It’s a sad day when you have to clear your car of your personal belongings and bring the car to the dealership to get traded in.

I’ve had the S3 for a little over two years now and during this period, I’ve driven her a little over 42000 km and spent a good deal of time getting to know the car. The S3 was serviced regularly and sometimes even more frequently that the recommended intervals. I tried to take care of it as much as I possibly can, I even treated it with Opticoat Pro from Definitive Car Detailing to preserve it’s paint condition.

As I bought the car pre-owned it was already a couple of years old when I took ownership, during this time and the remaining warranty period it never had any issues. Towards the end and after performing the major service which included the dreaded DSG service I decided that it was time to move on. I was transporting the kids around a lot more and I thought I’d get something a little more practical. Coincidentally the car began to develop some faults while I was searching for another car, various faults came up on the VCDS scans which pretty much sealed it’s fate.

The dealership had valued her in the mid 30’s $$$ and I had expected that, they even had the balls to try and offer me $27k for it which was never going to happen. Once I got the highest trade in valuation I can get, it was just a matter of deciding on which car to get however that’s another story on another post.

The 2014 Audi S3 Sportback is a brilliant brilliant little sports car powered by a 2.0L turbocharged engine producing 206kW and 380Nm of torque and when you put your foot down, there’s no denying that it’s capable of 0-100km/h in 5.0 seconds. The best thing about the S3 was that it made an excellent car as a daily driver, it had multiple drive settings which you can set if you’re in stuck in the Sydney traffic or stretching it’s legs on Bells Line of Rd towards the Blue Mountains which I did at least once a month. I ran a JB4 tune on the car in Map 2 and didn’t touch it after that, I could have sent the logs to burger tuning for optimised settings but didn’t have time to. The JB4 piggy back tune was excellent and claims to increase bhp by +40, to be honest I could not verify these claims myself as I didn’t have access to a dyno but I can certainly vouch for an increase in performance. The S3 was quick enough at stock settings so you can imagine any increase is an added bonus. The other option which I decided against was the APR tune, after checking the revision of the turbo in my car it was found to have the part number of some of the turbos that were failing in the UK and other countries. It seemed like too much of a hassle to deal with if I ever faced that predicament so I decided I didn’t need it.

The S3 was surprisingly quite economical to run, I ran 98 octane petrol on it which is the recommended rating for this engine. Getting 600km out of a full tank in mixed motorway and city driving is not uncommon. One of the things that you do need to watch and carry a top up bottle for is OIL. I found myself topping up approximately 1L of oil every 3 months not sure if this was ever improved on the newer S3 sedans. There are some annoying things about the S3 that I wish were different, one of them was the DYNAMIC mode setting, in this setting the gear ratios are changed dramatically to extract every bit of power from the car during an aggressive driving session however it holds the 2nd gear really really long and I found myself screaming out for it to change gear already or I ended up shifting manually because you sound like a lunatic with the engine revving to 6000rpm. The car feels like it’s encouraging you to put your foot down so it can go through the 6 speed DSG like a bat out of fell. The only problem is if you get caught, there’s a good chance you’ll lose your license for at least 6 months. It’s a little bit like “All or nothing” with this car. The individual mode can be set according to what you like but it just doesn’t produce the same exhaust note as the dynamic mode. The other annoying things about the S3 is the lack of powered driver and passenger seats, heating is included but the memory setting is not available. My wife also drives the car and she’s shorter than I am, she never puts my seat back how she found it and I find myself with different seating positions every single time.  This model with the Sports Performance Pack which includes diamond stitched Nappa leather and Bang & Olufsen sound system does not included power mirrors or blind spot monitoring. That is too much to ask from Audi at the price point that this car is in. No car is perfect I suppose and if you want one close to perfection then you better have deeper pockets. So the question is “Would I buy and own another Audi S3?” and  the answer is resounding “HELL YEAH!” I looked at the Golf R Wolfsburg wagon and while it’s the same engine as the S3 and all the tech you can possibly throw at it, it was missing something. For a car nearing a $70k price tag, it certainly lacked a bit of the premium touch and finish to it which is a shame because the car sounds like an absolute beast. I’m holding my breath for Audi to release a slightly bigger S3 in a wagon because VW and Mercedes Benz already own a chunk in that segment.

It’s been almost a week now since I traded my S3 in and I miss it but I’m a dad now with two young daughters one of which has started kindergarten and the other one due at pre-school next year. It’s all about practicality now and I have to let the mild boy-racer in me take a back seat. It seems I have no brand loyalty which is good in some ways. Maybe an A4 Avant in a few years…

List of VCDS Mods I’ve found for the Audi S3 8V

I booked the Q7 in at BWA Seven Hills last Monday for the following works to be done:

Front rotors – giving these Sebro a try
Front and rear pads – decided to go with the Textar Ceramics.
All sensors to be replaced.

I was looking at around $1500 for the job which in hindsight was actually quite close to the $1700 I was quoted by Audi Parramatta to have the same works done but with OEM parts.
BWA gave me a MK V Golf Diesel as a loan car which has been tuned to some ridiculous amount of torque (400nm they reckon) but that’s another story.

BWA gave me a call and said that the front discs are fine and don’t need to be replaced (savings $$$$), I was quite pleased with this as I had a feeling they were still ok.
Considering they’ve been highly recommending these Sebro discs, I would’ve of thought they will just replace it anyway.

By around 1pm I got another call to advise that the replacements had been done and I can pick up the car.

Thoughts on the Textar Ceramics:

Not as “grabby” as the OEM pads I thought which to me is not such a bad thing since I do tend to brake quite early and after driving a manual car for so many years, I got used to engine braking to preserve my brakes on the old Citroen C4. I find that I don’t have to feather the brakes as much with the Textar ceramics as it’s quite smooth through the progressive braking.
I’m not a braking expert but I would imagine your mileage may vary on the pads depending on your driving style.

The big test for the Textar Ceramics was today when we got in the car at 4:30am and headed out to Korora which is roughly 500 km’s north of Sydney fully loaded.
Going downhill at 110 km/h at Mooney Mooney, I felt confident with the brakes with a three year old daughter and a pregnant wife onboard.

How long will these pads last? probably until all four rotors will need to be replaced which is around another hopefully 35,000 Km

As far as “dusting” goes, I can honestly say very minimal if any. I haven’t washed the car again since I had the pads replaced so I can’t be 100% certain.

BWA Auto has a strong focus on Porsche and they push a lot of the Porsche parts that they carry hence the Textar recommendation, I did ask for ATE ceramics initially.

Would I buy the same pads again? still early to tell, we have another 3-4 hour drive tomorrow heading further up north and then back down to Sydney again next week. So far though, I’ve been more than happy with them based on their performance today and in the past week.

If anything changes in my opinion, I will certainly update this thread. 🙂

Hope my bit of feedback will help someone decide in the future.

Around 18 months ago I was posting and raving on about the fastest production 4-cylinder car in the world, the Mercedes AMG A45. I was dismayed however with the price of this vehicle when it hit the Australian market, such was the demand for the car that those that managed to secure one were reselling it for $10k more than what they are worth. Most likely giving it a bit of a hammering first before selling it. I knew then that owning the A45 wouldn’t be practical choice for a family car.

Isn’t it funny how some things just work out the way you’ve always day dreamed about. For the past 12 months the wife and I have been looking at getting our second car, a much bigger second car to accommodate our plus one and her baby paraphernalia. The choice had been easy, the Jeep Grand Cherookee. It offered plenty of features as standard and almost ticked all the boxes then something happened.

The Audi Q7 happened. The Q7 had always been the car that we’ve looked at from afar and thought, that would be nice to have. With its unmistakable Audi daytime running lights and overall road presence, it was definitely hard to miss. Perhaps it is a little extravagant but not impractical, it has 7 seats and a big enough boot space to fit all of Isla’s bits and pieces. We chose the 3.0Tdi as this was what we wanted from the very beginning.

So after ten weeks, I can definitely say that it is the best car I’ve ever driven. It’s comfortable, it handles well for such a long wheelbase car and most importantly Isla loves it. The premium cars are known for their insane “options” pricing and the Q7 is no different. There are two options that this vehicle should have as a standard which it doesn’t, one is the driver memory seat feature and the other are the folding mirrors. Both these options cost over $2k+ , you can buy another second hand vehicle for that price. Then you have the Bang & Olufsen upgrade which is an Advanced 14 speaker system costing a whopping $14,000 AUD, the system we have installed in ours is a Bose 14 Speaker system so you can only imagine what a $14k upgrade may sound like. According to the Audi website the “BOSE AudioPilot® Noise Compensation Technology first measures the background noise within the interior. Unwanted noise is then filtered out by special algorithms. BOSE AudioPilot® Noise Compensation Technology distinguishes between desired music and unwanted interference. It compensates for interference automatically – without the need for any manual adjustment of the audio system. The advantage: the driver can concentrate better on the traffic and in-car listening becomes an unrivaled sound experience“. Sounds fancy pants right!!? The last but not least of the major options is the 21” rims, these will set you back a cool $10k. Unless money is of no concern, then these upgrades are a must have if you want a fully loaded Q7.

Performance wise, the 3.0 Litre turbocharged diesel engine is no slouch, especially when you slip it into the “S” mode, plant your foot slightly on the accelerator and hold on when the light turns green. For such an enormous car it does “haul ass” for the lack of a better term. Since I’ve been driving this car, I’ve had my fair share of a quick dash off the lights. The Audi Quattro which features torque vectoring ensures that all four wheels are planted when you put your foot down.

DRL – Audi’s famous Daytime Running Lights

I’d like to think that I’m not brand loyal and have an open mind when it comes to other vehicles however now that we’ve owned this Audi Q7, I figure we may as well embrace it. I even went as far as buying Audi cufflinks. (aaaargh! that’s douchey)

One of the biggest downside of owning this car is that it’s BLACK – it is a pain in the ass to keep clean but when it is clean, the solid black paint is deep and glossy as pictured below.

A few days ago I posted a concept car from Citroen called the DS4 Racing, unfortunately it doesn’t look like this car will ever go into production anytime soon. After being tortured by the unbelievable acceleration of a friend’s Ferrari 360 Modena, I find myself wanting something a bit nippier and since I cannot afford to buy a Ferrari I may have to just settle for a “hot hatch”. While I’m not in a position to buy one right now, there’s no harm in dreaming. So what are my choices? Not a lot to be honest, I’ll probably pass on a Hyundai Veloster, a VW Golf GTI which every Tom, Dick & Harry seems to own, I’ve never been a real fan of BMW’s, Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution’s would be nice if I was ten years younger. Those are fine cars but they’re not for me, I still need four doors since I am now a dad and my wife will no doubt insist on it.