Anne you ask, you get! Just finished - here it is: '00 1.8TQMSX First Impressions (LONG!)
11-05-1999, 06:44 AM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Anne you ask, you get! Just finished - here it is: '00 1.8TQMSX First Impressions (LONG!)
First impressions - 11/5/99
Simply put, "Amazing!"
First some background. I'm 23. When I got my license at 16 (in '92), my Mom and I shared her 4.5 year old Mazda 323. About a year+ later, she bought a used Honda Accord for herself and let me drive the Mazda (I just recently paid her for what she just kinda gave me without ever asking for $ in return). I did pretty well in school (in math & science, at least) and went on to attend college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. I obtained a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. My freshman year my parents did not allow me to have my car at school. After a good academic year, I was allowed from then on. So the 4.5 year old Mazda soon became almost 12 years old with 165K miles. I am now working for IBM designing network hardware for the S/390 server. So basically I worked to earn my A4, and that makes it even more special. The 3 month wait for the '00 order to go through allowed me to save up some money as I was a few hundred shy of broke when I finished school (And no school loans!).
Here's the specs:
2000 Audi A4 1.8T
Light Silver / Onyx Cloth
Quattro
Sports Pkg
Convenience Pkg
Cold Weather Pkg
Sport Seats
Xenon Lights
Sideguard Curtain Air Bags
Now for the good stuff:
If you didn't know I faxed my salesman the TSB on the Central Locking and the FAQ on the control module (thanks John) for the window operation. I also asked if the car could be under lights so I could inspect it better upon my 7PM delivery. When I showed up, there it was on the showroom floor staring at me. Absolutely beautiful! As my salesman finished up with another couple, I gave it a quick exterior inspection. I found myself checking out the '00 sport wheels and noticed that I still felt like I was just looking at some car in some dealership -- I could not believe this was mine! Well, I took a brief step outside to look over the 3-4 S4's on their lot near where I came in. Didn't see any "sold" signs, so if you're looking for red, santorin, or silver, call Valenti Audi in CT. The financial somethingornother guy came out and we went back in to take care of paperwork/money stuff. Few signatures here, few checks there and we were all set.
Every so often a new salesman would ask if I needed help as I was looking at my car and when I said "I'm all set" and pointed to her, they gave me a big smile and a thumbs up. A few of them remarked on how much they liked the new sport wheels. I do too. I keep pointing out to people how I like the fact that the spokes go all the way to the rubber, making them look larger than the old sport wheels. I also heard remarks on them liking the window operation -- It was obvious they were playing with it earlier, which is fine with me.
Mark, my salesman, opened up the car for me and showed me the window operation of the remote. After that, he asked me if he should bother showing me the rest of the car. For some reason, he seems to think I know something about A4's. Silly him. I had him give me the official tour, which was good as he told me some new stuff. First thing that comes to mind is that with the new (99.5-00) sunroof switch, you have to push it up to get it to tilt up and pull it down to get it to tilt down and close. I knew that, what I didn't know is that it also has "one-touch". You can just give it a quick push up and it will fully tilt upwards and vise versa to get it to close. I also checked out the spare tire, and verified that it is a 5th sport rim with the same Dunlop tire. I didn't check which way the tire was mounted (directional spare). If I had to make a logical guess of how I would do it if I were Audi, I'd mount it as a right side rim/tire as it is probably more likely [for a driver] to hit something (curb-like) on the side away from the driver, where the judge of distance is further off.
Some highlights:
Front license plate was not mounted per request. Bracket is in trunk should I need to down the road.
Control module programmed w/windows at no cost
Temp (paper) plate was wrapped in plastic and mounted in it's place, as not to obstruct view out the rear window until the real plates come in the mail (~45 days)
Xenon's:
WOW! I love how they turn on. It's instant. I would never have thought that a normal light was not "instant". I guess if I could record lights turning on a super quality as to slow it down and watch in super slow motion replay, I think I would see a normal element gradually getting brighter, where as the Xenon would take much less time. This is what I would expect if I could register changes that occur so quick, but I swear I can tell. You really have to witness it. I may be just adapting, but I think they are most purpleish when they are turned on and get whiter after time. I'll have to do some comparisons here. Turning on the fogs shows how "dirty-white" the standard bulbs are in comparison. I may put in some yellow ionized bulbs in as fogs, but I'm not sure if they make them in that size.
Sport Seats:
WOW! (see the pattern here?) They are super supportive on all sides. The power lumbar feels like it could keep pushing the small of your back all the way to the steering wheel. For now, it's most comfortable at almost completely back. I like the new pattern for the onyx much better than the 99's (Sorry Jeff). This somehwhat falls in this category: at 6"3', I have miles of room above my head before the sunroof, or the Sideguard airbags. I have the seat almost all the way down. And from that spot, I can view the controls just fine and the steering wheel is not all the way up (don't know how others had problems here). Also, I found in an Integra GS-R, I had to have the seat all the way back, not so in the A4. They must have just had their's mounted with poor thought for tall guys and gals.
Convenience Pkg:
Sunroof works like a charm. I love the fact that I can just set it to open (or close) to a certain point and then it will go and do it. No need to hold a button while it moves. The auto-dimming mirrors worried me as I like to have control over the dimming feature. I was amazed that they worked very well. Not too dark, not to light. The side mirrors are really green compared to the blue interior one. Seems odd that they're different, but I'm not complaining. I checked and the heated mirrors come on when the car is on and the temp is below a certain value (40F, is it?). And yes, they work. At highway speeds with the radio low or off, the sunroof cover makes a big difference to the acoustics in the car. Okay, not big, but definately noticable. There was a feeling of being in a big room (echo-y). Closing that cover adds a lot of sound deadening. Programmed the Homelink remote when I got home and it's cool. No more clutter of two remotes.
Sports Pkg:
WOW! Tight suspension, good looking wheels, sticky rubber. The chunky shift *** is great to the touch. Shifting is so smooth. Clutch feel is perfect. The steering wheel just wants to be held. The stitching shows off the nice piece of cow that it's wrapped with. I like the buldge on the inside of the wheel at "10 and 2". I noticed how the bottom of the wheel is buldged out for the lower ~1/3 of the outside. Seems odd, but I thought it might be to give you grip where it buldges out ("8 through 4"?). Also makes the lower part girthier, yet does not make the opening smaller as it bulges outwards instead of inwards. Have to look at it to see what I mean.
Cold Weather Pkg:
WOW! The heated seats are very nice to get you warm quicker than the engine can get warm. In the cloth sport seats, it's very cosy. Ski sack probably won't get much use (I'll get a rack for my board), but I love gadgets and it can stay. Don't remember which heated nozzles/locks are part of this pkg as opposed to std equipment, but nonetheless, the heated door lock upon lifting the lever definately gets points in the gadget column.
Sideguard:
WOW! I was showing the car off to a friend last night (he just got a matching silver Jetta GLX), and was pointing out where they are.
"See there on the A-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"oh yeah",
"see there on the B-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"there too?",
"see there on the C-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"Geeze, that's cool!"
Having been driving a '95 probe for the last 4 months / 12,500 miles (my father didn't wan't me driving the Mazda as it had an exhaust leak and he was able to use an older car that he has for his local driving), there were certain things that were immediately obvious. I mentioned some, but here's the ones that stand out (what I noticed in the A4):
Clutch much easier to engage (probe is tougher than explorer for some reason)
Gear box flows into gears
Sunroof operation (controls) are superior
Doors hold true to their notches (Probe doors would shut on me on a minor incline)
Real leather steering wheel much better to the touch.
Misc:
I never have been a big fan of the color red, but it looks great in the "cockpit" and I can see what all the murmer has been about. The Symphony stereo just adds a bunch more buttons to allow even more red button outlines. The rear passenger lights that can be selected as on/off/door is very nice (red lighting here too). One touch of all windows is very convenient (especially "up" for the front). My salesman showed off the pinch protection, so now I feel confident that it works. I'm not sure if it's on the rear windows, but if it is, I don't see why they couldn't have put one-touch up on those as well. I also didn't check to see if pinch protection works if you are touching the button to close the window, as opposed to just using the one-touch. I had to try out the headlight washers, even though the car was perfectly clean after a nice detail job. Now those are cool! I think I could have done without the water overspray on to the trunk, but I guess some is expected in order to get the front winshield properly. Even under break-in driving, I was able to see the orange glow of the turbo. I will definately use the "open-door" ding to allow at least that much time to cool (I think it's about 0:45-1:00?). There is a lack of the higher frequencies from the rear speakers, but this is how a high quality set up is supposed to be. Rear fill and bass speakers should be all that's needed behind. Although, I do expect some serious stereo mods come the spring, along with rims/tires, chip, tint? and exhaust. The dead pedal foot rest seems to be angled too vertical. I feel that only my toes are resting on it and thus I think my heel will start to create a mark in the floor mat. I plan on weather tech for the winter, so that should take care of it for some of the year. The first aid kit has scissors! and all sorts of other stuff - didn't examine it too much but looked like a lot of gauze type stuff. For a show car, one could remove the contents of the first aid bag, and make a nice piece of wood (or metal, or plastic) that fits tightly throughout the bag, but hollowed out to snuggly fit a bottle of whiskey or the like. Kind of a St. Bernard first-aid solution.
Okay, think I've used up enough of your time for today. TGIF and I can drive all weekend. "Whoops, forgot something at the store, gotta go back out, again!"
On the way to the dealership last night, I made a pit-stop home to pick up my camera (I'm a small photo buff, and this seemed more than opertune). With the perfect setting of my car in the showroom and being pulled outside, I COMPLETELY FORGOT to take pictures. Geeze, you'd think I had something else on my mind.
Mark P
mark.pogers@alum.rpi.edu
1.8TQMSX
P.S. I truely had a perfect salesman that listened and acted upon all of my phone calls and requests. He did this while profiting at a mere 4.4% over invoice. I would recommend him to all in the CT area. Please feel free to contact me should the need arise.
P.P.S. My only disappointment during this process was that the window sticker had a 2"x2" chunk torn out of it at the bottom. I was planning on framing it (and may still). I'm sure if I had told my salesman of my intent, he would have assured it was in perfect shape.
Simply put, "Amazing!"
First some background. I'm 23. When I got my license at 16 (in '92), my Mom and I shared her 4.5 year old Mazda 323. About a year+ later, she bought a used Honda Accord for herself and let me drive the Mazda (I just recently paid her for what she just kinda gave me without ever asking for $ in return). I did pretty well in school (in math & science, at least) and went on to attend college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. I obtained a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. My freshman year my parents did not allow me to have my car at school. After a good academic year, I was allowed from then on. So the 4.5 year old Mazda soon became almost 12 years old with 165K miles. I am now working for IBM designing network hardware for the S/390 server. So basically I worked to earn my A4, and that makes it even more special. The 3 month wait for the '00 order to go through allowed me to save up some money as I was a few hundred shy of broke when I finished school (And no school loans!).
Here's the specs:
2000 Audi A4 1.8T
Light Silver / Onyx Cloth
Quattro
Sports Pkg
Convenience Pkg
Cold Weather Pkg
Sport Seats
Xenon Lights
Sideguard Curtain Air Bags
Now for the good stuff:
If you didn't know I faxed my salesman the TSB on the Central Locking and the FAQ on the control module (thanks John) for the window operation. I also asked if the car could be under lights so I could inspect it better upon my 7PM delivery. When I showed up, there it was on the showroom floor staring at me. Absolutely beautiful! As my salesman finished up with another couple, I gave it a quick exterior inspection. I found myself checking out the '00 sport wheels and noticed that I still felt like I was just looking at some car in some dealership -- I could not believe this was mine! Well, I took a brief step outside to look over the 3-4 S4's on their lot near where I came in. Didn't see any "sold" signs, so if you're looking for red, santorin, or silver, call Valenti Audi in CT. The financial somethingornother guy came out and we went back in to take care of paperwork/money stuff. Few signatures here, few checks there and we were all set.
Every so often a new salesman would ask if I needed help as I was looking at my car and when I said "I'm all set" and pointed to her, they gave me a big smile and a thumbs up. A few of them remarked on how much they liked the new sport wheels. I do too. I keep pointing out to people how I like the fact that the spokes go all the way to the rubber, making them look larger than the old sport wheels. I also heard remarks on them liking the window operation -- It was obvious they were playing with it earlier, which is fine with me.
Mark, my salesman, opened up the car for me and showed me the window operation of the remote. After that, he asked me if he should bother showing me the rest of the car. For some reason, he seems to think I know something about A4's. Silly him. I had him give me the official tour, which was good as he told me some new stuff. First thing that comes to mind is that with the new (99.5-00) sunroof switch, you have to push it up to get it to tilt up and pull it down to get it to tilt down and close. I knew that, what I didn't know is that it also has "one-touch". You can just give it a quick push up and it will fully tilt upwards and vise versa to get it to close. I also checked out the spare tire, and verified that it is a 5th sport rim with the same Dunlop tire. I didn't check which way the tire was mounted (directional spare). If I had to make a logical guess of how I would do it if I were Audi, I'd mount it as a right side rim/tire as it is probably more likely [for a driver] to hit something (curb-like) on the side away from the driver, where the judge of distance is further off.
Some highlights:
Front license plate was not mounted per request. Bracket is in trunk should I need to down the road.
Control module programmed w/windows at no cost
Temp (paper) plate was wrapped in plastic and mounted in it's place, as not to obstruct view out the rear window until the real plates come in the mail (~45 days)
Xenon's:
WOW! I love how they turn on. It's instant. I would never have thought that a normal light was not "instant". I guess if I could record lights turning on a super quality as to slow it down and watch in super slow motion replay, I think I would see a normal element gradually getting brighter, where as the Xenon would take much less time. This is what I would expect if I could register changes that occur so quick, but I swear I can tell. You really have to witness it. I may be just adapting, but I think they are most purpleish when they are turned on and get whiter after time. I'll have to do some comparisons here. Turning on the fogs shows how "dirty-white" the standard bulbs are in comparison. I may put in some yellow ionized bulbs in as fogs, but I'm not sure if they make them in that size.
Sport Seats:
WOW! (see the pattern here?) They are super supportive on all sides. The power lumbar feels like it could keep pushing the small of your back all the way to the steering wheel. For now, it's most comfortable at almost completely back. I like the new pattern for the onyx much better than the 99's (Sorry Jeff). This somehwhat falls in this category: at 6"3', I have miles of room above my head before the sunroof, or the Sideguard airbags. I have the seat almost all the way down. And from that spot, I can view the controls just fine and the steering wheel is not all the way up (don't know how others had problems here). Also, I found in an Integra GS-R, I had to have the seat all the way back, not so in the A4. They must have just had their's mounted with poor thought for tall guys and gals.
Convenience Pkg:
Sunroof works like a charm. I love the fact that I can just set it to open (or close) to a certain point and then it will go and do it. No need to hold a button while it moves. The auto-dimming mirrors worried me as I like to have control over the dimming feature. I was amazed that they worked very well. Not too dark, not to light. The side mirrors are really green compared to the blue interior one. Seems odd that they're different, but I'm not complaining. I checked and the heated mirrors come on when the car is on and the temp is below a certain value (40F, is it?). And yes, they work. At highway speeds with the radio low or off, the sunroof cover makes a big difference to the acoustics in the car. Okay, not big, but definately noticable. There was a feeling of being in a big room (echo-y). Closing that cover adds a lot of sound deadening. Programmed the Homelink remote when I got home and it's cool. No more clutter of two remotes.
Sports Pkg:
WOW! Tight suspension, good looking wheels, sticky rubber. The chunky shift *** is great to the touch. Shifting is so smooth. Clutch feel is perfect. The steering wheel just wants to be held. The stitching shows off the nice piece of cow that it's wrapped with. I like the buldge on the inside of the wheel at "10 and 2". I noticed how the bottom of the wheel is buldged out for the lower ~1/3 of the outside. Seems odd, but I thought it might be to give you grip where it buldges out ("8 through 4"?). Also makes the lower part girthier, yet does not make the opening smaller as it bulges outwards instead of inwards. Have to look at it to see what I mean.
Cold Weather Pkg:
WOW! The heated seats are very nice to get you warm quicker than the engine can get warm. In the cloth sport seats, it's very cosy. Ski sack probably won't get much use (I'll get a rack for my board), but I love gadgets and it can stay. Don't remember which heated nozzles/locks are part of this pkg as opposed to std equipment, but nonetheless, the heated door lock upon lifting the lever definately gets points in the gadget column.
Sideguard:
WOW! I was showing the car off to a friend last night (he just got a matching silver Jetta GLX), and was pointing out where they are.
"See there on the A-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"oh yeah",
"see there on the B-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"there too?",
"see there on the C-pillar where it has the Air-bag logo",
"Geeze, that's cool!"
Having been driving a '95 probe for the last 4 months / 12,500 miles (my father didn't wan't me driving the Mazda as it had an exhaust leak and he was able to use an older car that he has for his local driving), there were certain things that were immediately obvious. I mentioned some, but here's the ones that stand out (what I noticed in the A4):
Clutch much easier to engage (probe is tougher than explorer for some reason)
Gear box flows into gears
Sunroof operation (controls) are superior
Doors hold true to their notches (Probe doors would shut on me on a minor incline)
Real leather steering wheel much better to the touch.
Misc:
I never have been a big fan of the color red, but it looks great in the "cockpit" and I can see what all the murmer has been about. The Symphony stereo just adds a bunch more buttons to allow even more red button outlines. The rear passenger lights that can be selected as on/off/door is very nice (red lighting here too). One touch of all windows is very convenient (especially "up" for the front). My salesman showed off the pinch protection, so now I feel confident that it works. I'm not sure if it's on the rear windows, but if it is, I don't see why they couldn't have put one-touch up on those as well. I also didn't check to see if pinch protection works if you are touching the button to close the window, as opposed to just using the one-touch. I had to try out the headlight washers, even though the car was perfectly clean after a nice detail job. Now those are cool! I think I could have done without the water overspray on to the trunk, but I guess some is expected in order to get the front winshield properly. Even under break-in driving, I was able to see the orange glow of the turbo. I will definately use the "open-door" ding to allow at least that much time to cool (I think it's about 0:45-1:00?). There is a lack of the higher frequencies from the rear speakers, but this is how a high quality set up is supposed to be. Rear fill and bass speakers should be all that's needed behind. Although, I do expect some serious stereo mods come the spring, along with rims/tires, chip, tint? and exhaust. The dead pedal foot rest seems to be angled too vertical. I feel that only my toes are resting on it and thus I think my heel will start to create a mark in the floor mat. I plan on weather tech for the winter, so that should take care of it for some of the year. The first aid kit has scissors! and all sorts of other stuff - didn't examine it too much but looked like a lot of gauze type stuff. For a show car, one could remove the contents of the first aid bag, and make a nice piece of wood (or metal, or plastic) that fits tightly throughout the bag, but hollowed out to snuggly fit a bottle of whiskey or the like. Kind of a St. Bernard first-aid solution.
Okay, think I've used up enough of your time for today. TGIF and I can drive all weekend. "Whoops, forgot something at the store, gotta go back out, again!"
On the way to the dealership last night, I made a pit-stop home to pick up my camera (I'm a small photo buff, and this seemed more than opertune). With the perfect setting of my car in the showroom and being pulled outside, I COMPLETELY FORGOT to take pictures. Geeze, you'd think I had something else on my mind.
Mark P
mark.pogers@alum.rpi.edu
1.8TQMSX
P.S. I truely had a perfect salesman that listened and acted upon all of my phone calls and requests. He did this while profiting at a mere 4.4% over invoice. I would recommend him to all in the CT area. Please feel free to contact me should the need arise.
P.P.S. My only disappointment during this process was that the window sticker had a 2"x2" chunk torn out of it at the bottom. I was planning on framing it (and may still). I'm sure if I had told my salesman of my intent, he would have assured it was in perfect shape.
11-05-1999, 06:56 AM
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Mark, congrats on your new A4!! (more)
I really enjoyed reading your message...made me feel like I was the one with the new A4 :-)
Many miles of happy motoring to you.
Andy Hedin
'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Garrett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter, Borla Exhaust, Euro Lights, more...
Many miles of happy motoring to you.
Andy Hedin
'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Garrett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter, Borla Exhaust, Euro Lights, more...
11-05-1999, 07:08 AM
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Congratulations Mark, but please remember to eat and sleep this weekend
I know you are going to invent any excuse to go for a drive (I did too). Just make sure you're properly rested and nourished for all your endeavours. But then again, isn't that why we have drive-thru.
I can't wait to see it!
Have a great weekend,
Peter
I can't wait to see it!
Have a great weekend,
Peter
11-05-1999, 07:09 AM
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
99 1.8TQ for sale.. imma gettin me one of them 00's! jk, congrats mark!
damn.. i thought i was the only one that did this when i purchased my new car.. how long were you out last night until? i was thinking about taking the drive up to ct, but according to 1010wins, there was a multi car accident involving 2 semis and a small car.. forget that idea.. anyways, congrats again, and remember to drive safely..
see you next week.
brian
see you next week.
brian
11-05-1999, 08:41 AM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
That was GREAT! I feel like I have picked my car up already....
I appreciate the great review. I know that the first time I saw those sport wheels in person, last week, that I loved them. That is why I ordered my snows on steel. I like your idea of having them program the car before you even get it. I will do that myself. I also liked the new dash lights when I saw them. Sounds like you do as well. Anywho, have a great weekend with your new baby!
Pat
00 A41.8tQMSX, nav, conv, weather
...somewhere on the ocean (boat not floor!)
Pat
00 A41.8tQMSX, nav, conv, weather
...somewhere on the ocean (boat not floor!)