Hi! I'm new to this forum, but have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer to on plain old google.

My husband gave me a 2012 A3 s-line quattro last summer when I finished grad school, and I absolutely love the car. It has navigation and an ipod connector and it's so much fun to drive, love the design, etc.

I do a lot of short trips on the highway, mainly Boston to Long Island via the ferry every other month or so, and have noticed the same thing happening during almost every trip. I will usually notice a car following me - not sure what to call it - tailgating? piggybacking? I always move over when I see someone close behind me (I am missing the road rage gene) but sometimes they move over with me and don't pass, and just stay with me during most of the trip. Sometimes its another audi model and sometimes not. Last weekend it was a man driving a volvo suv that stuck with me on 95 from new london to the Massachusetts border. The trip before that it was someone in a Q7. I've never experienced anything negative like bad driving or aggression, so I don't really worry about it but it makes me wonder if this is normal . . . Does this happen to anyone else? Do you find that other drivers will follow you on the highway? I don't really have anything to compare this to because I didn't have a car before this (lived in the city so relied on public transportation and cabs mostly).
Maybe because you don't see A3s on the road that much people like to follow them?
I realize this is an odd question, but as it's been happening more and more I just wondered if anyone else has experienced this.

Thanks!

 

its called drafting. The person behind has to use less energy to power their car. I once went skiing with my roommate where I drive up and pay for gas going up and he drives back and pays for that gas. Once on the thruway, I found someone that is traveling the speed I wanted to go and followed him all the way to the highway exit. But on the way back, my friend got lucky and found a person to draft behind and didn't move over or anything, and that person went literally all the way to the exit of our school.

Still do it regularly, but mostly because I don't want to be the first car zapped by boss hogg.

 

Haha, thanks! I had no idea. I also just read about Boss Hogg on wikipedia. Very enlightening

 

Can you really get much efficiency drafting a car as small as an A3? I used to do it in my dad's Dodge behind semi-trailers and it made a significant difference, but that was in the 80's when nobody had better than a 0.4 drag coefficient.

Eveyck's probably just a hot chick in a small sports car, and she's just being followed by wannabee stalkers who are hoping to pull into the same gas station and say "Hey babe, nice car..." and feel better about themselves.

My suggestion is if you feel uncomfortable, slow down to the speed limit. They'll go around you pretty quick since nobody can tolerate going that slow for too long.

 

I thought people just liked the car. Thanks for the advice!