russbert

Yep, yet another reason for us to meet up next year as I would really like to hear the difference as well. I've never heard an S3 with the res delete (at least that I know of).

Timmay

Interesting observation. I may be misreading or misunderstanding some RS3 owners as it seems there have been a host of people that have been disappointed with the "lack" of sound in the cabin. I don't recall anyone here actually stating it's a "noisy" car. I take that as intoxicating as well, personally

As for the suspension, also interesting. I wonder whether the Comfort setting on the RS3 is actually softer than it is on my S3 as opposed to Dynamic being a lot stiffer. Don't get me wrong as I totally believe and it's quite conceivable the RS3 Dynamic setting is stiffer than the S3. As you might recall the Comfort setting on the S3 mag ride is rather stiff actually. Perhaps the delta you are able to recognize with your butt meter is telling. I really gotta get behind the wheel of a freakin' RS3, lol.

russbert

Well there are a few in Atlanta, one in Huntsville, AL and was one in Birmingham, AL. so get to it!!! LOL ;-0

mattvandyk

That last sentence is absolutely true. I dunno anybody in all of the various forums who's been dancing around it as much as you have!!! You gotta just go drive one for a bit. It's a hoot.

Timmay

Doh! Haha.

likerage

Don't get me wrong. I am not going to turn down a test drive and just buy a vehicle. I've just never shown up to look at a vehicle and not spent weeks reading reviews written by people far more critical than I and getting a full understanding of a vehicles capabilities.

In the end all I really need to do is sit in the vehicle to make sure my back fits between the seat bolstering, which is a real problem for me. Ive gone to buy 3 cars now and gone home cause I cant get my back between bolstering. My wife's 2016 S3 is a bit too snug but im hoping the gforces of the I5 will help wedge me in there.

GazoBazo

Until recently I was absolutely sure that one should test drive a car before even thinking about purchasing it. I thought of test drives as a way of getting inside your dream car and, at the end of the day, wanting it even more.
That said, I recently test drove a brand new Porsche 911 Targa GTS (Porsche have a special place in my hearth). Since the car wasn't the spec I would buy (no carbon-ceramics, mediocre tires, etc.) I actually scared myself a couple of time when driving 9/10ths on a familiar road - the car was rather unstable due to the bad tires and braking distance was much longer than acceleration distance, which lead to the need for much earlier breaking than I would have liked. I still love Porsches, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
With all that said, I would never buy a car without test driving it. Sometime it just ends up not being just right - and it's worth noting.

19hole

I have only purchased 1 car without driving it first, my current S7. I had driven a number of A7s, so I was pretty confident in my order. I am pretty lucky that I have a great relationship with my dealer. I usually get a car to drive for a few days as a test drive. That was the case for my S5, my wife's A3 and our last three 911s.

SquirrelA4Quattro

In my case, the test drive (two sets, back to back, two days apart) made ALL the difference, even though they yielded different results.

First set (coming from my wife's VERY nice new generation A4 with a very docile but very nice 6 spd DSG. Not so subtle (but just GORGEOUS difference between the Red S3 and the Oh my God SPECTACULAR Catalunya Red in the RS3 was obvious, but not worth $11,000. Even the fact of the RS3's prodigious heart, lightning quick 7 speed DSG, and easily detectable more sophisticated stance and capabilities didn't sway me, but when I returned to purchase the S3 because it was still DAMN quick I drove the RS3 one more time, and there was no looking back. Even now that I've learned how few creature comfort and nanny functions made it into the RS3 (no compact spare, no Homelink, no 2-driver auto key-coded mirror positioning) I have no doubts I made the right decision on all counts except when counting what's in my "remote piggybank" down at the bricks and mortar bank.

You're right that there's much you won't learn in a few mile drive at no more than 60% of the car's potential, but even that is better than not sharing a few minutes with the car at all. After all, many of us would still be outlapped in a Pinto driven by Alex Zanardi while we stumbled around in an RS3! I think almost all of us would know immediately however that better days lay ahead in the RS3, and that they did not if we found ourselves belted behind the wheel of the Pinto.

superswiss

I think a test drive certainly can answer some questions, but I also think it's not necessarily essential depending on how familiar you are with the car already. For example, I never drove an RS5 until I picked up mine in Ingolstadt. It may seem crazy to pay cash for a car and fly 4000 miles to pick it up w/o ever having driven it, but I know myself very well and I knew I was gonna like this car. I test drove an S5 to make sure that everything else about the coupe fits me. Just like buying a pair of pants, at a minimum you wanna make sure you gonna be comfortable in it and it suits your lifestyle.

I really like the new Audi on Demand service as a way to test drive their fleet, and I hope BMW and Merc will start similar services soon. It's only in San Francisco at the moment, but I just rented a brand new Allroad (only had 1000 miles on it) and drove up to Oregon with wife and friends to view the Eclipse. It changed my opinion of the A4 and the Allroad in particular. It's a very nice road trip car and I want the new MMI now. We used it for all of our directions. Traffic on I-5 after the eclipse was bad and the MMI took us off the highway and down the Oregon countryside bypassing the mess and it continued to take us off I-5 several other times to drive around a big accident, construction and other congestion. It seemed to take us on even less traveled routes than others who also got off the highway and probably using Waze or Google Maps. You could see the procession of cars going in one direction and the MMI took us in a different direction to mostly empty roads. I also got used to the handwriting recognition, which at first I found a bit odd, but with 4 talking passengers in the car, voice commands wasn't an option. I really like the universal search and how it lets you do a Google Search if it can't find a match in it's own database.

This was also a nice opportunity to experience the new Quattro Ultra in the real world and as many already said, for normal driving you mostly won't notice it. In dynamic mode it handled nicely through the curvy mountain parts of I-5, but obviously with 4 passengers and luggage, I didn't drive the car anywhere close to how I drive my RS5. The system does seem to exhibit more noticeable torque steer. You can feel the front wheels pull when accelerating on the highway to pass somebody. Quite obvious that it is in 2WD mode at that time. It does eventually go neutral once the system reacts to your sudden acceleration. I would say that's the part that I wasn't very impressed with. But in dynamic mode going through the windy parts of I-5, the car stayed neutral. Definitely no rear-bias or hint of oversteer, though.

Anyway, I steered a bit off topic, but I think it serves as an example to OP's point, that a short test drive may not answer all the questions.