After a few years in driving around in lower Litre cars I have finally got to an age where insurance is a bit cheaper so I am able to afford a better more expensive and quicker car.

When you think of Audi most people will think of a Prestige brand with great looking cars, reliable, they hold their value well and their dealerships are generally pretty good. At least that's the view that I had of them when I went into the dealership looking at a Used Audi a3, and I was not wrong. I found a beautiful Dolphin Grey Audi A3 with the 1.8T engine and all the usual spec to boot and I was immediately in love.

The moment you sit in the drivers seat in the A3 you are immediately put at ease, the seats hug every part of your body, the seats in mine are Half leather so no boiling seats in the summer and cold in the winter they are just fine and look a lot better in my opinion then the full leather. On the outside of the seat is black leather then on the inside of the seat it is blue diagonal lines with black cloth, looks very nice and they look like Recaros. I love the gear knob it has a leather gear knob and gaiter and a lovely chrome trim around it, the steering wheel is a sports one with extra indents for more grip, looks good as well. My car also had an optional white dials on the dash, they look great during the day, then at night the whole dash lights up white and red. It also has a very useful cigarette lighter socket just below the stereo and a very convenient cup holder above the stereo. It has a 6Cd Changer stereo in the dash so no going to the boot to put your cd's in, It has in total 9 speakers, consisting of two woofers in the front doors and two tweeters, and two woofers and two tweeters in the rear door card, it also has a small subwoofer in the boot in the n/s rear of the boot in a closed compartment, the sound quality is excellent and turns up full with no distortion, even though it is not the bose set-up it is still well beyond most other manufacturers. The Boot is very small for a car of this size and compared to the Golf and Seat Leon it is the smallest of the lot, you can fit a set of golf clubs in there but have to take the drivers out as they are too long, the boot is not that deep either but it does have a full size alloy spare wheel in their so that's a compromise I suppose.

Firstly I'd like to start off with the Lights an important safety device, the headlights are fantastic, they are very bright and look like zexon projector headlights from the front, it also has front fog lights which are also very handy for blinding other road users during the day time. The car is very understated in the looks department but I like it, the only really sporty feature is the alloy wheels apart from that it is exactly the same as any of the other models.

The cost of ownership is not for the light hearted the fuel economy is very poor in high twenties around town, servicing is also very expensive although does not have to be serviced for two years if like mine is on the long life servicing regime, which is 19000miles or two years, I however change the oil at roughly every 5k, works out to be around £300 for a long life service going up with the amount of miles you do i.e. more for 40k then more for 60k. The cars from new do come with a three year warranty so if anything does go wrong it will not cost you a thing and there are also a lot of Audi dealers around mine being only about 5 miles from my house which is great for me.

The next thing that I brought was a lower suspension strut brace, this helps to stiffen up the front sub frame to stop flex when cornering, it also stiffened up the steering slightly which I liked, and I am hoping to get an upper strut brace soon to compliment the lower one, the Audi S3 had these as standard equipment, but it also fits my car.

Now that I had the power I found that the brakes were quite lacking and had a couple of near misses, so I went about upgrading them, I managed to source some Audi S3 rear callipers, this meant that I could run rear vented discs or bigger diameter and thickness, instead of the puny thin solids ones they have as standard, so now I had 256mm vented rear discs and I brought some Greenstuff Pads as well as I have used these before on previous vehicles and found them to be good, I also upgraded the front to greenstuff pads to compliment the backs, just need to save up now and either get a Brembo front brake kit which consists of 323mm discs or get the standard S3 brakes which are 312mm, the standard ones are 288mm.

I just thought i'd write abit about the car it self aswell, to drive around town it is a dream, its gear changes are so smooth, power delivery is good, nice and progressive, It has the most comfortable seats i have ever sat in, in a car, it has excellent adjustment on the seats, electronic lumber support for the back, height adjustment on the seat and also tilt on the side.
The interior looks great for a nearly three year old car, everything is as it should be its not all cheap plastic like the VW's and skodas, the leather seats are lovely with contrasting leather gear knob and gaitor, electric windows on the front, only a three door! Climate Control, DIS Driver Information System, Six Cd Changer in Dash, sports steering wheel, 17" alloys, it looks good. I have only topped the oil up about once since ive had it 7000 miles and put about 100ml in, amazing. Told me i had a headlight bulb not working the other day aswell, this car is amazing.