I have both a lava gray and silver A3 in the garage. The silver car is holding up much better. I take horrible care of it. It's bone stock and the gf drives it. I drive it for comparison purposes after mods.


I wash and dry her car in 30 minutes. No spray wax, and no swirls appear. No chips or bug marks on the front end.

My car, I take 45 minutes to wash and dry. Have to keep the entire car wet before you're ready to dry or wet spots will appear. So I actually bring it into the garage to dry, whereas the silver, I don't need to do that. I also spray wax the lava each time, to make it pop.

 

Mine was a toss-up between Lave Gray or Black. Black being my first choice. I compared almost every color of the A3 and I think black is the most sleek and sharpest.
Therefore, I went with black. Coming from past black vehicles, I understood what I was getting into with black again, but I enjoy taking care, washing, waxing, and my A3 is garage kept, so BLACK was the choice!

As for the interior, I have the beige interior with biege leather. I agree with the light color interior getting dirty fast, but I went out and purchased thick rubber Winter mats and removed the beige mats. I also purchased a can of "Automotive ScotchGard Protectant" to protect the light carpeting around the rubber mats.

But I just did my first hand wash over the weekend and the "brilliant black" is definetly a beauty of a thing.

 

Went for phantom black myself, which is sort of a metallic black (which i didnt think was possible)
gets dirty quick but cleans quick back up to supaguard level of waxness, would not want anything other than black or silver for resale value though...
easiest cars to sell.

 

Understood...the Lava Grey is going to require pretty much the same upkeep as a black car. That's a bummer...

I don't have a garage to park my car in right now (turned into poker/game room: http://www.elitepokertour.com/gallery_gr.html) so between the rain of fall/winter and the dust of spring/summer (I live in the central valley of California) it would be a never ending battle for me. I remember taking all day to wash/clay/wax/polish my black Jetta when I had it and then it only looked good for a very small amount of time.

I know that silver is the best color for resell but I guess I'm just kind of bored with all the silver cars on the road right now (no offense to anyone who owns one). It just seems that over 50% of the cars out there right now are silver (plus my wifes Acura CL-S and my Durango are both silver). I think I'm leaning more toward Ibis White now...I had a Camaro SS in white before my Jetta and I loved the way that car looked when clean and it looked decent most of the time when dirty. I could run that car through a gas station car wash and it would come out looking brand new. It was a convertible with a black top so the contrast would be similar to the A3 with black open sky.

If I do go with Ibis white I'm not sure if the black or grey leather interior would be best, does anyone have any pictures of a white car with the doors open so you can see the interior?

I still want/need to find out if the $2500 option paint colors are still available because that may change my mind.

Thanks again for all the feedback!!!

 

I am getting Brilliant Red. I have had cars in "safe" and conservative colors and I vowed that my next one would be fun. Plus, Audi's red is a real red - bright and hot - not a burgundy or maroon.

Oh, also, my 8 year old son really wanted me to get a red car, too. Gotta please the kids!

 

my thoughts were that the red with tan interior looked best and that is what I wanted. However, my dealer did not have red and the only one in the area that was avalible had the sports package. I was going to take it but backed away from the sports package. At 67 yrs I think I am starting to go for comfort.

My last two cars have been white which looks good and is easy to care for, but I was ready for some color. I looked at the white, the black, and the ocean blue. Next to red the black looks great but the interiors of most of the cars coming to Florida seem to have black leather and as a Florida native that is a big no no. So I took the Ocean Blue, DSG, and Premium with silver or grey leather. It looks good and I am happy with the color.

I will try to insert a photo but have not had much luck in the past. I must be doing something wrong as I keep getting ( There was an error saving the file to disk. )

any help would be appreciated

 

IMHO, brilliant red w/ open sky (black roof) looks fantastic (i.e. my car). I originally wanted the metallic red but changed my mind after seeing a brilliant red model. My previous cars were silver (boring) and santorin blue (very nice) and this time I wanted something a little more crazy. My last car ('01 S4 Avant) had blue alcantara seat inserts that looked incredible. I'm really thinking about getting some custom upholstery work done to get red alcantara inserts in my A3. Surprisingly to me, red is also great at not showing dirt.

 

i got white bc i thought the white and the black (from the opensky) made the perfect contrast and looked clean as hell.

 

I really DIG the White with the black Open-Sky. I considered the white when I was shopping around, even though I was set on getting BLACK.

I havent seen ANY on the road here at all. Only seen the white A3 from pictures on the internet.

My girlfriend wants to get the A3 in red actually. Another sharp color for the A3. Here are my top choices of color for the exterior:

1. BLACK (thats because I have it
2. WHITE
3. RED

 

I got a silver one, love the silver especially on Audi's. For me it was between Black, Lava Gray & Silver. I really love it - easy to keep clean too!