Team-BHP
(
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
That yellow car looks like pure Mango ice cream !! Sorry for the OT post. Back to the topic though, why is the Audi throwing up such niggling issues? The knob coming off is certainly not the Audi quality that's spoken of !!
Quote:
Originally Posted by redeff
(Post 1473273)
On saturday night my brother was showing the car to a few friends. The key got stuck in the ignition and refused to come out. Car got towed away immediately with the help of Audi top assist.
|
Dreadful end to the show-off session for your brother :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by redeff
(Post 1473644)
My smart brother ( Who for reasons you shall discover soon enough is NOT allowed to drive the car ) while showing his friends , used excess force when the Car refused to fire when he pressed the key in.
|
I'm certain he's got more than a earful!
Quote:
Originally Posted by redeff
(Post 1474930)
In thier latest service offering, they offer free pickup and drop of the Vehicle and a courtasy car while you car is in the workshop as a goodwill gesture.
|
Pickup & dropoff are offered to my OHC Vtec & Jeep too (by authorised service centers), but the courtesy car gesture is superb! Impressed. Do they give out an A4 itself (or better yet, a 3.2 FSI :))?
Quote:
Originally Posted by redeff
(Post 1474930)
ON the other Hand AUdi has stepped up the game. In thier latest service offering, they offer free pickup and drop of the Vehicle and a courtasy car while you car is in the workshop as a goodwill gesture. Have not tried out this service yet, nor do i know which car they shall provide for the duration of the service, but Audi is really taking pains to put itself one notch higher in the customers eyes and differenciate itself not only from the Superb and the passat but also the Benz , Beemers and the Volvso. I like
|
Looks like Audi is going all out to up their service levels. I had earlier that their service wasnt up to mark but I guess they are looking to change all that. The courtesy car thing is a good gesture. I'm not sure if BMW and Mercedes offer the same. Do they? I havent heard anything about Volvo in a long while now. Dont see many cars on the road either.
Don't know about the courtesy car. My car should visit it for the Air con Knob replacement soon enough, so will find out which car comes as replacement. Seemed to cheap to inquire. lol
It's been a while and the aforementioned A/C knocb has not been fixed. The pictures were taken on the day i got the car back after the key remove Saga, but no follow up has been done on it. It has been three weeks approximately. I have personally followed up 3-4 times till date and am growing a bit impatient. Audi's inaction is really getting to me.
The A/C knob is not the issue. The ACC works fine. The irritant is that fact that i haven't got a followup on the issue at all after repeated requests. Not Good.
^^ Takes a while to import odd parts for high-end cars. Mercedes needed about 2 weeks to import the driver seat adjustment switch from Singapore (broke in the early days). They typically stock only the most commonly used parts in their Indian warehouses.
@ GTO and Redeff: Are you guys still game for the Lonavla Sunday brunch run? I am willing to join in. Will get the E280 CDI (conditional to its service happening this week. else will get another German). We have a few holidays coming up this month! :thumbs up
Am just so desperate to get out of this maddening city traffic :Frustrati
talked to the service manager during my last trip to the workshop who mentioned that Audi India has recently revamped its spare part sourcing policy --- unfortunately for the worse. Earlier, each service center had the freedom to source from one of a number of locations in Asia and Europe. Now Audi India as centralized its sourcing so each center has to make the request from Audi India who then sources the parts. This has apparently increased lead times dramatically leading to numerous complaints.
The idea of having a centralized parts network is a good one but it obviously needs some tweaking to get it to work efficiently.
In fact my correspondent at the showroom recommended that i write a strong letter to Audi India about it's sourcing of the parts. Well, hope Audi India gets this show on the read.
Today was the day i fell in love. All over again.
There comes a point of time in every boy's time when he see's the television screen for what it is the first time. Cartoons.
Cartoons are fine, they talk and stuff but it's rather limited is it not? The whole area of entertainment, with nothing substantial to do!
That is when god gave most of the answer. Video games.
I learnt of lot of driving by NFS games, but by the time i got into the serious gaming category, I had graduated to Burnout. ( And i maintain it makes NFS look like a Premier Padmini )
But back to it, right, love.
How do you define love? I would not get into the dictionary meaning of it, but I'm sure that you ( Specially if you are a cute girl ) put your in the general vincity of my heart right now, you would get a quick feel of what love can be.
I have just returned from a drive with her, the light of my dreams, the pearl of my eyes , the love of my life, my own dear 'Nenya'. ( Google it if you wish to know what the name means )
Well right to the good stuff. For the first time i got to drive her the way she meant to be. Not like a princess escorted by your hand into a royal ball but like an athlete urging you to test her to her hilt. A run from Juhu to Bandra suddenly become a drive from Juhu to Town, and she handled it with Elan. It must have taken me twenty minutes to get to town, i went by Tulsi pipe road. A quick burst around marine drive and i was at Peddar rd. to meet a friend. A quick greeting and a few minutes of a drive later we had already parted ways and Nenya and I were finally alone.
That is when I started paying real attention.
Her ride on tarmac is exceptional, put her ride on Cement to shame, though this maybe common to most cars, i have never really 'felt' her glide like she did between the stretch from Priyadarshani Park to Under the Peddar Rd. Flyover.
After that i was more or less "Go Ballistic" time. She might be just 150 BHP with 320 Nm of torque, but that seemed quite sufficient for what i had in mind.
The ride quality again improves with leaps and bounds as she picks up speed, comparative to a Benz, how ever the feel you get when you thud through potholes is a lot more than the Feline Benz will make your bottom feel.
U2 has a habit of exciting the heck out of me, specially when " City of blinding lights' is playing. The song seems to do justice to this city. And it was something Special! A quick left turn from the Haji Ali Junction saw me on a comparative flat patch of land again and i let her rip.
What followed next is a blur more or less till Bandra, however i did not take either the sea Link or Tulsi Pipe Road but i can safely say i reached Bandra in around Ten Minutes flat out. And no, this being Mumbai and a Friday night, the roads were not really empty.
While pushing her hard, the front wheel drive nature comes out, while her cornering is exceptional for a FWD car, she will never been a BMW for those turns at slightly more than advisable speeds.
The steering is not dead, however she does lack super feel, specially when you are not going too fast or too slow, the period of confusion for the power steering to weather to weigh up or not and by what degree is apparent. This probably was the reason I was holding on the seat of my pants a lot more than the steering :). Mind you, I am kind of comparing her to a BMW.
The grip of this car is pretty awesome, so much so that I can't imagine what a phenom the 3.0 Quattro is. The 142 Bhp engine is pretty relaxed in 'D' and very Taunt in 'S'. However, 'D' cam be driven hard, just that it takes a lot more effort and judgement. The accelarator tends to get spongy for a couple of Mili Seconds in 'D' which is eliminated by shifting into 'S'.
I did complain about her lack of feel, but frankly I would not complain that much, It's just that I'm being choosy.
The A4 is pretty low slung but the seating seems to be higher than that in the 3 ( Don't know about the C ) , a definite plus for my Grand Parents. Every single time i get into her i am blown away with her cockpit design and feel, and it's been six months of going steady with her.
I remeber saying , Hang the turbo lag, once it disappears, so does the car, but after drving the Superb i realised that Common rail was the way to drive. Keep the A4 above 1.5k rpm ( Which the CVT does for you usually ) and you shall find her creamy smooth. The acceleration is quick and can help you surge forward when required without being uncontrollably slow. However do to the sheer feel of the car, you find yourself doing higher speeds that you should be doing or even know that you are doing. A few dippers from the xenons are enough for people to look into the RWM. A sight on the LED's and most vehicles give way for you to overtake.
Oh, and I did manage to think I achieved what i believed was impossible. While returning home, i took a U on Juhu tara Rd.Passing a Rickshaw driver who looked and then continued staring with a fantasticly dazed expression on his face, a soft one.
Nenya managed to intimidate a Mumbai Rickshawallah!
Post straight from the heart, man! German cars do that to you, can vouch for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by redeff
(Post 1558382)
How do you define love?
|
Simple. It's a four character word = CARS
Quote:
And no, this being Mumbai and a Friday night, the roads were not really empty.
|
You seem to have had a blast taking her around town. My suggestion. If you
really want to have fun:
1. Drive to Goa : The drive and destination are unbeatable! Going by your post, you'll probably write a 500 page book from Baga beach :). Seriously, these Germans NEED the open road.
2. Closer to home : Amby valley, Nasik to Igatpuri stretch, Pune to Mahabaleshwar, there's plenty of good roads.
GTO - It's not just about the highway sir, it's about the sheer pleasure to get this car on the road even on Mumbai Roads @ night. As you probably know, cars on the highway are not always nearly as nice in the city, a prime example being Superb or the Sonata or even the Civic. The car as I said does mainly Mumbai - Pune more than anything else. Just that this drive was special simply because i get to let a her a but loose in Mumbai, considering the fact that i was out for a drive with no specific destination in mind!!
There is something quite different and special about traveling in a handsome cockpit of a luxo car, which makes you fall hopelessly in love with it like crazy every time you sit in it, either in the front or the back just by something as superficial as the sheer look and feel of the Interiors. I lost my heart 6 Months back, but that was just the first time. Every single time I'm with her, i loose my heart just that little bit more, hang the 20 odd BHp that i sacrificed by eliminating the 3 from the competition. Besides, it's a treat to go around on Mumbai streets with surreal silence inside the cabin a butter like ride quality , the power to break free at a blip of the throttle and the feeling of sheer royalty!
an awesome post, Redeff!
Saw a white A4 at Chembur flyover today around 2.30 pm and do those LEDs look hawt o wat! clap:
I love the rear lamps design too!
I agree with Redeff, city night drives have it's own charm. Highways too are run for long stinted high speed runs when the needle sits constantly above 120 or so but that get monotonous after a while especially if it's a straight road for the most part. I prefer seeing and feeling the needle move south to north and vice versa.
There's nothing that makes you grin more when you are waiting at a signal which has a open stretch left empty for you to kill ! Hope we get more roads like the sea link to burn rubber inspire of low-pro tyres.
I know GTO suggested that we run to Khandala once for Breakfast, why don't we as an alternative some day, have a nice roll at Ayubs, and then just get our German wagons on the road and traverse the City of blinding lights some early night. It would be good anytime post 11:30 , we could run all the way to Borivali via the WE highway. No sea link though! Pure unadulterated Mumbai roads.
| All times are GMT +5.5. The time now is 19:23. | |
