Hi All, I'm the proud owner of a new 2.0T manual A3! My car has the premium package, Bose /Sirius audio, cold weather package and is white with black interior. It is beautiful!

I was on the verge of ordering an '07 BMW 328xi sportwagon yesterday when the pricing came into focus. The BMW cost 39K and they offered me 25.5K for my Acura RDX. (and I would have had to waid till August for my car to arrive). My A3 was priced at invoice ($27,700) anf they offered me 28.5K for my RDX (and the little beauty was sitting right there in the parking lot for my plucking). Pluck I did!

I completely enjoyed my 60 mile drive home and even hit 100mph a couple of times. The car is quiet, poised, fun to drive, very comfortable and beautiful. I'm sure I'll be around this forum quite a lot!

 

Congratulations on your purchase! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

 

Let us know how it compares to your RDX. My nephew sells Acuras, brought one by 6 months ago. It was surprisingly poised and fun to drive. He did say that mileage isn't too good; I'm getting 25 city/suburban in my 2.0T.

 

The following is excerpted from some of my posts on an Acura RDX site: I'm disappointed in the powertrain. I've owned my RDX since November 2006 and have driven over 11,000 miles so far (as of yesterday I had 17,000 miles on the RDX). Over all, the RDX is worthy of its praise, it's solid, handles well, is safe, reliable, comfortable etc. etc. I am not minimizing its attributes. Maybe the problem is me. It's pretty much my first automatic vehicle ever -in almost 30 years. That, coupled with the turbo-4 and ..... I feel that I am usually playing the "wait for power" game. Between the turbo's lag -yes it really exists- and the transmission's being in too high a gear 25-50% of the time, I find myself cussing this powertrain ---in an otherwise very good vehicle. I press the pedal 3/4 and... nothing. I am still in second gear at 5-10 MPH waiting for the power which doesn't appear. Where is first!!? Wait.... Throw it into S-Manual mode. Nice try. Paddle shifters sound like a good idea but are limited in practice. To shift from 5th to 2nd for example requires three depresses on the left shift paddle at slow intervals. If the paddle is popped three times in rapid succession, nothing happens! The system responds slowly. And, there is no way to know definitively what gear one is in without checking the dashboard readout. This, on top of the turbo's lag and the auto box's upshift happy tendency in either "D" or "S" modes, leads to a very frustrating driving experience for the seasoned manual transmission driver. Another observation of powertrain characteristics: During normal driving around town, when more power is called for by rapidly depressing the accelerator .5 inches to a full inch, there is a one to two second blip when the power actually diminishes before a downshift. This is such a shame because the RDX is otherwise such a fine and high-powered performance vehicle. Count me as 'starting to look for my next vehicle". Too bad. With one of Honda/Acura's fine manuals, this would pretty much all be moot.

I met someone recently who test drove the RDX and ruled it out because of powertrain lag. He noted that in a situation such as maneuvering into a hole in tight traffic, acceleration response was unreliable and unpredictable. The only way to be assured of power is to nearly punch it.

On top of powertrain issues, the RDX has a very rough hard ride which gets uncomfortable over many miles –even on the highway. Moreover, road and wind noise are pronounced at hwy speeds of 75 mph and above. On the plus side, after 17,000 miles, the only reliability/quality problem I experienced were a couple of intermittent rattles that mostly diminished over time. Fuel economy averaged 20 mpg at 80 percent highway driving at about 80 MPH.

When I drove the A3 last night it was a breath of fresh air in the form of good throttle response, quick nimble handling, manual transmission control (!!), quietness, non-SUV styling and girth as well as greater overall refinement than the Acura.

 

easy buddy. remember about the break-in period!

enjoy your beauty and welcome to 'the club'...

 

Enjoy the new car zznalg! The hardiest thing to do with an A3 is driving it easy until broken in, but its recommended to take it easy.
Once the car fully breaks in (after about 2000 miles) you should get about 29-30 MPG driving 80 MPH.

 

Hmm, his review of the RDX should be stickied. I recall seeing a few posts about RDX vs A3.

 

I agree- very nice and thoughtful post on the RDX, and pretty much dead on. It's got more room and AWD, but sure lacks the tossability, fun factor, and response of an A3. I have both manual and DSG A3's; the DSG is very responsive and quick once you learn it's quirks - I prefer it a bit over the manual.
Congratulations on your new ride.

 

Welcome and Cheers!!!

 

ZZNALG - good deal and congrats on the car. I was also glad to see you went with a MT!!!! Went back to your roots, hey?