After years of wondering if I could ever bear to sell the GTI, I popped it on ebay recently to see if i'd get any interest and I could have sold it 20 times so at the price I was asking, I had to let it go. To be fair, due to having a diesel car in the household, it only got used occassionally and was a bit of a waste covering just 3000 miles a year.
When it came to replacement (had to be diesel, pretty quick, german, and 5 door) I fancied a mk7 GTD but couldn't justify the cost, drove a mk6 GTD and it didn't do it for me like the mk5 gti so started looking at other brands. Drove some mercs, a 1 series, 3 series and in the end I kept coming back to A3 black editions. I'm a fan of the black edition touches, the xenons/drls, the bose sound system and felt comfortable in the vag platform I'm so used to.
Test drove a 140 black edition which was a lovely car but just a little too slow so decided it would have to be a 170. One finally popped up last Tuesday after viewing 4 really neglected ones, test drove and left deposit Wednesday and had the joy of collection yesterday.
It's a late MY11 version with the 170 tdi cr engine, 17k on the clock and I'm over the moon with it. Super refined, quiet, super frugal, had 5 doors and feels beautifully built. I'm pretty shocked how quick it is tbh, loads of torque, I am smitten i have to say.
Only negative for me is the steering, it has very little feel (I noted the same with the 140 I drove on PS3's) and the front end has no where near the grip of the GTI but getting a bit older, the added comfort and 60mpg seems to appeal a bit more to me
I've taken some pics from a wash today and a quick run over with the polisher to get of the huge amount of swirls. It still has a fair few scratches (from I assume a water blade) which I'll tackle over the coming months. Hope you all like, I plan on hanging around on here, still the best forum out there
