Today I drove the R to Scotswood Road in Newcastle to look at car choices for the missus, there are a lot of different marques down there beyond VW and Audi, but that's where our attention lay.
First off to the Audi garage, to look at A1s. We're pretty much set on the 1.6TDI in Sport trim, Floret Silver (Mythos black was also an option, but it doesn't look as good IMO, the car doesn't look "mean" in black", with Hill Hold, Comfort pack and front parking sensors.
We considered the S-Line, but IMO, it isn't worth an extra £2005 for what amounts to a £500 wheel upgrade, side skirts, a badge on the steering wheel and leather on the bolster bits of the seats).
Had a look in the new TT, i'm not that tall (a whisker under 6'), but there was very little headroom even with the seat cranked right down on height adjustment. By the time the seat was on the floor, it was a confortable place to be, but trying to get out of the car was difficult, I literally fell out of it in a controlled manner. Imagine being against a kerb, where the surface you're stepping out to appears to be 6" closer to the top of the cill - i'd literally just have to combat roll out of the thing!
As nice as it looked, probably not for me next time (had considered getting a TDI, Quattro and a DTUK box).
Spoke to the Audi sales lass, got a test drive. I wanted to be out just me and the missus as I thought 3 people in the car might blunt the TDI's performance somewhat, but she was having none of it - even handing over the keys to the R as collateral. So we went out in it, all 3 of us and it was surprisingly brisk and economical for 116ps. Obviously not as refined as a MK7 Golf, that extra £14k the R costs buys you a lot over that A1!
Came down to the nitty gritty on price - no p/x to consider. so i'm looking to see how close to broker prices (£1700 discount) they can get, they're £700 adrift inclusive of the deposit contribution (I would finance then pay off within 14 days). It will probably be a broker order then!
Looked at the Polo next. I slightly prefer the Polo's exterior and the Audi's interior, the Polo has access to better discounts, but has the wimpy 1.4TDI engine and the A1's residuals are a lot better. The free insurance on the Polo won't apply to my missus as a new driver either.
Back in the R, I made a few quick getaways - it's nice to have that far better poke and better brakes, but I could live with the A1 for 1/2 the time to keep the miles on the R reasonable.
After getting home, I washed the car thoroughly.
