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Help me decide which Cab please!


gizze
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I have decided to get rid of the A3 S-line and get a cheap A2 for a run around and a Cab.

A2 is no problem but the Cab is, not sure whether to go cheap as possible, or get something really nice, the ones I have seen so far that really stand out are.....

03 plate 3.0 sport, blue with black leather, heated seats, 6 speed, symphony bose, 32k £22k private sale.

04 plate 3.0 quattro sport tiptronic, dolphin, black leather, heated seats, symphony bose, wind deflector, 19k £25k private sale.

Then we went to have a look at another car for £25k today, it was at a main dealer and it was a 1.8t manual in Silver with black hide and heated seats on a 53 plate, while we were there though he said he had an S-line cab available in 4 weeks.

We had a look and my wife thought it was great, which is all I needed to sign on the line wink.gif

It was a 1.8t multitronic S-line 54 plate.

3000 miles

Pearl black

Black hide with s-line aluminum trim

bluetooth phone prep

DVD nav+

hetaed seats

lumbar

Bose

and it looked superb!

price £32k maybe a little less, however with the residuals the monthly repayments are still doable.

For once I held back and thought I would see if there were any 3.0 cars around with the same spec at the same price, I had not actually been looking at that price bracket until today.

While searching and ringing round I was offered the following.

04 S4 cab

demonstator and one owner.

red with black alcantara, 6 speed, nav , xenons, and a few other toys.

It has 9000 miles on it and is going for £33,500.

Now the sensible me is saying buy one of the first two cars, however the S4 is very tempting, apart from the fuel bills!.

I think I have decided although the 1.8t S-line looks amazing, I think I would always be thinking I should have gone for the bigger engine.

How do S4 cabs hold there value? looking round tonight it would seem that the 3.0 and the S4 do not hold up as well as the 1.8t and the 2.5tdi des even better still.

So what would you do?

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The S4 sounds cheap to me, been looking round at the second hand prices of 3.0Q and S4's and the dealers seem to price the S4's way higher.

Choices, choices, I think I would go for the S4, even if only for 12 months.

The S-line sounds nicely spec'd though!

Would have thought the S4 would loose less money at that price. Saying that, there seems to be quite a few S4's knocking round on the forecourts. Good time of year to haggle on price!

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i wouldnt spend 32K on a 1.8T. extras will plummet in value, so you'll be onto a loser there.

the S4 seems to be a great price. wonder why?

the difference between your cheapest and dearest is over 10K tho...

so you could buy the cheaper one, use it as a highmileage daily driver and you wouldnt need the A2?

thats the route i took. i couldnt stand to be in an inferior car for the majority of the time, just to prevent putting mileage on my favourite car. false economy i think.

after all, you never know when the suns gonna shine 169144-ok.gif

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Been through the same scenario recently.

Newer cab or older cab.

I compromised - older cab but 3L!

Nicely specced was a must.

The sensible me said - spend as little as you can to get what you want about 2 years old. Then, the deprecitation is about 60-70% of the 3 year depreciation.

I would NEVER buy a new car again, tempting as it is!

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OK mate, more thoughts :

The car I purchased yesterday, specced on the new car audi configurator would cost 35k. It's two years old and has already lost 10k.

A new S4 cab would be more once you've added the toys and the robbers are still selling used ones for 33k.

So, you have a much larger initial outlay for a very nice car, which MAY retain it's value.

Still, imagine how gutted I was 23.5k of new car last year traded in for 16.5k!

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The S4 I mentioned above was the best out of 4 or 5, all of them on 04 plates, all under 10,000 miles apart from 1 which had done 13,000, and all of them under £36k. Only one of them is not from a main dealer too and that is the one with 13,000 miles on it, although that is a tiptronic.

Most of the spec on the S4 is standard aprt from, bose, nav, xenons and all the other toys are small, like interior light package, luggage package etc. so the new price would be around £45k so £33500 seems OK. But it is amazing how much difference there is in price between dealers on the same spec. cars.

[ QUOTE ]

the difference between your cheapest and dearest is over 10K tho...

so you could buy the cheaper one, use it as a highmileage daily driver and you wouldnt need the A2?

thats the route i took. i couldnt stand to be in an inferior car for the majority of the time, just to prevent putting mileage on my favourite car. false economy i think.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't thinking of that really, my wife has been using the A3 all the time recently and I think I have done about 2,000 miles since we had it and she has done the other 8,000, and whenever I need to pop out anywhere the car has gone, so I get left with her MX5 which I hate.

She loves the A2 and we have been offered an X plate 1.4se with 30,000 miles on it for just over £5k, so we will rid the old mx5 and have that as a runaround car, something we can run for 4 years and not care about milage or condition etc. cause it won't owe us anything.

I wouldn't really want to do the 30,000 miles a year we do all in an S4. It would loose too much money, if I was doing all the miles myself, well, that would be different wink.gif

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The 1.8T and the S4 Cab are completely different.

I can understand deliberating between 1.8T and 3.0 OR 3.0 and S4, but the range of cars you are considering is immensly wide. Do some demo's and decide which you want.

For what it's worth here is my opinion of what it the merits of the three options:

1.8T still a fab car but the engine is just a tiny bit coarse and underpowered to make the most of the car. A soft top car really needs a sweet motor and the 1.8T doesn't quite cut it.

S4 stupendous performance but the ownership cost is too high to consider unless you really want that performance (or are loaded).

3.0 nice sweet motor, decent performance and economy. The downside is that it is too dear new, makes good sense second hand.

BTW we demo'd a A3 2.0TDI at the weekend, it's performance seemed much stronger than my old 1.8T cab.

Let us know what you decide.

Cheers

CabMac

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Yeah very good advice, and pretty much what I had decided.

When weighing up the S4 vs the 3.0 I dont think I can justify the difference, not just overall cost but the servicing, insurance, fuel etc.

If money was no object then why not, but it isn't unfortunately.

So I am going to look out for a 3.0 cab with exactly the spec. I want and at the right price.

Thanks all.

BTW why were you demoing the A3 TDI?

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[ QUOTE ]

BTW why were you demoing the A3 TDI?

[/ QUOTE ]

For my wife, she wants a sportback. How long did you own yours and how did you find it?

We tested a 1.6FSI 1st but I thought it was a little short of go and got gruff when pushed.

The 2.0TDI really ammazed me with it's performance, felt stronger than the figures suggest. Even the rev range wasn't too bad. The only thing that concerned me was the noise at low speeds. No fooling anyone that it's not a diesel frown.gif. Did you find it spoiled the enjoyment of the car or do you quickly get used to it.

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Cabmac, I have had the following diesels from oldest to newest, with petrols in between....

95 1.9tdi a4

98 1.9 tdi avant 110bhp

02 320d touring 150bhp

03 ML270cdi 190bhp (remapped as it was slow as stock)

02 2.5tdi A4 avant 163bhp

04 2.0tdi A3 140bhp

So I am used to the diesel sound, but I have to say that when I got my A3 I really noticed it at low speeds, that was with 2000 miles on it, but I had just come from the V6 Audi diesel which was very smooth and quiet, however now it has 9000 miles on it it has calmed down alot, still not as good as the V6 but, better than any of the others above. I wouldn't worry about it, doesn't spoil the car at all mate.

Rev range. I never knew what all the fuss was about until I got the auto, now I would never buy a diesel manual again, my wife thought I was mad getting the sporty little A3 with the DSG, but she is a total convert, she stopped me buying a manual 3.0 cab yesterday as she really wants another auto now and does not want to go back, so a complete turn around for her. We borrowed a sportback 2.0tdi sport manual the other day before thinking about cabs and she hated it. And they say we are fussy!!

I found mine by trawling through the usual places, I wanted all the toys I was used to but didn't want to spend over £27,000 on such a small car, so I hunted round and got one 3 months old and paid £24,500. If I had not been as fussy about wanting the S-Line I could have probably saved more, but I wanted the S suspension as the sport didn't feel quite right, and really didn't like the feel of the SE.

CM, well I found a car that I like the look of, two actually, near enough the same, the one that is really taking my fancy is...

July 03 Dolphin grey 3.0 sport auto.

17" kraft alloys

Black leather

birch trim

heated front and rear seats with lumbar

armrest

symphony bose

xenons

wind deflector

dimming mirrors

24,000 miles

and I think that is it from memory.

I have made an offer on it and spoke to the people who do my finance and they have done me a good package, with a balloon of £10k after 36 months which will hopefully be about right to leave me a little deposit for the nest one.

If he accepts my offer I can afford to do my S-line for £20,750 which someone has offered me, and leave myself enough to put the DVD Nav+ in the cab too.

So I am sitting with fingers crossed.

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[ QUOTE ]

July 03 Dolphin grey 3.0 sport auto.

17" kraft alloys

Black leather

birch trim

heated front and rear seats with lumbar

armrest

symphony bose

xenons

wind deflector

dimming mirrors

24,000 miles

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats a nice spec.

If you have kids, they will really appreciate the rear heated seats 169144-ok.gif

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