EURO PZWO

After reading the S3 feature on the VW Vortex, I thought i'd inquire over here to get some input from the hardcore Audu community. So this is my first post to the audiWorld forums....

The Audi A3/S3 is not available in North America due to Audis fear that the hot little hatch will "ghetto"-tize the Audi brandname. (yeah, right) But there are a handful of "legal" A3's running around the USA as I speak - and i'm not talking about diplomat cars. How did these folks get the cars certified? I know all too well about Tina (from H&R's) A3 being titled with Washington state plates - but no one seems real keen to explain HOW she got Washinton state plates..

Audi does offer the car in Mexico though. Any idea how hard it would be to get a car into the US (legally) via Mexico?? The A3 platform is a modern Audi offering - it's not like it still has plate glass windows, no seatbelts, and no airbags. The motor should already be EPA certified since it is available in other Audi cars - right? Since there are legal cars in the USA, did someone do crash testing on them already? Are they "exempt" from testing somehow? What's the deal? I've been on the NHSB site (or whatever it is) and it's real vauge about Mexican imports. I would imagine that you would need different spec lights as I doubt the Mexican units are DOT certified. DRL's would be needed as well (if they aren't included already), airbags are mandatory, but should be standard equipment, right? What else would be needed besides crash testing? (provided it needs it)

I'd love to get my hands on an S3.. Audi does not appear to be willing to make that happen.. too bad..

Thanks for the input!

cent00

<ul><li><a href="https://www.audiworld.com/forum/m/a3/msgs/9740.phtml">https://www.audiworld.com/forum/m/a3/msgs/9740.phtml</a</li></ul>

deleonl1

As posted earlier...not worth it, especially when you can buy one in Germany for like $27k. The easiest way would be to move to Europe. I tried buying an S3 from a foreign student at Duke, but the only way I could register it would be as a race car or show car...I don't have that kind of money for a car to be sitting around. The A3s buzzing around the US are probably people who know people in Customs. I believe Tina's A3 was originally registered as a show car or something like that, but they had some kind of contact in Customs and it was able to slip through the cracks. Since there aren't any A3/S3s in the US, to legally get one in the US, you need some major cash to buy at least three A3/S3s for Customs...one or more for crash testing, one for the EPA (even if the engine in the A3/S3 is the same one used by VW & Audi, it still needs to be tested) and the last one for you. Even if you have that kind of money to blow, the car still might not pass all the tests. So think about it for a second, if it was even slightly easy to get an A3/S3 into the US, wouldn't you think there would be a million of them cruising around everywhere. I have yet to see an A3/S3 in the US>