Discussion
HI Everyone
Went to have a peek at an Audi S3 yesterday, twas very nice. The interior was a little "pimp my ride" with black leather and purple alcantara but otherwise it was good. miles were a little high at 55k but it has a few goodies like a switchable chip, eibach springs and dampers, miltek exhaust and sports cats. Price £12,999 but they could do a deal if i don't have a part ex.
Thing is like most of us petrol heads I cannot trust dealers, franchised or not. The car was at Snippersgate motor company - has anyone had any experience of them?
car is due a service but I can tell it has been the previous owners pride and joy.
Went to have a peek at an Audi S3 yesterday, twas very nice. The interior was a little "pimp my ride" with black leather and purple alcantara but otherwise it was good. miles were a little high at 55k but it has a few goodies like a switchable chip, eibach springs and dampers, miltek exhaust and sports cats. Price £12,999 but they could do a deal if i don't have a part ex.
Thing is like most of us petrol heads I cannot trust dealers, franchised or not. The car was at Snippersgate motor company - has anyone had any experience of them?
car is due a service but I can tell it has been the previous owners pride and joy.
quite possible Bob, I was looking for a car that was standard (don't we all) but after looking through audi-sport.net almost all of the folks over there have had their cars chipped. As we know sites like ours attract the enthusiast who cares for their car and adds mods as they go (look at my 'Liz - modded to the max)
The dealer was happy to pass over the previous owners details if I wanted to discuss the history with him, I found that unusual for a dealer.
The dealer was happy to pass over the previous owners details if I wanted to discuss the history with him, I found that unusual for a dealer.
Yes Paul they are just up the road, have gone into Elise's in a big way recently, Ive never actually bought a car from them, he always seems to have his motors at the right price though, I know the owner of the petrol station which is attached to the garage Ill ask him about the dealer, I think they are OK though, always have nice motors in.
yeah I noticed he has been doing Elises recently and has a good selection of high end cars. He got his knuckles wrapped over on nyloc.org back in the summer as the site doesn't allow dealers to advertise directly, his login name gave the game away, it was snippersgate!
Also, a little underhand IMO, he had sold a S1 Elise which over the course of a few days developed a blown exhaust, nothing wrong with that but it is obvious to see once the under tray has been removed, so it begs the question was the under tray ever removed? To make it worse though he agreed to replace the exhaust with a new one and then logged on to nyloc.org and went through the "For Sale" section and found someone who was selling a used standard S1 exhaust, thats not what I would have expected as a customer. If that was me I would have hit the roof.
If you could ask the question of your friendly petrol station guy that wopuld be much appreciated.
Paul
Also, a little underhand IMO, he had sold a S1 Elise which over the course of a few days developed a blown exhaust, nothing wrong with that but it is obvious to see once the under tray has been removed, so it begs the question was the under tray ever removed? To make it worse though he agreed to replace the exhaust with a new one and then logged on to nyloc.org and went through the "For Sale" section and found someone who was selling a used standard S1 exhaust, thats not what I would have expected as a customer. If that was me I would have hit the roof.
If you could ask the question of your friendly petrol station guy that wopuld be much appreciated.
Paul
Ive spoken to the person I know, and they have said they have not heard anything bad about them? This isnt much help I know, but no news is usually good news, apparantly he is going into motorhomes from the USA on a huge scale 40k and upwards each, Winabagos? not sure if thats the correct spelling, I would buy a car from them but its up to you in the end.
Its really clean inside, the odd scuff here and there but otherwise good. The body is ok, couple of marks and two dings on the doors. alloys looked unmarked but the rear tyres were some brand I have not heard of. The in dash display flashed "SERVICE" once it was turned over so that wasn't so inspiring and the service history was complete upto 30-odd thousand miles and there is an invoice for the last service but I didn't get to see it.
I might pop back to have a second look later in the week and test drive it. I don't like giving dealers the knowledge that i'm going to turn up and test drive it, I have done that before and the car had been well warmed up prior to me arriving. I later found out after a bit of digging around that it burnt oil like mad - but only when cold!
I think we should do a NEPH group test drive and check, I will supply the pub lunches!
I might pop back to have a second look later in the week and test drive it. I don't like giving dealers the knowledge that i'm going to turn up and test drive it, I have done that before and the car had been well warmed up prior to me arriving. I later found out after a bit of digging around that it burnt oil like mad - but only when cold!
I think we should do a NEPH group test drive and check, I will supply the pub lunches!
I don't know the dealer, but from the advert and what you have said...
- Website states 2001 car - is it a pre-facelift interior?
- Irrespective of what Audi say, 55k is getting close to cambelt time (Audi say 80k, plenty of reports of them going early), so budget for that (and a water pump at the same time). Say £450.
- If it hasn't got FASH or a recognised Indie such as Fontain then that is another bargaining point.
- FSH to 30k(ish) then another service and now at 55k could be about right for the variable servicing, but did the display show 'SERVICE NOW' or 'SERVICE in xxx miles'. If the former, how long has it been like that? When and where was the last service done?
- The proper variable-mileage services aren't cheap (can't remember - £300?)
- Sounds like you need two rear tyres of a trusted brand (£200).
- Unless the mods are EXACTLY what you would do, then I wouldn't pay any more than a couple of hundred for them, although the exhaust is a quality one and if mint you could potentially sell/swap with a standard S3 for a few quid (and hassle).
Personally I wouldn't buy one without full leather, but other people must because there are lots out there.
For comparison, a few months ago I got a completely unmodified, 2002 (225 facelift) S3 in black, with full black leather for a £1300 less the sticker price on that one, and that included a fairly generous part-ex.
It has (or rather had!) absolutely no dings/scuffs, although there was the odd tiny stone chip. It was higher miles (67k) but had full main dealer SH and showed as being 10k from the next service on the computer.
I would shop around - there are plenty out there - decide the spec you want and see what price others fetch.
All IMHO of course.
- Website states 2001 car - is it a pre-facelift interior?
- Irrespective of what Audi say, 55k is getting close to cambelt time (Audi say 80k, plenty of reports of them going early), so budget for that (and a water pump at the same time). Say £450.
- If it hasn't got FASH or a recognised Indie such as Fontain then that is another bargaining point.
- FSH to 30k(ish) then another service and now at 55k could be about right for the variable servicing, but did the display show 'SERVICE NOW' or 'SERVICE in xxx miles'. If the former, how long has it been like that? When and where was the last service done?
- The proper variable-mileage services aren't cheap (can't remember - £300?)
- Sounds like you need two rear tyres of a trusted brand (£200).
- Unless the mods are EXACTLY what you would do, then I wouldn't pay any more than a couple of hundred for them, although the exhaust is a quality one and if mint you could potentially sell/swap with a standard S3 for a few quid (and hassle).
Personally I wouldn't buy one without full leather, but other people must because there are lots out there.
For comparison, a few months ago I got a completely unmodified, 2002 (225 facelift) S3 in black, with full black leather for a £1300 less the sticker price on that one, and that included a fairly generous part-ex.
It has (or rather had!) absolutely no dings/scuffs, although there was the odd tiny stone chip. It was higher miles (67k) but had full main dealer SH and showed as being 10k from the next service on the computer.
I would shop around - there are plenty out there - decide the spec you want and see what price others fetch.
All IMHO of course.
UpTheIron said:
I don't know the dealer, but from the advert and what you have said...
- Website states 2001 car - is it a pre-facelift interior?
- Irrespective of what Audi say, 55k is getting close to cambelt time (Audi say 80k, plenty of reports of them going early), so budget for that (and a water pump at the same time). Say £450.
- If it hasn't got FASH or a recognised Indie such as Fontain then that is another bargaining point.
- FSH to 30k(ish) then another service and now at 55k could be about right for the variable servicing, but did the display show 'SERVICE NOW' or 'SERVICE in xxx miles'. If the former, how long has it been like that? When and where was the last service done?
- The proper variable-mileage services aren't cheap (can't remember - £300?)
- Sounds like you need two rear tyres of a trusted brand (£200).
- Unless the mods are EXACTLY what you would do, then I wouldn't pay any more than a couple of hundred for them, although the exhaust is a quality one and if mint you could potentially sell/swap with a standard S3 for a few quid (and hassle).
Personally I wouldn't buy one without full leather, but other people must because there are lots out there.
For comparison, a few months ago I got a completely unmodified, 2002 (225 facelift) S3 in black, with full black leather for a £1300 less the sticker price on that one, and that included a fairly generous part-ex.
It has (or rather had!) absolutely no dings/scuffs, although there was the odd tiny stone chip. It was higher miles (67k) but had full main dealer SH and showed as being 10k from the next service on the computer.
I would shop around - there are plenty out there - decide the spec you want and see what price others fetch.
All IMHO of course.
Cheers for that extensive list of checkpoints, I will try to answer them as best I can.
Website states 2001 car - is it a pre-facelift interior? Its a facelift car, the indicators and front lights are one complete unit. I assume that the facelift exterior mods go hand in hand with the interior mods? What was changed interior wise?
Irrespective of what Audi say, 55k is getting close to cambelt time (Audi say 80k, plenty of reports of them going early), so budget for that (and a water pump at the same time). Say £450. OK I will keep that in mind - Cue Dan for a price for cambelt and water pump
If it hasn't got FASH or a recognised Indie such as Fontain then that is another bargaining point. I think it will have been serviced at Star Performance in Kirkcaldy where all of the mods were carried out. These guys have a good reputation among Audi owners, especially the "S" & "RS" boys, its on my list to check though.
FSH to 30k(ish) then another service and now at 55k could be about right for the variable servicing, but did the display show 'SERVICE NOW' or 'SERVICE in xxx miles'. If the former, how long has it been like that? When and where was the last service done? It said SERVICE NOW! Obviously the service invoice for the last service (which I didn't get to see) will have details.
The proper variable-mileage services aren't cheap (can't remember - £300?) I don't intend keeping it in the Variable service intervals. I only do 10k p.a. so an oil & filter change every year is more realistic, especially as much of my driving is town traffic stop start stuff. As for the Haldex service, I will probably get a filter and oil change done every year too as its not too expensive.
Sounds like you need two rear tyres of a trusted brand (£200). yep, deffo need that seeing to. The fronts are Dunlop sport 9000 I think.
Unless the mods are EXACTLY what you would do, then I wouldn't pay any more than a couple of hundred for them, although the exhaust is a quality one and if mint you could potentially sell/swap with a standard S3 for a few quid (and hassle). Over time I would have done this to the car, especially the chip and exhaust. The exhaust and sport cars new price Inc vat totals £1326 without fitting, so there could be options there.
I'm not sure if the car is a 225 or 210 edition. I was in a bit of a rush when I went to view it so I didn't bother opening the bonnet and have a look for the engine code. I understand that the code with BAM denotes a 225 car, there is another code for the 210 variable valve cars.
The problem is that there are few S3's locally, I know its a pretty scarce car but I have intentions to view a few more.
ok just got a response from the dealer selling the S3 after i asked some questions
The car is a 210BHP model - no harm in that as its been chipped anyway so no concerns.
I asked who did the last service. The book was stamped up to the 36K service but nothing after that but there was supposed to be an invoice for a further service. the response was "Im still waiting for the receipt for the last service that was recently carried out. If we are unable to track it down we will carry out a service on the car before it is sold." a little suspect and its nearly 20K since the last known service and the in-dash display shows its due a service
I asked the question, would it be possible to have the previous owners number, it was offered on Sunday when i viewed and now the response is a little different "I hasve spoke to the owner of the car that had the mods carried out and he confirmed star performance carried out the work www.starperformance.co.uk I had his contact number on a loose piece of paper in the sales diary, looks like it has been thrown out as after speaking to him we had no n eed for it. Ill have a good look for it and forward it if I find it."
Does anyone think this is a little suspect or not?
The car is a 210BHP model - no harm in that as its been chipped anyway so no concerns.
I asked who did the last service. The book was stamped up to the 36K service but nothing after that but there was supposed to be an invoice for a further service. the response was "Im still waiting for the receipt for the last service that was recently carried out. If we are unable to track it down we will carry out a service on the car before it is sold." a little suspect and its nearly 20K since the last known service and the in-dash display shows its due a service
I asked the question, would it be possible to have the previous owners number, it was offered on Sunday when i viewed and now the response is a little different "I hasve spoke to the owner of the car that had the mods carried out and he confirmed star performance carried out the work www.starperformance.co.uk I had his contact number on a loose piece of paper in the sales diary, looks like it has been thrown out as after speaking to him we had no n eed for it. Ill have a good look for it and forward it if I find it."
Does anyone think this is a little suspect or not?
Ut was on my list of options and is still a consideation. Prices are holding firm on them but there is plenty of choice, usualy asking price is circa £15.5k for one with 20k on the clock. as a few people have said, its a car you will either love or hate, it has bad torque steer. I have been looking into buying a new focus ST2, dealer price £18,500, broker price £14,888 so a saving of over £3.5k.
Quite like the Audi though becasue its really understated.
Quite like the Audi though becasue its really understated.
yeah, don't I know it, only one bit of interest in my car after 2 weeks and its just an enquiry so far.
Anyway, a slightly modded RS would be best, superchip and full exhaust as a minimum as I will end up buying one of those in the long run. Thats about £1000 worth of kit and in most cases don't enhance the cars value any. Sholud be looking at 250BHP with those mods.
Anyway, a slightly modded RS would be best, superchip and full exhaust as a minimum as I will end up buying one of those in the long run. Thats about £1000 worth of kit and in most cases don't enhance the cars value any. Sholud be looking at 250BHP with those mods.
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