2008 A3 sportback daysul

Annuv

Hi lads,
my wife has her heart set on a diesel A3 sportback 2008 and I see that there's a few low mileage ones on autodirect.ie

Now I'm aware that a lot of people will recommend alternatives to this 'golf in drag' but I was hoping to get some advice on these A3s, as A3s go if you know what I mean.

At the moment I'm not really interested in alternatives. Additionally for the moment, she's only interested in cars from a dealer (rightly or wrongly)

I've read a few older threads on A3s and as far as I'm aware the 2.0CR was not available in 08 so I assume the 1.9 is preferable to 2.0 PD in terms of reliability, if not refinement?

About the A3s on autodirect, they're listed as specical editions. Now I was never aware of a specicial edition and from looking at the ones on autodirect (e.g http://www.autodirect.ie/audi-a3/eo08ayppd.aspx) I don't see anything particularly special about them including the hub cap mimicing wheels. So can anyone tell me about this special addition and what it's supposed to entail? For me the lack of six speed box is a killer.

What do you think of the price taking into account that trade ins are not possible?

And finally, autodirect - there was a thread on here about them last year where people appeared to be a little sceptical, but has anyone any experiences with them? They come with a motorcheck report as far as I know which is something

Thanks

R.O.R

From memory, the special edition had Alloys, A/C and USB Connectivity - non of which were standard on the A3 at that point. They were the run out model before the facelift.

€15,000 for a 3 year old, fairly standard 1.9Tdi A3 sounds a bit pricey to me. Even with low mileage, but that's not always a good thing.

Annuv

R.O.R wrote: »

From memory, the special edition had Alloys, A/C and USB Connectivity - non of which were standard on the A3 at that point. They were the run out model before the facelift.

€15,000 for a 3 year old, fairly standard 1.9Tdi A3 sounds a bit pricey to me. Even with low mileage, but that's not always a good thing.

Thanks R.O.R, yeah the price isn't amazing but seems comparable to other similar cars in dealers
What do you think of it being 5 speed, in a diesel at motorway speeds does it make much difference? I know in my petrol car the lack of a sixth gear drives me nuts

bazz26

Is that the crowd who used to trade under the name PFA Ltd or something who didn't exactly have a glowing recommendation due to the fact that they didn't actually have any cars in stock in this country, they just took poor photos of cars at auction and wanted a silly amount deposit before they would bring the car into the country or am I mistaken?

YouTookMyName

You'd be better off taking a look through autotrader/used cars ni and going up north for one.

AutoDirect.ie

bazz26 wrote: »

Is that the crowd who used to trade under the name PFA Ltd or something who didn't exactly have a glowing recommendation due to the fact that they didn't actually have any cars in stock in this country, they just took poor photos of cars at auction and wanted a silly amount deposit before they would bring the car into the country or am I mistaken?

Hi guys, sorry for the intrusion, great to see people talking about us and discussing the product. Only dipping in to correct a small (but important) point - our company, AutoDirect.ie, is not and never has been trading as PF Autos / PFA. We set up the company from scratch in 2009 and have been working hard ever since to build a strong reputation for quality and value. If not, you'd probably have read all about it right here by now!

I believe they operated for some time from Tougher's Business Park, where we're based, but that's the height of the similarities :P

If you ever have any questions you need answering about the company or our cars, please just drop us a line on info@autodirect.ie or give us a call on 045409075; we'd be delighted to help.

Kind regards,

The AutoDirect.ie Team

-Chris-

R.O.R wrote: »

From memory, the special edition had Alloys, A/C and USB Connectivity - non of which were standard on the A3 at that point. They were the run out model before the facelift.

That's exactly it, but it was a €1,500 optional extra to get those 3 options together rather than €3,000 rather than a run-out spec increase.
I don't think the pack should add anything to the second hand value, the wheels are gack, the iPod connection is very basic and I wouldn't even consider buying an A3 without A/C.

Annuv wrote: »

What do you think of it being 5 speed, in a diesel at motorway speeds does it make much difference? I know in my petrol car the lack of a sixth gear drives me nuts

Test drive one and get your own opinion on it, but I wouldn't have any issue over only having 5 gears on that car.

Annuv wrote: »

What do you think of the price taking into account that trade ins are not possible?

@Autodirect.ie - can you not take in Trade-ins? Is it on a case-by-case basis or a strict rule?

r3nu4l

Caveat to my post. I live in England and bought my A3sportback there.

Mine is a 2008 A3 sportback. It's a 2.0L CR (170 PS) quattro.
In England the CR engine became available for the 58reg plate release in September of that year, which is when I bought mine. So if you do decide on the UK then a 58plate will probably have the CR engine. The 2008 model was a face lifted version with larger mirrors than the older version as an easily distinguishable feature (in case someone tries to pull a fast one on you)