No more Audi A3

I once rented a Nissan Versa Hatch.  It wasn't very responsive, didn't handle well, and isn't very pretty...but I had never owned a Hatch back before and what I liked immediately about the little Versa, was that, despite it's size, it was a very versatile vehicle.  I took 4 adults (myself and 3 others) out to dinner in it and we were comfortable.  Now all the people I know are fairly short...I'm sure 6+ footers would have had problems squeezing in, so if you're that size ignore the "comfortable" part.  A few days later, I folded down the back seats and packed the little hatch up with car parts...including an exhaust system for an SRT-4.  There would be no way I could have gotten all that into the car I was driving at the time (2000 Buick Regal GS) despite the fact that the Versa was almost twice as small.

That short stint with the Versa Hatch drew me towards owning a hatch when my GS was totaled.  In my younger days, I was all about, "yea, but how fast is it."  Now I'm a lot more "rounded" in my choice of vehicles (at least on my daily driver).  The GS was a very comfortable car, especially on long trips, and had reasonably quick acceleration thanks to a few common mods to the Supercharged 3800 (smaller SC pulley, 3" downpipe, reprogramed ECU).  Although still a "boat," it handled fairly well thanks to slightly wider tires, stiffer springs/struts, and larger sway bars.

When the GS was totaled by an accident, I stumbled upon an 2007 A3 Audi and test driving it, fell in love with the handling.  Although my GS would have beat it in a drag race, the nimbleness and responsiveness of the A3 was light years better than the handling of the GS.  Being a hatch, it was every bit as versatile as the Versa, but the driving experience was so much better.  The interior of the A3 was every bit as comfortable as the Buick.  It was a luxury small car....common in Europe, but rare here.

I loved driving the A3.  Volkswagen's DSG is a beautiful thing...the best compromise between a manual shifting control and not having to use a clutch in traffic.  We even took it on a 2000+mile trip into Canada and back...4 people and luggage.  Just under 30 miles/gallon average for the trip (including a 90+ mph stint following a caravan of hi-end SUVs that took up almost an entire tank.  One-by-one the SUVs had to leave the caravan for fuel). We all felt it was a pretty good trip car despite it's small size. 

So why the title of this article?


In the past I new people who had Volkswagen GTIs and most of them had a love-hate relationship with their cars.  After owning the A3 (which is essentially a GTI with a nicer interior) I totally understand.  The driving dynamics and comfort (for a small vehicle) was great...but slowly by slowly things kept coming up that annoyed me about the car.

The first was the automatic climate control.  I love this feature in a car...set it to a temp and forget about it, just like the thermostat in your house.  The first car I had with that feature was a '89 Taurus SHO and the GS had it...loved it in both.  To me, all cars should have it.

To turn it on in the A3 you hit the button marked "Auto."  You would think that to turn it off you would hit the "Auto" button again...sorry, that would be too intuitive.  Hitting Auto a 2nd time does nothing.  To turn it off you had to hold the fan speed control button until the fan speed indicator bars went away on the systems display.  The suspension also "squeaked" when cold.  Anything under 35 degrees and it was squeak-squeak every time you went over a change in pavement height (like going over a speed bump or pulling out of your drive way).  Once the car warmed up the noise went away.  Those were minor annoyances that I could have lived with.

This winter though a few things popped up that kept me up at night.  First was a chirping noise coming from the front of the engine on initial start.  I thought it was a belt at first, but replacing the belt didn't eliminate the noise.  The chirping got worse over time, but always went away after the car warmed up.  I never figured out what it was, but it sounded like it was coming from inside the timing cover. Could have been a timing chain tensioner or idler pulley, or maybe the water pump. If I had kept the A3 I would have eventually pulled the timing cover to find out, but now I'll never know.

Then the low oil level low indicator came on.  Strange as I had just changed the oil less than 2000 miles ago.  When I went to add oil in it I saw this...

Now, if you're a Volkswagen buff, you probably noticed that the picture above is not of a 2.0T FSI (if you don't know, that's the motor that's in the A3) and you'd be right.  That isn't a picture of my car, but that is exactly what the oil cap looked like.  It's a mayonnaise like consistency and it was down inside the filler tube also.  I immediately thought blown head gasket and coolant was getting in the engine, but the coolant wasn't low and when I pulled the dipstick the oil in the crankcase was normal (except a quart low).

The internet is a beautiful thing, so I checked out a few Audi/VW forums and quickly found that this was a common thing in VWs (not just the 2.0T FSI, but several other VW motors.  I even found a post about a Porsche with the same issue).  Although some where alarmed by this, most of the posters said this was normal.  Some newer VW/Audi owners also took their cars back to the dealer and they confirmed that it was normal.  The common belief was that this was caused by condensation and happened to cars that ran frequent short trips and never fully warmed up.  The theory was that the plastic valve cover stayed cold and caused the water vapor/oil to mix and form that "goo."  I work aprox. 5 miles away from my home, so short trips are the norm for me.  Thing is, I never saw this in any other car I've owned.  The GS also had plastic valve covers.  The other thing was the low oil level was caused by that "goo" since oil stayed up in the head and didn't flowing back down into the oil pan until the motor warmed up.  If I took a long enough trip to warm up the motor the oil level would go up...but that's not my normal driving routine and the longer I drove strictly back-n-forth to work the more the "goo" accumulated.  Even if this is normal, I would think it would not be good for the longevity of the overhead cam and valve components.  

Shortly after, a check engine light came on that pointed to a lean condition.  Another quick forum search told that that some 2.0T FSI motors had worn out bushings on the hi-pressure fuel pump.  Scanning the car showed that under hi-rpm/hi-boost conditions the motor was leaning out a bit.  Sure enough after pulling the pump the bushing looked pretty worn....not worn trough like other ones I had seen in forum posts, but it wouldn't have lasted much longer.  I can't prove that the condensation/oil goo situation caused the bushing to wear prematurely, but I can't help wonder how many people that had this problem made mainly short trips. 

That was it for me.  It was actually keeping me up at night worrying about how much longer the engine in my A3 would last.  It may have gone on forever for all I knew, but it was eating at me. So I finally traded it in for this...

Obviously not a pic of my car, but mine is just like it...a 2013 Performance Blue Ford Focus ST.  Winner of every hot hatch comparison, including this one by the Top Gear folks, Top Gear's ultimate hot hatch test...  In the past the best hot hatches came from Europe (until this year the European's even got a different Focus...read better....than we did here in the U.S. and we still don't get the same Astra or the Megan) so it was surprising to see an American car win. 

I got mine with minimal options (a base ST with a moon roof).  I'm not a fan of touch screens and if you check any J.D. Power long term reliability tests done of the last several years, the biggest failure rate in today's vehicles are in the added electronics. I'm going to miss the climate control though.  The base stereo does have an aux and USB port.  I'm not a stereo buff, so that's all I wanted.  The ride is harsher than the A3, not intolerable, but the ST more than makes up for that in the fun to drive factor.  The turn-in is amazing in this car...the best I've ever felt in a front wheel drive car.  It surprised me the first time I took a quick corner, but it put a smile on my face.  Just let off the gas peddle in a high speed corner and the car rotates...so unlike the under-steering found in most cars.  Modulate the throttle and you can control the turn-in, just like a rear driver, only reverse (more gas, less turn-in as opposed to more gas more turn-in on a rear driver).

Being a new car under warranty, modifications will be minimal...not only because of the warranty, but because I'm making monthly payments, so that's less money for parts.  I did ask the dealer where I bought it from about what would void the warranty.  I was told that the warranty would not by voided as long as  (a) the part is a direct replacement (for example, if you swapped the wheels as long as it was the same size as stock it would be OK.  Bigger diameter or width could void the warranty on suspension components) or (b) the part came from Ford Performance or a Ford Authorized parts dealer (they couldn't produce a list so I'm not sure which companies are "Ford Authorized").

Honestly, I think it will be quite a while before I feel the need to make improvements, but we'll see.