Post by alf on Nov 8, 2023 11:45:36 GMT
Not for me this time, but for Tina, who has had the Audi over 3 years now meaning its on borrowed time automatically.
She does a lot of short trips to the extent most of her motoring could be covered by the leccy part of a PHEV, so has been looking at these. We discovered with the Q3's epically coked-up throttle body, what happens to direct injection diesel engines used mostly for short trips, and that was without the DPF expiring.
She came up with 330e's of the outgoing shape as a solution, I'm not entirely sure why, as with my ex wife's cars I stay largely out of it unless asked a direct question - my views on cars are at least as much emotional as factual
We went on Saturday to test one of said 330e's, a black 2021 saloon at "carshop" in Swindon. It was an interesting retail experience - I have always favoured main dealers and while our contact was very young, barely driving, and not knowing much about the stock, there were plenty of people about who were a level up in knowledge. Their whole model is basically to try and get you to buy the car you see there and then, even to the extent of leaving the one you arrived in and driving off in it! In our case they were too obsessed with selling us the precise one we had enquired about, and not showing us a few others.
I wandered about some of the stock (there were 1,000 cars on site so not a big % in the big hanger we were in) and they either choose or prep their cars well, the cosmetic condition of all the ones I looked at (mostly 2019-21) was superb and its easy by that time to have various scuffs on the car that can't be hidden. The one we came to see had nearly new premium tyres all round, nearly new brakes, and looked basically perfect inside and out, including the diamond cut wheels (not a great match for Tina...). It had HK as well, which sounded great on a short familiarisation.
She took it out for a drive and I fiddled with the infotainment, which was all super-slick, with virtual dials and navigation between them, and so on. Stylistically not as nice as mine but the sceen quality and functionality is well ahead. From the passenger seat it felt very well screwed together (I've not been in this age of 3 series) and very rapid, even without hitting the overboost button (that takes it up from 250-odd to 290-odd BHP, but empties the battery fast). The way the instant electric shove fills in at low revs is one of the best things about hybrids, I imagine the game is up if you repeatedly want long hard acceleration. The ride/handling balance felt decent as well, as you would expect from a 3 series.
Overall the conclusion was: nice car, not that special. It would do the job, but was not special enough for her to want it ahead of looking at some compact SUV based Audi Etrons as well (which, having suffered epic depreication, don't look too bad value at 3 years old). I felt the 330e seemed good value to me, for that age (20/21) there are plenty of mint low miles examples for low £20's k.
Carshop however felt this black one was worth £3k more (at £26k) than others in their stock, and online, for the same age/mileage. It had HK and nicer wheels, but that was it over the others. We found their online price match useless, unless the other car is on the same plate and colour and less miles (one we found was) and has exactly the same spec, they won't even budge at all. Had they got close to the £23k price of the blue one they had (she doesn't want blue) , she would have bought it there and then. But not traded in the A5, where the offer was around £7k (2014 A5 S-line 3.0TDi cab on 75k miles with full Audi history and no issues).
She does a lot of short trips to the extent most of her motoring could be covered by the leccy part of a PHEV, so has been looking at these. We discovered with the Q3's epically coked-up throttle body, what happens to direct injection diesel engines used mostly for short trips, and that was without the DPF expiring.
She came up with 330e's of the outgoing shape as a solution, I'm not entirely sure why, as with my ex wife's cars I stay largely out of it unless asked a direct question - my views on cars are at least as much emotional as factual
We went on Saturday to test one of said 330e's, a black 2021 saloon at "carshop" in Swindon. It was an interesting retail experience - I have always favoured main dealers and while our contact was very young, barely driving, and not knowing much about the stock, there were plenty of people about who were a level up in knowledge. Their whole model is basically to try and get you to buy the car you see there and then, even to the extent of leaving the one you arrived in and driving off in it! In our case they were too obsessed with selling us the precise one we had enquired about, and not showing us a few others. I wandered about some of the stock (there were 1,000 cars on site so not a big % in the big hanger we were in) and they either choose or prep their cars well, the cosmetic condition of all the ones I looked at (mostly 2019-21) was superb and its easy by that time to have various scuffs on the car that can't be hidden. The one we came to see had nearly new premium tyres all round, nearly new brakes, and looked basically perfect inside and out, including the diamond cut wheels (not a great match for Tina...). It had HK as well, which sounded great on a short familiarisation.
She took it out for a drive and I fiddled with the infotainment, which was all super-slick, with virtual dials and navigation between them, and so on. Stylistically not as nice as mine but the sceen quality and functionality is well ahead. From the passenger seat it felt very well screwed together (I've not been in this age of 3 series) and very rapid, even without hitting the overboost button (that takes it up from 250-odd to 290-odd BHP, but empties the battery fast). The way the instant electric shove fills in at low revs is one of the best things about hybrids, I imagine the game is up if you repeatedly want long hard acceleration. The ride/handling balance felt decent as well, as you would expect from a 3 series.
Overall the conclusion was: nice car, not that special. It would do the job, but was not special enough for her to want it ahead of looking at some compact SUV based Audi Etrons as well (which, having suffered epic depreication, don't look too bad value at 3 years old). I felt the 330e seemed good value to me, for that age (20/21) there are plenty of mint low miles examples for low £20's k.
Carshop however felt this black one was worth £3k more (at £26k) than others in their stock, and online, for the same age/mileage. It had HK and nicer wheels, but that was it over the others. We found their online price match useless, unless the other car is on the same plate and colour and less miles (one we found was) and has exactly the same spec, they won't even budge at all. Had they got close to the £23k price of the blue one they had (she doesn't want blue) , she would have bought it there and then. But not traded in the A5, where the offer was around £7k (2014 A5 S-line 3.0TDi cab on 75k miles with full Audi history and no issues).
