Audi A3 Second Hand

Seinfeld

I'm thinking strongly of getting one of these in November. Either the A3 or a 1.6 Golf, the golf would be a year younger but I think I'd prefer the A3. Does anyone here drive one already that may tell me what they are like, reliable or dodgy, any particular praises or complaints. Being an Audi I presume they would be pretty good.

aodh_rua

I had a golf and traded it in for a 1.6 '02 A3 in March. Great car, I've had one little problem a sensor in the exhaust went after about a month, but the dealer replaced it for free.

It's very comfortable, nice to drive and pretty responsive when you need it. Not sure how the 1.6 Golf performs, but the A3 is definitely better the 1.9 diesel I had before (no surprises there). Plus the Audi will hold its value every bit as well as the Golf. The only downside is that the car is a bit thirsty.

Seinfeld

I presume it's a bit heavier than the Golf so would be a little less responsive and drink more fuel. I drive a one litre at the moment so I guess I'll be completely shocked a the difference. I've heard in the past a problem with Audi's that the power windows sometime wind down by themselves, have you heard of thsi problem. I'm not sure if it was model specific though. I read it in the times motoring supplement

aodh_rua

No problems with the windows (yet) and I haven't heard of the problem before. The only thing that's common to the A3's is that you have to keep an eye on the oil level as I think the engine can run a little hot. Some of the 1.6's also do a funny cut in revs if the car is stopped that means you have to give it a little welly before pulling off, even on the flat.

As for it being less responsive than the Golf, I'd be surprised if that was the case. Part of going for the better marque would have been improved responsiveness.

Seinfeld

Cheers for the advice, it's hard to find official info on the car as all I can get is the new model. I think my mind is made up on the A3 and I should be able get a three year old one for a decent price. Insurance goes up by €400 but it's worth it

aodh_rua

Best of luck! I got mine for the guts of €22000 down in Grange Motors, immaculate condition with the alloys and sport suspension. Lovely car although if you can get one with the 1.9TDi engine you'll not pay much more in insurance but you'll save a packet on fuel.

Seinfeld

Is the performance as good with the diesel? How about engine noise too? Hmmm

aodh_rua

I haven't driven the diesel A3 but I have tried the A4 and the performance is like greased lightning (especially the 'red-eye' 130bhp models). The cabin is pretty well insulated so there's very little noise.

Calibos

Just traded my '98 1.6 A3 Ambition(sport) in against a brand new 2.0L TDI ambition at Grange Motors. I do very low mileage and so I only had 20700 on my '98 A3! I never put a mark on it myself but it suffered a few little 'oul dear' trolley dents over the years and last year tiles blew off the roof onto the bonnet scratching it. Grange will be putting those right because apparently with such low mileage its 'nearly new' and a new owner would expect a blemish free exterior whereas if the car had 100,000 miles and it was priced accordingly, the little dents wouldn't be much of an issue.

As for how I found the car. It never gave me an ounce of trouble. I never had to spend a penny on it bar servicing. Because of my low mileage I didn't even have to pay for tyres as they were only reaching minimum depth when I got the new car. In fact it was only the fronts. The rears had massive amount of thread left so I just switched them around a few months ago. The 1.6 engine was lively too. Very very nippy. The main reason I went for the ambition(sport) was the sport suspension. Its not lowered but stiffer. Whereas the non sport models of the mark I A3 and Mark IV golf was very wallowy, the sports were the perfect stiffness with less body roll but without being a harse ride. If I was getting a mark I A3 I'd go for one with the sport suspension.

The golf is a good car too, my brother has a '00 1.6. Basically its exactly the same car under the skin as the A3, only differance are the interior and exterior skin.

I've heard of the window problem on Audi TT's alright but never heard of it on an A3. Mine certainly never did this. The one glitch in the electrics was the sunroof. On rare occasions if you opened the sunroof at the same time as one of the windows, the sunroof would get confused and its postion would not correspond to the sunroof dial. ie you'd turn the dial to tilt and the sunroof would slide open 2/3 or something etc. What you had to do was set the dial to closed, pop the winder cover off and manually wind the roof closed, putting the dial and roof back in sync. That was the only glitch I ever came across.

Note there was a facelift in 2000 or 2001 IIRC. Main difference was different selection of alloys, silver rubbing strips on outside and most importantly much better headlights.

aodh_rua

Mine's an ambition too.

I do find the sunroof gets confused if you're opening windows say at the same time - it usually works if you put the dial back to whatever position matches the way the sunroof finds itself and try it again.

aldy05

I have a 99 Golf Mk4 1.6 and a 99 Audi A3 1.6. The A3 is much better for acceleration and better handling but the Golf is better for comfort. Golf has less problems too. Aparently according to a guy i know in an Audi garage some A3s like mine have been known to burn oil till it almost runs out, ive had to top up monthly. garage cant find where the oil is going and its not smoking or leaking. A3 is also much harder on petrol, also common electrical faults include lights and electric window problems but aparently there is a recall on some models.

Calibos

I'm thinking strongly of getting one of these in November......

......2004!

If the OP ever bought one I'd say its even been sold again at this stage.