Those VW/Audi DSG's are bloody brilliant. They do Full auto (AFAIK), but can be overriden into flappy pedal mode. Drove with that gearbox in an oldish A3 3.2 Quattro a couple of years back... very nice for really bottling it. Audi's S-Line package (around here) is just a body kit: New grills, new bumpers, new skirts. They make the cars look more like the respective S of the series. That's to say that an A4 S-Line is a bog standard A4 with an S-Line bodykit, whereas an S4 is one nicely warm sports-A4. Sortof like Merc with the AMG badge - anything that's lot labelled with one of the AMG engine numbers (55/63/65) is not a real AMG. It's at best an AMG conversion on a normal merc. Mostly it's just a bodykit on a c-class
Fuel consumption would cripple you. My friend used to spend over £1k a month on petrol in his prodrive sport wagon. He drives his work van most of the time now and uses the scoob for fun driving.
How many miles? For £1000/mo he either had a lead foot or drove a mega amount of miles, Subaru reckon 23mpg urban for a WRX STi, so even at 15mpg he'd have to do about 3000 miles/month to spend that.
Right guys! its come down to either two cars: Either the Audi A3 as mentioned or a Mini Cooper (2006 onwards)! Im guessing a Cooper S is the sports equivalent with all the sporty stuff inside? anyone able to confirm this? also I asked a woman what her Road Tax is for her Cooper S and she said over £200!! is this right?! Whats the road tax for an Audi thats a Diesal TDI 2.0 ? Sorry about this, I prefer the indepth answers from the bit-techers rather than what google tells me as I can get peoples views and opinions this way!
What year of Audi would it be? If you value boot space then you can't have a Mini, the boot space is absolutely atrocious. Another thing to note is that you'll see an identical one to yours all the time in a Mini, although you can have any of the accessories (stickers, roof-vinyls etc) fitted at any time when you buy one by the dealer. My Mum has one, but had white stripes and rally-style foglights fitted when she bought it.
The Audi year would be 2006 onwards. Im going to say my budget is going to be between 8-10k to get a really nice car that will last me years to come. My concern with the Audi was a) if it broke down it whether it would be horrendously expensive to repair and B) the road tax cost for the year? Also the Mini cooper D's seem like they got allot of economy behind them - Iv heard they fall under £35 per year for road tax! is this true?
I can't answer on the road tax, but the 'if it broke down it would be horrendously expensive to repair' thing i can.... with quite a few of the vw/audi models, if the car has been looked after well, i.e. not thrashed around a council estate 24/7, had its regular services, had the major things like cam belts etc changed at/around the recommended times then the car will run and run and run until its in the ground, a lot of the VW/Audi's particularly the diesels keep going up to and over 250,000 miles. so basically, take care of the car and you shouldn't have any ridiculous bills of repair unless of course the damage has been done by yourself, however, its not too difficult to find a german car specialist at least not in birmingham anyway, not too sure what it would be like around where you live. if your budget is 8-10k you should be able to pick up a nice A3 2.0TDI, if you can find one that is ex-lease would probably be a little better as they tend to have had all the service work done on them in a timely fashion, although they may not be of the highest spec.
A mini cooper S is either supercharged or turbo depending on the year, They are the highest spec without going to the extremes of a works edition. Im not sure about the tax on them though, seems a little steep for a small car, My 2.3 VW bora cost £215 for the year back in april so its probably gone up a little since then, but i wouldnt have thought the mini cooper s would be in the same band would it? I have 2 major issues with the mini, unless your mates have no legs there not getting in the back, and dont be doing alot of shopping because your only going to get a couple of cartons of milk in the boot! (slight exageration)
Have you test driven the new Mini Cooper? The whole interior just pisses me off. Designed purely for aesthetics over functionality.
To be fair aesthetics is what the Mini is about, I hated the interior at first but have grown to be quite fond of it now. I love the switchgear, but I'm still not quite sold on the giant speedo. If you go for a mini, go for a newish one (read: 57 plate onwards) and you'll get the clever BMW efficient-dynamics stuff, including stop-start tech, which is really swish.
I bought my 2005 Audi A3 2.0TDI Sport earlier this year and it's a fantastic car in my opinion. However, to answer your questions: a)I asked the dealer to change the cambelt, even though it was a little while before it needed to be changed (I've had a cambelt go on me before and it's not an experience I'd like to repeat although this was not on a Audi but a Citroen). This is quoted at over £600. b)Road tax cost is £125 per year. As for the Mini Cooper D, it emits 104 g/km CO2 so would be just £35 on road tax. The Mini website seems to suggest that you would get 72.4 MPG.
He charged you £600 for a cambelt change or repair costs for your citroen? Thanks for the responces! appreciated!
well i'll try to give my opinion in this matter ... don't by the a3 unless you go for the 3.2 quattro and even there there are better choices in the last 3 years a friend of mine has had 3 a3 two 1.9tdi and an 2.0tdi .... its been trouble after trouble everything since one of the engine supports in the first a3 that broke 4 times in 6 months the second was gearbox problems and the 3rd was the gasket and the turbo , but that might just be bad luck ... i would go for an bmw e46 or maybe if the gas wasn't a problem , s15 r32 ,r34 , 300zx , somewere around that if you really want to save on gas get a toyota iq lool or a pegeot 207 1.4hdi
He quoted me £600 pounds for a cambelt change, but I struck a deal with him as I was buying a car off him so I got it a little cheaper but I wanted to let you know how much this could potentially cost. My Dad did the repair on the Citroen so I have no idea how much that actually cost, but I understand it would be quite a lot.
I wouldn't go for the mini personally. Nice to drive and ok to look at but any kind of practicality is out the window. Nice as a 2nd car but not as your primary... As for the A3, I feel like you're paying for the name since it's esentially identical to the SEATs and VWs. I think you need to suggest what your priority is. Cost, running costs, fuel type, insurance costs, size, comfort, speed and handling etc...
I'd still consider a 1-year-old Fiat Bravo, or an Alfa MiTo. with a 1.4T engine they can't be that bad on taxes, gas mileage is good if you stay out of turbo boost range, it has power when you need it, and they're incrdibly cheap to service around here. not to mention they're actually quite fun to drive.
Well style is important but so is fuel economy as I dont want a car thats going to run me into the ground. The reason why i chose the Audi A3 was the diesel version gets over 50mpg which seemed pretty good considering the car? Also its nice looking and will grab peoples attention, something to show off a bit
