Reasons not to buy an Audi vehicle

Clutch fails

My clutch stopped working today. The clutch pedal is flat on the floor making very tricky indeed to get the car in gear.

I manage to get the car home (a 25 mile journey) from Manchester City Centre. Thankfully it was mostly motorway, so no need for gear changes.

I will ring roadside assistance in the morning!

I may also ring the bank and cancel my payments on this heap of junk!

Emmision Control Light re-appears

The emmision control light has re-appeared on my dashboard.

I'm guessing that it must be something to do with the amount of oil thats going through the car. I have now done just short of 6000 miles and almost at the 5 litre mark.

Surely 5 litres of oil in a brand new car is not right?

I call Audi roadside assistance about the Emmision Control Light and they tell me to book the car into an Audi Service Centre for repair.

Christmas time - Mistletoe and oil

We are about to head off to Holy Island in Northumberland for christmas today but the oil light has come back on the car - thats another litre of oil the car has used and I don't have any available.

I set out to track down some of the Special Castrol SLX oil that we are supposed to be putting in the car.

I went 10 miles to my nearest Shell garage (Audi Customer Service told us they sold the stuff) no sign of the SLX oil here!

I decide to travel another 5 miles to my nearest Halfords and manage to find the stuff in 5 litre containers - £45 poorer I head back home and have to let my engine cool sufficiently before topping up the oil once more:

3 Litres in 4000 Miles.

£13 per litre

I got some oil - it cost £13 a litre and I'm sure the guy at Audi was laughing as he swiped my card and handed over the swish packaging that the oil comes in.

I put about another half litre of oil in the car bringing the total oil consumption to about 2.5 litres for a car thats done about 3500 miles from new.

I'm no mechanic but I sense that something is not quite right with this oil to mileage ratio and so I decide to question it with Audi Service personel at Lancaster Audi (my Local dealership). They tell me that this is perfectly normal behaviour and the the car will "settle down" soon. I really hope so because this is going to be a really expensive experience otherwise!

More oil please

The oil light just came back on the car again. It needs more oil but I don't have any.

The 1 litre carton that Audi gave me ran out last month and I now need to figure out where to buy this special bloody oil that goes in the car. Incidentally - If you don't put Audi/Castrol's own special oil in the A3, it invalidates the Variable Mileage Service agreement. Under normal circumstances the car would not need to be serviced for 2 years, but if you put ordinary engine oil in you have to have a service after 12 months!

Suprisingly - I find out that I have to buy this 'SPECIAL' oil from my local Audi Dealership. I am now wondering how much this will cost me...

Dashboard disco part 3

The same emmision control light appeared on the dash display again today.

We call Audi Roadside Assistance who come out to the car to have a look at it.

The guy tells me that the filtering system on these cars is over sensitive which is what is making this light appear on the dashboard (and I thought it was because the car was faulty!!).

He plugs in some computer and the light goes off.

He then leaves.

Oil light (again...)

The oil light just came on the dashboard again. Its pissing down with rain and dark when I get home from work, even so, when the engine has cooled - I pop the bonnet on my brand new A3 and add another half litre of oil.

Somehow I feel humiliated to have spent this much on a brand new car to be standing in the rain, when its dark filling the thing up with oil!

Current oil consumption at 2500 miles - 1 litre plus what was in the car when we picked it up new

Fixed car

We just got our car back from Lancaster Audi. They fitted a new charcoal filter and the light has now gone from the dashboard...

Happy motoring:-)

Charcoal Filter...

Lancaster Audi in manchester took a look at the car and decided that the indicator on the dashboard meant that the car needed a new charcoal filter (on a car that has done less than 2000 miles!!!!!).

They don't have any of these in stock but book the car in for repair for the following week

More warning lights!

A new light has just appeared on the dashboard of the car - I checked out the manual which tells me its something to do with the emmission control system!

2 engine warning lights on a car as new as this - maybe i'm just having a few teething troubles.

I called the helpful Audi Roadside Assistance (really just the RAC putting a different voice on!). The advice was that as long as the lights not flashing and the car still moves, things aren't that bad. They did advise me to take it to an Audi dealership to get it checked out though!

One month in and the car is going well!

It seems to have taken an age to run the engine in but we finally got thier and now we can "really" drive the car!

But wait... whats this?

An engine warning light on a brand new car - its asking to be filled up with oil!

Well, the nice man at Audi did give us a 1 litre container of oil to top the car up with, I'll just flip the bonnet and top the oil up - thats no bother...

My shiny new car...

Today I took delivery of my shiny new Audi A3 Sport from Franklin Audi (part of the Syntner Group) in Leeds (UK).

Its one of the cars I've always wanted to own and it feels exciting to be finally driving it.

Metallic grey paint, BOSE stereo system and boy does it move!