A3/S3/RS3 Audi RS3 (Spy pics & info)

[Giannis]

I own an old Lotus and as such I have experience with their dealerships and pricing structure, they are much more expensive to service and repair than either the Beemer or Audi, and are a full £10k+ more than a Cayman S.

Old Lotus'es have nothing to do with modern one. Modern ones have Toyota parts.

Also, if you are not satisfied with the dealers' pricing structure, you can always service your car elsewhere.

For example, Volvo is more expensive to service here than both BMW and MB. But buy parts online and service in a non-dealer mechanic, and you still have your warranty and you save money.

Anyway, my point is that as far as modern Lotus'es have Toyota parts, it mustn't be that expensive to maintain.

 

[footie]

Old Lotus'es have nothing to do with modern one. Modern ones have Toyota parts.

Also, if you are not satisfied with the dealers' pricing structure, you can always service your car elsewhere.

For example, Volvo is more expensive to service here than both BMW and MB. But buy parts online and service in a non-dealer mechanic, and you still have your warranty and you save money.

Anyway, my point is that as far as modern Lotus'es have Toyota parts, it mustn't be that expensive to maintain.

What I meant is I have been in their dealerships within the last 24months and their servicing charges are comfortably more than what Audi and BMW charge.

 

[Giannis]

What I meant is I have been in their dealerships within the last 24months and their servicing charges are comfortably more than what Audi and BMW charge.

I think I missunderstood you. You meant what are they charging per working hour, not the price of the spare parts, right?

 

[footie]

^ Correct, and personally when you are paying £60k on your new motor then you think of the main dealer instead of a regular garage repair shop.

 

[SCOTT27]

I wonder will the 1M see much of this angle?

Yes. I do not doubt this for a second. The Audi will be made to offer more PS than the BMW as per the norm.
But when the road gets interesting.... The Audi A3's dated and mediocre chassis will possibly become evident.

 

[NarutoRamen]

Yes. I do not doubt this for a second. The Audi will be made to offer more PS than the BMW as per the norm.
But when the road gets interesting.... The Audi A3's dated and mediocre chassis will possibly become evident.

Ooh...burned.

 

[footie]

Yes. I do not doubt this for a second. The Audi will be made to offer more PS than the BMW as per the norm.
But when the road gets interesting.... The Audi A3's dated and mediocre chassis will possibly become evident.

You are probably right, after all you know what has been changed with the 1series to make it the 1M and have probably driven it too. But are you under the impression that Audi haven't tweaked the S3 chassis, this will surprise me because during testing they were trying different tyre widths front and rear in an effort to remove any understeer from the chassis.

Anyhow, as for the chassis being mediocre, the standard S3 vs the similarly powered 130i fares up pretty well so the basic structure of both seem to be quite even, it will all depend on whether M-Division can work their magic more than what quattroGmbH can.

 

[Mr Robert]

^ Correct, and personally when you are paying £60k on your new motor then you think of the main dealer instead of a regular garage repair shop.

I got to thinking, maybe Giannis has a point here. Maybe Lotus is finally trying to make a serious effort in selling cars? So, what does it cost to service an Evora for three years or about 3 000 miles? Not easy to get a specific number but I found a quote from a Lotus dealer and that was at about £1,100 for the period. Not bad, really. Surely the "S" will cost a bit more but there is room, as the quotes I found for the TT-RS (which should be close to the RS3) was at £1,450.

I must say I expected the Lotus to be dearer. On the other hand, the Evora seems to be one of the cheapest Lotuses to service.

However, the problem with finding a garage to service it in here in Sweden is still there.

 

[Poverty]

On the TTRS to dial out the understeer people are just uprating the anti roll bars.

On public roads no 1m is going to touch my TTRS, it shortens tarmac like a evo and is now as quick as a gen1 997turbo

 

[Mr Robert]

On the TTRS to dial out the understeer people are just uprating the anti roll bars.

On public roads no 1m is going to touch my TTRS, it shortens tarmac like a evo and is now as quick as a gen1 997turbo

OT, but I'm flying over to your thread now

 

[footie]

I got to thinking, maybe Giannis has a point here. Maybe Lotus is finally trying to make a serious effort in selling cars? So, what does it cost to service an Evora for three years or about 3 000 miles? Not easy to get a specific number but I found a quote from a Lotus dealer and that was at about £1,100 for the period. Not bad, really. Surely the "S" will cost a bit more but there is room, as the quotes I found for the TT-RS (which should be close to the RS3) was at £1,450.

I must say I expected the Lotus to be dearer. On the other hand, the Evora seems to be one of the cheapest Lotuses to service.

However, the problem with finding a garage to service it in here in Sweden is still there.

I think it will depend for dealer to dealer as many Lotus dealers also do other quite exotic brands and their servicing rates reflect this.

P.S.
One thing on the quote you got, was this seriously a three year or 3000 mile deal, I'm wondering whether this should have read 30000 miles?

 

[Mr Robert]

Oh, my bad, it was 30K

 

[footie]

Oh, my bad, it was 30K

I thought so.

Well that is a very good deal being offered and it may well be something that Lotus are trying to get right which would be a really good thing and needed if they want to grow their business much bigger than being regarded as a niche/specialist brand it currently is.

But the real thing that Lotus need to address is reliability.

 

[Poverty]

 

[south]

Great find! I saved and attached the picture providently. That guy's clearly violating the dealer NDAs, so I don't expect the link to work for long.


Best regards,
south

 

[Zafiro]

So 340hp same as 1M.

 

[Mr Robert]

Could be intentionally "leaked", but I like the sound of it, except that it looks like there will be no manual version.

 

[klier]

Nice find!!

 

[footie]

The dates match in with what I was told so I believe this is genuine.

 

[Poverty]