Greetings,

Here are my thoughts on the first 5 months of A3 ownership:

Ordered the car last May 07, purchased the car 17Aug07 ($200 over invoice). Fully loaded, silver A3, 2.0, DSG, Nav+, Open Sky, everything but 18" wheels and Titanium. Painless transaction.

DSG: I have had two or three scary nothing happening missed shifts? I would accelerate and then let up and then re-accelerate, which I think, confused the DSG. The first time was really bad since it took like 4 or 5 seconds before I had any engagement. I guess if you pick the exact wrong time on an upshift and let off and then hit the accelerator it decides to downshift and then misses again. Really disconcerting. I also think that you can't accelerate too slowly off the line or there is an annoying lag. I learned or it learned and this is not a problem anymore.

Tint: I live in the desert and it gets face-of-the-sun hot here. In the first week I had it fully tinted with Formula 1's best ceramic (Pinnacle) tint including the sunroof panels. Since it was monsoon I can't say that it got much over 100 degrees since I have owned the car and I do park it in a garage both at work and home. I am happy with the tint, there seem to be no ill effects. Total cost of $280 including the sunroof.

Open Sky: Love it, no rattles and I haven't broken the latch on the screen (yet). The ABS did take the time to show me how to close it. He was familiar with the frequency of broken ones I suppose. Basically he said not to have your thumb where it is when you unlatch it when you try to close it.

Bluetooth: Fantastic. In fact the Bluetooth is impressively effective as I have had the car parked in the garage, door to house closed, through the kitchen to my office and the car syncs with my Moto RAZR which was on my desk at the time.

Nav+ : I like it too. Sure, it could be better and there are some confusing things about stored destinations and the Name screen and Top Destinations etc, but it works well enough for me. No regrets here. The coordination with the DIS is very cool and trip odometer time to next stop etc. gives you more information than you need. SD cards kick ***. I don't even think to use the mostly worthless iPod adapter.

Bi-Xenons: Superb, a must have, spend the money for them.

P6 Tires: So far so good, I have been watching the inflation, and the TPMS has as well. I will also rotate them every 5-6K. TPMS is now a BERU sensor in each wheel and not ABS speed averaging like the previous non-USA TPMS.

Cargo Net: Dumb, I spent $140 for it which was a great price considering it listed much higher. It is worth maybe $20, and that would be on a good day.

Gas mileage: On a recent trip to CA I got over 28MPG on the highway and that included some nice stretches above the 75 limit.

Sirius: I have had XM in the past and I liked it. Sirius seems more or less the same. I am a sucker for a "deal" so I purchased a lifetime (mostly lifetime...) subscription. Currently Sirius has a $399 deal that you can pay monthly in 4 installments. This deal seems to expire every month and get renewed every month. I don't know if we get 3 or 4 months of "demo" Sirius. When I got my account set up it showed that they had the ESN from the Nav+ on 7/14/07, which was a month before I actually got the car. It was unclear when the trial started but you can see all these things once your account is set up at Sirius. Also they knew who I was when I called, I had not given then my VIN or my ESN somehow my phone number from paperwork I had given to Audi got connected to my A3 and they new what my ESN was. A little scary but it did all work out for me.

Floor Mats: Help! While I like the light gray interior (very light BTW) it is a stupid color for carpet and floor mats. What I want are darker (black, dark grey?) non-rubber mats that will attach like the factory ones with the snap in posts. I have priced out YES essentials which are stain resistant but do not attach to the post, LLtek very nice, but I don't want their logo, and a couple really nice ones on eBay that while priced well I ain't spending $43-$90 for shipping + $65-$90 for the mats from Germany.

Does anybody know where I can get post style carpet floor mats (without some darn logo on them)? If this not possible does anybody know what the differences are between the "European" style rubber (can be had in grey BTW) and the premium rubber ones on the Audi USA site?

Oil Consumption: Had the oil checked at the dealer just prior to my trip from AZ to Los Angeles, no consumption to note and it will be changed here in about 200 miles.

Audi Maintenance: I will buy this. Does anybody know where I can get a good price or is this just the same no matter what dealer I pick? I have an old brochure they gave me when I bought the car in August. Is it the "Courtesy Care Protection Plan"? If so is the price still $590 and is there any room to negotiate?

Love the A3.

(I posted this also in the audiworld A3 forum, seems like we are all friends, Chef, April/Verdegrrl, quatrrorican and maybe even that TPliquid guy who was banished. :-) )

 

Regarding the floormats, you may be able to get the stock carpet mats in black from your dealer. The Euro rubber mats are a different "texture," or style, than the premium mats; they also cover more area. Look at your stock mats, they do not cover the wheel hump area -- the premium mats are just like that except rubber. The Euro mats do extend up to cover the wheel hump.

I've not heard of anyone getting a deal on the maintenance plan after purchasing the car. Sometimes you can deal with them a bit when negotiating the price of the car (I got maintenance for free), but I doubt you'll have any luck at this point. I have not heard of any dealers offering it below MSRP (currently $590) either.