Kurac

Hello all!
My current daily driver is a 2013 A4 P+ A8 which I purchased new back in 2012. I've had long commutes for years now and the car has served me extremely well with 167K miles on the clock. I had a dealer installed Stasis Stage 1 installed at 15K miles. After about 130K miles, I started to notice some oil consumption and more recently I've been going through a quart a week (600-700 miles). That consumption seemed to stabilize for a while and I was comfortable with that. My goal was to hold out for next year and purchase an RS3. My A4 decided to throw me a curve ball recently and started to consume more oil. Maybe 1 quart to 400 miles, which started to freak me out and caused me to window shop other cars out there currently for sale. I didn't want to spend the money on an RS3 just yet, so I started to look at Golf R's and S3's. I thought for sure I'd be getting an R since they are cheaper and surely VW dealers would be willing to move them. I soon realized VW dealers think these cars are made of gold and best discount I could find was $2K off sticker. I even reached out to the best advertised prices in the country on Autotrader. It was a Maryland dealer in Alexandria and when I called, it was bait and switch...loaded up discounts and incentives and no destination charges includes in the price. I got frustrated with the R hunt. I switched gears to S3's and the end of June saw some incredible incentives and discounts. Audi offered a $3750 lease/APR special, $1K Audi loyalty, $2K off MSRP if trading in an Audi with an active recall (with no fix announced yet- this was a pleasant surprise!), and being end of month/ end of quarter, some dealers really had some goals they wanted to meet. Add to that a better trade in offer than online tools were quoting me, I had to pull the trigger!

I've been doing a ton of research on the car that last few weeks and have some questions....
1. With the '18's having the 7sp DCT, does this improve MPG's, performance, or both? On paper, the S3 highway rating is less than my current A4. Window sticker on my A4 states 30mpg highway, I believe the S3 is 28...which is identical to the 6sp DCT rating. Is that really accurate? Or was Audi just lazy in re-certifying fuel economy ratings?
2. Resonator delete- I've listened to the stock and resy-delete vids on you tube, and the deleted resonator cars sounds incredible for a DIY <$200 job.....but because I have a long commute with a good 25 mile stretch cruising at 80mph, how does this affect in cabin sound? Is it "too" loud, or have any drone? Most reviewers comment on no drone except when going with a Stage 2 DP. The key hear is affects on an 80mph cruising speed.

I appreciate any feedback and I look forward to being part of the community!

Since I don't have pics of the car yet, I'll include pics of the S3's big brother....a '17 GT350R I purchased last year. I've been a Vette guy all my life, but this is the most engaging car I've ever driven. A highly recommended driver's car. Enjoy!

XMetal00

That GT350R is awesome! So jealous.

1. That 7spd DCT is geared more for performance with a really tall overdrive 7th gear. You can't really use that last gear unless you're cruising on a flat road doing 70mph+. 28mpg is somewhat accurate and like any other cars, it really depends on how you drive. I get anywhere between 25mpg to 30mpg, but my wife has been able to get as high as 32mpg.

2. Resonator delete isn't very loud at all inside the cabin. There is absolutely no drone. If you want quiet cruising, just put it in normal drive mode and the exhaust quiets down a bit. I had taken the car on a couple of long road trips (5-day 1500+ miles, and 10-day 3300+ miles) driving mostly in dynamic mode (louder exhaust mode) and my wife never once complained about the exhaust. As a matter of fact, I wished it was a bit louder to be honest. But what can you expect from a little 4-banger?

Here's a picture of our bug killing machine

uniqueMR

Nice car/color

Kurac

M0J0

The res delete is quite loud and there is absolutely quite a bit of drone. It is quite annoying how loud it is for just cruising. I drove a E92 M3 with cat delete fore reference and the S3 is soooo much louder with lots of drone.

Kurac

XMetal00

I'm not sure what MOJO is experiencing - maybe some exhaust leak? But my wife would kill me if I did anything to the car that drone.

I know opinions varies widely on exhaust sounds. The great thing about the resonator delete is that it is completely reversible. You can always put the resonator back on if you feel that noise is intolerable. It's a relatively cheap mod.

ducrider61

Kurac

Nachos Libres

For me, the S3 has to be the best value of any car in Audi's lineup. Of course, this is my opinion, but I think for the features you get and the ease of tuneability for the S3 it just makes it an awesome car. An ECU and TCU tune for the car really wakes it up and puts it close to RS3 stock performance - at a much lower price. It is smaller than the A4 line but for me - someone who has a family of 6 - it is still the best car because it is so nimble and handles well, yet can still fit 5 people if you need it to. Every time I go to the dealership I look at S4's, S5's, RS models, etc. and while I definitely think they are great every time I compare what you get from them for the price you pay the S3 just continues to have the best value.

Regarding your questions, with #1 the 7 speed does get better highway mpg than the 6 speed. The only downside with the 7 speed is I don't know of any of the major tuners who have been able to unlock/produce a tune for the 7 speed (I could be wrong here). If you are leaving it stock then 7 speed is definitely the way to go, but tuneability is probably in the 6-speeds current favor. Regarding #2, I have the delete and notice no drone. Now, I don't have an aftermarket exhaust or downpipe, and I've heard that it can drone and get pretty loud when going aftermarket for either of those parts, but for me the resonator delete gives me the loud sound I like when I want to step on it without being annoying or droning when cruising on the highway. My wife is very sensitive to annoying exhausts (I've had 2 STIs before this car) and she actually likes it.