when set to "auto" and far too harsh in "dynamic".

The good bits are the engine which really does sound fantastic with the exhaust valves open and the brakes (eight-piston calipers up front!). I've also heard it's easy to extract more power out of these cars with just a remap — up to 400 PS without any reliability problems.

If I'm not mistaken the car is based on same MQB platform as the Mk 6 Golf and that does shine through in build quality, ride quality, infotainment, etc.
No amount of quilted leather seats can make up for that plastic-fantastic middle console.
I would buy a Macan instead.

[toppstuff]

EricE said:

I would buy a Macan instead.

Indeed, but with Audi dealers seemingly happy to let RS Q3 out of the door for well under 40k, a Macan is probably another 20k on top.

Macan has sold gold residuals mind you. But 20k is a lot of beans extra.

[Cupramax]

Be aware theres an updated one about to appear...

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/audi/rs-q3/94274/362b...

[rassi]

This is the 310 bhp version, which was updated to 340 bhp recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHlbQBhDXbQ

Goes very well indeed!

Think it would be an interesting choice, if an SUV would be necessary. Otherwise the Audi SQ5 would be a good choice, even if getting on a bit?

[andrewparker]

EricE said:

If I'm not mistaken the car is based on same MQB platform as the Mk 6 Golf...

The Q3 doesn't have the MQB platform, nor does the MK6 Golf. They both run on the A5 (PQ35) platform which is pretty old now. There's been talk of the new Q3 running on the MQB platform, but nothing official as far as I'm aware.

[EricE]

andrewparker said:

The Q3 doesn't have the MQB platform, nor does the MK6 Golf. They both run on the A5 (PQ35) platform which is pretty old now. There's been talk of the new Q3 running on the MQB platform, but nothing official as far as I'm aware.

Interesting. So no MQB but an old platform nevertheless. In any case it does feel a bit dated to me. The centre console, the switch gear, center display, big rear view mirror, etc. It all looks a bit crude and easily two generations behind the new Audi A4. Note that I don't know how much of that was fixed with the facelift.

[sasha320]

Single pipe out of the back. Rubbish

[snorkel sucker]

toppstuff said:

Audi dealers seemingly happy to let RS Q3 out of the door for well under 40k, a Macan is probably another 20k on top.

Best I have seen is a couple of grand off - is sub £40k on pre-reg cars?

[rassi]

sasha320 said:

Single pipe out of the back. Rubbish

Not sure if you are serious, but I find it very cool that Audi decided to fit a single pipe to a 2.5 litre inline 5, rather than the OTT quad pipe arrangement on the S3 or Golf R on a 2 litre 4 banger.

[toppstuff]

snorkel sucker said:

Best I have seen is a couple of grand off - is sub £40k on pre-reg cars?

Yes there are a few new ones knocking around at 37-38k.

Quite tempting.

[CerberusRogue]

rassi said:

sasha320 said:

Single pipe out of the back. Rubbish

Not sure if you are serious, but I find it very cool that Audi decided to fit a single pipe to a 2.5 litre inline 5, rather than the OTT quad pipe arrangement on the S3 or Golf R on a 2 litre 4 banger.

I'm hoping he is as only an imbecile would consider that lots of tailpipes on a car should be compulsory for it to be any good.

On the other hand... Maybe he's being serious as he's just added another 8 tailpipes to his Prius, along with a whalefin spoiler and a Sharon and Dave sticker on the windshield. And when he's asked why he did it he replies "well it makes it look wicked, innit? It's a rally car now".

[robbo241079]

My wife is on RSQ3 number 2 because the 1st one lasted 2 months, that's right 2 months!! After a lot of fighting we got ours changed due to a battery draining issue from the ABS module which there will be a software fix for sometime in February but they couldn't tell us when! This on a brand new car to me was unacceptable.

The first one and even the second one was plagued with squealing brakes which is a caliper issue but you've to go through the motions first in getting them stripped and cleaned which makes no difference. Sound bytes of the noise get sent to Audi UK and possibly Germany before sanction is given to change calipers......and it's apparently a known fault on the RS3 as well so much so calipers are on back order!

The above aside the car is great for us, ticks all the boxes in that it's fun to drive, bags of power and carts the family about......means sticky fingers and crisps are confined to it instead of mine!! Haven't experienced any suspension or gearbox issues etc, and hopefully won't either!

[DTB77]

I only took a test drive in one but didn't really like it. Thrashy engine, felt small and not great quality and the final nail in the coffin was that it had a tiny boot. Salesman suggested I try the SQ5 and much preferred that, better quality, more refined in every way and surprisingly, I thought it sounded better (although ultimately I decided an SUV wasn't for me so went for an S4!)