Audi owners in here!

Not an issue unless the water fills up to the top of the battery, if you have that much of a leak i'd suggest you stop parking your cars in lakes.

It's a common issue on older E92 and E60s, the water collects in the wheel well and causes all sorts of nasty corrosion issues in the electrics. The leaks are usually very subtle and owners don't notice until stuff starts going wrong.

Had a leak in my E39 in the same place and the consequences were not dire as the battery was in a better place..
 
I've got one, I can't take a photo until tonight, though I'm confused that you say you are ditching the spare wheel, yet have a TDIe :confused:

The TDIe models didn't have spare wheels to begin with, as the battery takes up the majority of the wheel well (for stop-start purposes). My car has the battery, tools, tyre-weld and compressor in the wheel well, in a black polystyrene "tidy", which has a moulded plastic lid, and a long screw down "nut" which doubles as a support for the boot floor.


They are "real" leather, but they aren't the most supple, they are a rougher, thicker cut, which was chosen for longevity rather than look or feel. As a result they do hold up well and are pretty resilient, but don't offer the same "give" that softer (like nappa) leather gives.

Spare wheel sits ontop surely? The wheel well there is a battery tub as the mufflers either side prevent it being large enough for a wheel to drop into hence you have a reduced width space saver. The large spindle then retains the wheel. The 1.8 TFSI battery compared to that image is half the size!

IMG_1434_zpsedc60bbe.jpg


Here the owner said he had junked the spare wheel for pump and go to save weight, you can see where the tyre used to reside though.

Same as the XE / XF aswell, although the boot floor does sit higher on cars specced with spare wheels.


My MINI has similar 'real leather', its really leatherette which is chopped up offcuts into a PVC skin so its nice and cheap and looks similar but not porous and are really durable, the process means it can be referred to as real leather when its really nothing like it :mad:
 
To go from no spare, to having a spare, involves having a different polystyrene insert (different shape), as well as a different plastic lid (along with the jack, the wheel, the additional tools).

It can be done, but the car comes with a slightly different config.
 
[TW]Fox;29913738 said:
Batteries in wheel wells are such a silly idea. It means when the car inevitable fills with water through a dodgy rear light seal or whatever else it means the battery gets submerged...

Locking wheel nuts under the spare wheel are even more annoying.
 
So my cars in for a gearbox oil change and they've given me an 16 A4 TDI, no leather, manual, 2.0 so its pretty slow too. But costs £30,000!? It's not an sline, so at what price point do these start from?

Pics will be uploaded, but I'm struggling to get my head round where to start if you want something new, with spec and not almost instantly looking at some sort of PCP/lease etc unless you have money lying around, but even then, I wouldn't feel comfortable splashing money like that on a car without the toys.
 
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So my cars in for a gearbox oil change and they've given me an 16 A4 TDI, no leather, manual, 2.0 so its pretty slow too. But costs £30,000!? It's not an sline, so at what price point do these start from?

Pics will be uploaded, but I'm struggling to get my head round where to start if you want something new, with spec and not almost instantly looking at some sort of PCP/lease etc unless you have money lying around, but even then, I wouldn't feel comfortable splashing money like that on a car without the toys.

You seriously believe anyone pays full price for a car these day and when an Audi A4 can be had for Mondeo prices anyway, who's to complain.
Go to Orangewheels and price up your Audi there, or even Carwow. I can get a A4 S-Line with more or less all of the toys for under £30k...
 
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You seriously believe anyone pays full price for a car these day and when an Audi A4 can be had for Mondeo prices anyway, who's to complain.
Go to Orangewheels and price up your Audi there, or even Carwow. I can get a A4 S-Line with more or less all of the toys for under £30k...
Matching the monthly outlay doesn't equate to the same total cost though, but I guess that's all that seems to matter as there's no shortage of newer cars on the road nowadays.
 
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Matching the monthly outlay doesn't equate to the same total cost though, but I guess that's all that seems to matter.

That is how over 80% of people buy new cars now. It has meant that lots of people can now drive a much nicer car than ever before but oddly, to me at least, it seems to anger some people that they can. The list price of a car has become less relevant to over 80% of new car drivers because that's not how modern car buying works. The days of walking into a dealer with cash and buying a car outright, certainly when new cars are concerned, is long gone for the vast majority of people. Initial payment, monthly costs, future value is what buyers are interested in now.
 
That is how over 80% of people buy new cars now. It has meant that lots of people can now drive a much nicer car than ever before but oddly, to me at least, it seems to anger some people that they can. The list price of a car has become less relevant to over 80% of new car drivers because that's not how modern car buying works. The days of walking into a dealer with cash and buying a car outright, certainly when new cars are concerned, is long gone for the vast majority of people. Initial payment, monthly costs, future value is what buyers are interested in now.

seems so, especially when they're priced well out of range in the first instance 'without' options!
 
seems so, especially when they're priced well out of range in the first instance 'without' options!

The list prices with most German marks are frankly a joke to inflate values etc. etc. No one buys an M6 for 100K or an M5 for 80K. They go to BMW's website, chose 'Latest Finance Offers' and see that they can get at least 10k-20K off and think they have a deal. Germans know this, clever lot the Bosh and this is the same with Audi. I could get many many 100's off a new R8, few more if I take cars in the system already in build or dealers stock.
 
Matching the monthly outlay doesn't equate to the same total cost though, but I guess that's all that seems to matter as there's no shortage of newer cars on the road nowadays.

Did you miss my point somehow, not sure. What I was saying that starting with a discount of around £5.5k from a dealership then work out how you fund it how you like. Thats a kitted out £35k A4 for £29.4k.
https://www.orangewheels.co.uk/enquiries/09486e/enquiry_details/new.html

You are both kinda right.

A lot of it is about matching get monthlies, but that is, essentially, TCO.

For example, when I got my 530d I pushed the discount as far as I thought I could. Then, with the larger GFMV, I ended up with a payment profile that was basically the same as when I went to Ford to run numbers on a Mondeo estate.

So, if I had gone for a 2.0 tdi, and kept the spec down, the 5 series would have been substantially cheaper, over the first 3-4 years, as a broadly equivalent to Mondeo. The 3 series or A4 no doubt being cheaper again.

Same was true for the passat, avens is etc etc. The higher GFMV on premium Germans makes them more competitive than their more run of the mill rivals. Assuming you use a pcp plan to finance it, and it's really only the monthly figure that dictates your buying choices.

Of course, as a cash buyer, you may not be able to stretch the initial budget to a premium German motor. But you may end up paying the same, over the ownership period, for what might be regarded as a "lesser" car by some.
 
It is the options that really pushes the monthly payments up because you'll notice the guaranteed future value stays roughly the same as a car with no options. I think this is what made my monthly payments so high, compared with the 'Audi finance examples' on the website.

Sat nav £2k, paint £500+, alloys £1k+, DSG £2k+ (I think), armrest, climate control etc. The list goes on... :eek:


In hindsight I probably should have bought a near new model after 6 months, with as many options as possible. There are mk3 TTs on pistonheads now selling for under £25k with very low miles.

Or I should have bought a used TTS, which at this moment in time costs the same that I paid for my s-line TT. :o
 
You say that, but my 5 series isn't exactly lacking spec, pro nav (2k), m sport plus (2k), mfd (550), folding mirrors (400), paint (600), sports auto etc... About £6k or something. And as I said, still roughly the same price as a Mondeo (deposit + monthlies).
 
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