Has anyone had one of these or know anything about them ?

I have seen a mint one (03 Reg) for bottom dollar and am thinking about snaffling it.

Mrs Shipley needs something practical and swift to compliment her Lusitania-like people wagon and this fits the bill.

Any info / experience gratefully received.

 

A mate of mine has a 52 plate one. He absolutely raves about it, although he's a complete Audi fanboi. He's had it remapped to 270bhp and it's quick enough, and the 4wd seems to make difference.

The usual VAG 1.8 turbo issues should be checked; split turbo pipes causing O2 sensor failiure, water pumps and coil packs seem to be the weak areas (all of which he's had in the last 5 years, as I did in a similarly engined SEAT Leon Cupra). Oh, and if it has the alloy door mirrors, they're a fortune to replace if they get damaged.

Try dropping unclefester a PM, he was heavily involved in the SEAT OC so may be able to help on more specific VAG issues that I missed.

 

Jo had a 51 plate S3 when I met her and when she joined the boards and she loved it at the time.

I found the sets too hard and slippy / shiney and the steering had absolutely no feel at all.

 

Thanks chaps..... she has a TT as a runaround at the moment and that has a healthy appetite for coilpacks.

The only difference between the S3 and the TT appears to be the extra room the former affords. A remap to 260/270 bhp would make it interesting.

 

I think the S3 is lighter than a TT as it has aluminium panels, but I may be inventing that...

 

New TT is largely aluminiuminum; old one was mutton dressed as a Braun razor.

A3 is Russian roulette:

Some are great (if you like that sort of thing) others expensive to repair unreliable PoS.

 

My mate had one... it was effective at covering ground quickly but terminally dull to drive...

His was relaible but I've hearsd of others requireing coilpacks on a regular basis...

 

and turbos & injector pumps & cylinder heads & DGS solenoids/sensors and...

 

But otherwise they're trouble free ?

 

certainly true in my experience. I had one as a company car before I realised 'any Honda' included the S2000.

Dull (the dullest car I've ever owned, and I've had a Saab and a Volvo), unreliable, poor dealers (in the area I lived at any rate) - the experience has made me avoid VAG cars ever since.

I had trouble with the coil packs, the brakes and various electronics (including, but not limited to an issue that 2 different dealers couldn't diagnose, but the engine went into limp home mode intermittently when the diagnostics didn't show a fault).

A certain section of the population love them, and for the life of me I don't see why.