HarktheAudi

Thanks Trevor !

Thanks Andy - that's a useful start for me , I'll deffo check that out. ps How long did you have the cat??? :-)

Hi Y'all I'm just about to buy an Audi again after a five year break and wondered why others are attracted to the marque??? I've been driving for 40 years (old bugger) and the only serial-buying I've done before has been Merc estates ( 4 of them) starting with a 200TE in 1990.. Great cars and got me hooked on premium German engineering but my need for a load-lugger is over. Back in the mid 90's I had a temporary loan (2 months) of an Audi A4 2.4 manual as my company car was being ordered. Both the wife (having her approve is very important as we share our cars) really liked it. I loved the styling of the original A4s and the peppy 2.4 six and the fawn leather interior made it a really enjoyable experience. Fast forward to 2002 and the wife's Golf Cabriolet needed changing with the arrival of sprog number 2 and a "sensible" hatchback was on the cards. It also needed to carry my wife's huge working kit in the boot section (expensive items so could not be carried with the back seats down). We had seen the A2 in a showroom and were impressed by the quality, the aluminum technology and the (then) very futuristic styling (we forget how much of an impact the look of this and the Merc A Class has a the time) and by chance Audi decided to offload a batch of brand-new A2s on the market at a huge discount ( they weren't selling very well when a Toyota Yaris was 70% of the new price with similar performance specifications on paper)...and enjoyed 12 years of this legendary car until a 17 year old "hot-rodder" decided to wipe it out on a roundabout...grr With the A2 well out of production we opted to replace it with a Merc A Class - nice but nowhere near as good a car as our trusty A2. Which brings me to today,,,,kids grown up and the wife wanting to go back to convertible motoring our choices were; A Merc 200SLK Kompressor Convertible A BMW 120I Convertible An Audi A3 2.0 TFSI Convertible. Merc was ruled out as although a formidable car it was hard if not impossible to get a manual and it's a bit too big (also the image is a bit retired-golf-club-frequenter for me). BMW looked to be the winner (*gasp!*) as I also had the requirement of occasionally towing a 1000kg boat and trailer combo and the RWD and extra weight of the BMW seemed to count in it's favour for this.,,,,,and then I talked to my neighbour who hates his 2008 BMW 320 estate because of constant coil and injector failings that's driven him to despair....When I looked into it BMWs with four pot 1.8. and 2.0 seem to have a terrible history of expensive failures once the cars have done over 50k miles, since this mainly seems to affect those made between 2008 and 2012 (ie just the years I would be buying) I dropped the idea like a hot sauerkraut ... I've recently got rid of a "nothing but trouble" car so...never again!!! So A3 Convertible wins by a mile! ...secretly I'm, pleased as I never saw myself as a "Beemer Boy" .. Sorry to go on! What's your story???

Ok - something I think would be really useful... A sticky thread or a table (continuously updated) of independent Audi specialists for servicing/repairs...a table would be better, organised by region area so ypou can quickly find specialists in Cumbria, Manchester area SW London for instance without trawling through a load of posts. 14 years ago we bought an A2 - fantastic car! We had it serviced by an official Audi dealer for the first 4 years but, as you know, that gets expensive. I ran a Merc as well at the time and we had a brilliant Merc & BMW independant less than a mile away but I couldn't find an Audi equvilent. About that time our Audi service center had twinned with Bentley so visiting the service area was like walking into a Park Lane hotel - all marble floors, pot plants and yachting magazines on the tables with hospital operating room cleanliness and logoed mechanics in crisp clean overalls that seemed at odds with the vehicle lifts dotted around...very nice don't get me wrong but you could feel yourself sweating £50 notes just walking in. I had the A2 belts serviced at a recommend all-makes garage and although they did the job they totally screwed the service indicator which lit up with so many faults afterwards I'm sure I saw "Code B3838 Ashtray Full" as one of them...main dealer had to rectify this and I never went back to the "all makes monkeys" So I tried the (then) Audi A2 Forum and innocently enquired of a SW London independent....The replies I got were the most unhelpful and snotty I ever got on an owners forum...Basically a lecture on the fact I should use official Audi servicing and the very idea of going to an independent was shocking and deviant behaviour akin to wanting to murder the Archbishop of Canterbury.... Thanks guys, no effing help at all, so I left the forum unsurprisingly. So thee you have it... a list of independents please/ Oh and if anyone knows good independent(s) in SW London I would be most grateful if you let me knoW!!!

Maybe I should make clear I mean Cabriolet not cab as in taxi! Although "cabriolet" is a silly term (shows I'm stuck in the 90's with Golf and Escort and Peugeot 205 Cabriolets flying about all over the place..) No I guess "Cabriolet" means saloon with roof lopped off and a ruddy great hoop connecting the "B" pillars to try and stiffen the body. So what I meant to say is I'm after an A3 Convertible! Glad I cleared that up!

Hi all - about to jump into Audi again after a 5 year gap. Looks like an A3 Cab in my sights - either 1.8 or 20.TFSI - 2008 to 2012 dependant on finances!