TheWalrus

I'm curious what you think of the A3 after the 330xi. There's a part of me that thinks I was a little foolish getting a convertible given my outdoor sports kick, but otherwise I'm loving it.

Was the 330 manual? Does DSG compare? How about in the handling department? Feel free to email me offline...

-james

Jack_Smackus

to a degree more nimble. But I think thats because the A3 has a lower centre of gravity but don't quote me on that. Even though I haven't tracked the A3 it seems to sit flatter in the turns were the E46 had quite the body role at times. The suspension on the X makes it sit like a inch higher than the non X and in comparison to the A3 the A3 feels dramatically lower than the Xi. It is really too bad that you can't control the dicipation of power in Quattro because nothing beats rear wheel drive, nothing. And the 330xi has the similar torsen 40-60 but is actually 38-62 split the Xi. On long sweeping corners you feel the front wheels pushing back to centre, argh. BMW has it's wonderful 50-50 weight distribution and why Audi continues to put their engines over the front Axels is beyond me. Also I just drove the A3 in the snow and easily I can tell Quattro is suppior to the first gen X drive. Quattro easily has more grip in my opinion.

I don't know I could go on and on about the pros and cons of both forever. I wish I could own both. I love my A3 to pieces but I miss the 330xi like a ****.

DSG kicks *** and will out perform a manual all the time. The 330xi was a manual, great transmission and being a hardcore manual driver I often feel the pain of being less involved, well until I run into traffic.

Ugh I don't know what to say. I love/loved both.