Charlie;
I wish you well on your quest. As far as the difference between the website pricing with the 'build your own' thing: if you have the patience and know exactly what you want and can compromise a little on the color - you should be able to get a better price on one that is sitting on a dealers lot. In fact since you are not in a hurry - you may want to wait until late August into September, as the 2008 models are starting to come in and the dealerships want to get rid of the 2007's. I picked mine up last August and got a pretty good deal, got one of the colors I wanted and got all the options I had wanted. The only thing on the car that I was not looking for at the time was the open-sky option. But, the wife and the kids love it and it's grown on me. Good luck, good hunting.

 

I get away from a LOT of people running 91 in my car!

No problem at all.

 

Charlie,

I got my 06 A3 for $24,750 at 3.9% for 5 yrs. It is a black base model, straight shift. I ordered it that wayas I felt it had everything I needed. It obviously kept the price down. Go to edmunds.com and build the one you are wanting and go to the dealer sticking to the TMV price. Perhaps waiting til the 08 model comes out would give you a better deal on an 07. Don't be too picky though.
I generally fill up with midgrade and when the price falls somewhat, I put in the high octane. A buddy of mine has an 04 A4 and has always ran with the cheapest gas he could buy and has so far not had any problems. Factoring in max fill up at 14 gal at 20 cents more per gal is only costing you an extra $2.80 per tank to use high octane fuel. After trading in my 4x4 truck for the A3, I am saving roughly $200 a month in fuel costs, so the extra couple of bucks every time I refuel is no big deal.
Good luck.

Cheers

CG

 

You can run lower than 91 octane, but I wouldn't. The car retards the timing when it has a lot of early detonation and it is designed to run on 95 octane. The minimum recommendation is 91, but you CAN run 87. You're definitely not getting the performance out of your engine, and I'm not sure what the long term challenges might be.

Cheers!

 

Chef and CG!
Thanks for all the information. If anyone knows if there is a way to access dealers inventories online that would be great. Many dealers in the Maryland area only show used cars because ,they claim, their stock rolls over so frequently..

 

I race autocross and so have an unhealthy amount of exposure to different tires . My A3 Sport DSG has Conti Sport 2 summer tires, which grip well enough in the dry and wet, but God help you if it snows or freezes. My only real complaint at 10K is that they are kinda noisy on everything but fresh asphalt.

Next time I'll be looking at some Bridgestone RE-01Rs or Goodyear F1 DS3s in a 245/40-17 - same height as the 225/25s, but more meat on the street.

For most people, a high-end all season tire Like a Pirelli PZero Nerois the best choice unless you drive in snow, then just pony up for some cheap wheels and a set of Blizzaks. The $1200 or so for some winter driving control is less than a trip to the body shop.

If you get a treadware 140 or 200 street tire, no, it's not going to last 30 let alone 40 or 50 or 60K. On the other hand a treadware 400 rated tire will take one or two car-lengths longer to stop, and will respond a lot less quickly to an emergency maneuver, so think about that next time you're on a crowded freeway doing Blue Angels precision driving at 75 MPH with some guy in a 150K Taurus with the original shocks who's ranting to his ex on the cell phone.

 

Just be aware that the 245/40-17 tire is too wide for the stock A3 rim. The stock rim is a 17x7.5

Cheers!

 

Well I'm starting yr2 with my A3 ( 2.0T prem and sport pkg) Love the car but got on line on two issues. The first is this post Tires. First set got cup and choppy at 10k. Told it was my fault for not rotating them soon enough.. Now on my 2nd set yokies, and have chopping and cupping with only 5k on them . Aliment was done with the new set. I'm now working with the dealer and the tire dealer on a solution. from the post I think its going to be a lot of finger pointing . I love the car but if this is how AUDI designs and toons a suspension and how they seem to duck the issue this will be my last AUDI.

 

I have had my A3 for almost a year now andI am going to have to replace all four Pirelli's ( P6 four seasons ) only after 17000 Km it looks like all of them are defective ( Capping ) I thing that's what you call it , according to the tire dealer ,wainting for an awnser from Pirelli my Audidealer said that Audi doesn't deal with tires , By the way they were factory tires.

 

oem air pressure is too low, in my opinion, on my second set, I have raised my tire pressure to 38F35R, and just rotated at 6k. No cupping as of yet, but I did not experience the cupping until after about 12k on the P6's and I did not rotate the tires like they should have been.