gsaltan

I have a 2015 S3. It was my ideal car, on paper. After 8 months/5000 km, I am sharing my comments/thoughts on the car. I could not have found these out during the test drive - sort of sets in after some time.


If you are planning to buy this car, beware:


1-For a luxury brand, number of standard features are so low. I have the Canadian progressive trim: Missing back-up camera, memory seat, power folding mirrors. Not deal breakers but definitely on the very basic side. Of course you can pay more and get many more features. My comment is on the number of standard features on a luxury brand.


2-Consumption rate is way higher than stated for sure. Was never able to go below 12 lt/ 100 km no matter how gently I drove, how much braking anticipation I made. This car is supposed to be under 10 lt/ 100 km for 100% city driving. No way !!!


3-Build quality is not a real Audi. I owned an A4 before. Nope, they are not the same cars. This car is not German made - it is Hungarian. Still very nicely built, but it is not an S4. 10k price difference sort of confirms that.


4-There is no storage place in the car. It is barely better than my previous Mini Cooper. Cup holders are designed so that you cannot drink your coffee while driving. Maybe it was done for this purpose, some kind of a safety feature. Glove box is just enough for the manual and maybe a pen.


5-Quattro is not as "Quattro" as my former A4. We get quite a bit of snow here, so I am speaking by real experience. Even with brand new good snow tires, traction is marginally better, if at all, than a FWD. Car behaves like a FWD car.


6-Stereo quality sucks. I don't think I made this comment for any stereo before. Get the upgrade if you are into that.


7-It is a DSG thing, I know, but in the long run, jerky/lunging start of the car starts to annoy you. A little too much, it lunges; slightly less, it doesn't move. As if you are starting just before a speed bump. If you are doing a lot of city driving, think twice. DSG is a lot fun in high speeds only.


8-Trunk is small.


9-Acceleration is very uneven. When you floor it, it is a rocket. But if you don't floor it, it really depends on what car wants to do. May decide to be a rocket, or, may decide not to be. Gas pedal is very sensitive.


10-Good stuff: 0-100 under 5 seconds, 4 door, AWD.


I still enjoy the car; but I know I will not own another Audi again.

tjacoby

I also have a Progressive 2015 S3 and am out in Vancouver. My experience is a little different;

I do agree the lack of a backup camera is just bizarre. I find the Haldex setup a lot better than just FWD, especially in the rain, and it's handled snow/ice fine (Nokian full winters, I drive the interior highways to find snow), I do agree the tires have more to do with the winter performance than the Haldex system. Can definitely feel the computers managing each corner's traction, and it's not always perfectly smooth - but it is fast. Mine's reporting 28-29mpg average over 16k mixed highway/city with little driving regard for fuel economy, and did avg 38mpg on one trip with the family. my biggest complaint is the suspension's a little weird, and shows it's economy car roots. The mag suspension helps a bit, and I'm on the RS3 list to see what it's suspension is like.

I find the base sound system more than good enough - I mostly stream Tidal over BT, and did play with the sub and treble a fair bit.

The trunk is small - quite a bit smaller than my wife's Civic.

My DSG smoothed out after some early inconsistencies. I can easily give my family a smooth full-auto-like experience when I need to. The first stop sign in the morning does give it pause for a second. I'm now a believer in dual-clutch after a lifetime of only MT's, including an older Ferrari in the garage. The tech is amazing, and still can't wrap my head around the mechanical bits making it work so well.

There's not a whole lot of options for a small AWD performance car - WRX, RS, CLA? I was tempted by the S4's Quattro and the Acura's SH-AWD but I'm happier with the size and price of the S3 for a quick and somewhat passionless DD.

If you're ever out in Vancouver, drop me a line: tjacoby (AT) iosecure.com and we can compare!

markN1689

the s4 is a tugboat. it belongs in a museum.

hater troll

will13k7

So you won't buy another Audi because the S3 turned out to not be the car for you?

It sounds like a larger non-DSG Audi with more options is more up your alley, but you don't want to fork over the dough to get the Audi you really want or you just don't value the real difference between an Audi versus something like an Acura, which in that case, Audi's are really not the best car for you, so that makes sense.

gamegenie

help an American that doesn't follow the metric system out?

nate

10 liters = 2.64172 gallons
100 km = 62.1371 miles
10 liters / 100km = 2.64172 gallons / 62.1371 = 0.0425144 gallons / mile = 23.52 mpg


Or just google "10 liters per 100km to mpg"

gsaltan

Thanks for the feedback tjacoby.


Funny, I tried exactly the same cars before: Acura TLX SH-AWD had everything on paper, didn't feel like a sport sedan, it was a great buy though. WRX was handsome and fast, brakes were terrible. CLA was not average in everything.

gamegenie

I did google but I was still puzzled by what he meant by "Was never able to go below" 23.52 mpg no matter how gently I drove

tjacoby

I hear you - so many trade-offs in picking a car, why I've got the old 'pure' sports car in the garage (pre-power steering even). fyi - my mpg's are based on the old Canadian Imperial gallons, showing my age there

19hole

If you are looking at fuel milage as stated in Canada (12 lt/ 100 km for example) you want the consumption value (in litres) for 100 km to be as low as possible. In this case BELOW 12 litres / 100 km.