Hi I am new to the Audi world so appreciate your help in selecting options.

I am planning to trade-in my old 2000 BMW 323ci to get a 2007 A3. (Plan to drive it for 2 years then give to wife while I get another car).

Just started to research but here are what I am thinking:

- 2.0 T Step
- Color: White or Lava grey (still deciding...comments/pictures?)
- Interior: (This is where it gets confusing). Should I go w/ Leather or Cloth? Also I don't care much for the sports seat but do the interior/spoilers/S line badge & molding that come w/ it worth the and make a difference in appearance?
- Options: All I care are navigation, premium sound, open sky, and bi-xenon. But seems like you can only choose either navigation or audio (Boise) package? What do people think of the tech. package (which has the bi-xenon that I want)?

Thanks!

 

You can get bose and nav+ as a combined package. That's what I have on my 2006 A3. As far as white or lava grey they can both look pretty good with open sky. Keep in mind if you get open sky the entire top of your car is black glass, some people don't like that harsh contrast on a white car, some do. I highly highly highly recommend opting for the bluetooth it's so damn sexy especially with nav+. Completely hands free (people think you're talking to yourself) and you can just hit a button on the steering wheel and say 'select name wife/brother/sister/parents' then 'dial number' and it dials it for you. That's a very big bang for very little buck feature and most new phones are coming out with bluetooth on them so def worth it if nothing else it'll help the resale value. I believe you can only get cloth on a base model A3, if you want any options you have to chose either the luxury package or sport package both of which come with leather but the sport package has highly bolstered seats where as the luxury doesn't. Have you tried the 'build your own audi' option on audiusa.com?

 

i have the arctic white (not much diff from the ibis white of 2007) and LOVE it. the clean look of the white w/the black of the opensky is hard to produce w/any other color.
as far as the seat's go, i'm pretty sure if u buy the sport package it will already come w/sport leather seats. according to owners, they're not AS comfy as premium package seats but offer more support, so that's up to u.
s-line package is worth it in my opinion, i think it makes the car looks much more aggressive. being that i had an '06 model, i'm actually upgrading to the s-line grill and also adding the badging myself to create some of that look (still wish i had the new front bumper w/that chin spoiler though).
i'd get the bi-xenons, i think they're a must on any "luxury" car and the extra lighting is worth it to me.

 

Ah, what a fun question...

Just get all of them! Ha ha... well, I've got through the same thing you and all new A3 owners have. My 2007 Ocean Blue A3 is coming any day. Going to the audiusa.com website will help you understand some of the complexities of choosing the options. Yes, you have to go Sport or Premium to start with to get most any other option. So you might as well start there (which automatically gives you leather either way). I haven't been real impressed with the cloth in an Audi. My Honda cloth seats are much nicer.

Back to the Audiusa.com site. For some reason they still have you configuring 2006 models even though the 2007's have been coming out for over a month now. The main difference being the new Technology Package that comes with Bi-Xenons, Bluetooth, the Light/Rain Sensor, and Auto Dimming interior Mirror. Another main difference is the S-Line package as opposed to the 'Sport' before. So keep those in mind when configuring on the audi web site. I believe Edmunds.com and the like will actually let you configure with the 2007 options.

Colors? Dang, I had a hard time with that one too. I really want Oyster Grey or something in between Silver and Lava Grey, like what they have in the Audi Brochures. But you can't get that color! Argh!

- j