[s-cars] Q5 Report

[Brett Dikeman]

On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 11:53 PM, bill mahoney <airbil at gmail.com> wrote:
> Apparently too the A3 aint doin so hot, although the one they had there
> looked really good.

It might have something to do with the car's design, interior, and
electronics being outdated compared to the rest of the model line, and
the car is overpriced.  They want (are you sitting down?) $2k for
RNS-E.  That's twice what it costs from OEMplus for an entire RNS-E
unit.

RNS-E is a complete joke.  Even the current nav system in the '09 A4
is full of fail.  In the Audi nav system, apparently "find the nearest
train station and then route me to it" isn't even possible.  I've seen
the system in Toyota Yaris coupe, and it had better graphics, a touch
screen, and could navigate to POI's.  How sad is it that an ECONOBOX
has a better nav system than a $+40k german luxury sedan?

Even with my FIVE YEAR OLD handheld, battery powered Garmin designed
for BOATING, "find me the nearest MBTA station" is about 2-3 button
presses, and another 1-2 to actually navigate to it.

I've driven the '09 A3 twice now, and while it was fun and for the
most part I liked the car, it's just not worth the money Audi wants
for it.  Given that the usual Audi mantra is one of "thou shalt not
hurt A4 sales", I'm not holding my breath for discounts/incentives, so
"used" it will be, if I even go the route of an A3.  Used A3 3.2's are
looking plentiful, more reasonably priced, and on the better side of
the depreciation curve.

Brett