RS3 European Delivery
 

Hi All,

After a lot of time and consideration I finally decided to pull the trigger on a 2018 RS3 European delivery. Me, my wife and 2 kids will be travelling to Ingolstadt late July. For most of the trip we're still in the planning process. I've been going thru the stickies and all of the other interesting pictures and write ups to see what to do (and what to avoid).

Hopefully I'll get my welcome kit soon.

Cheers!

You're going to love it. Any questions feel free to ask

That's just what I did (in October) and had a great time!

Thanks for the responses and encouragement. So far my questions have been answered by reading all of the stickies and with other posts.

One area that I am concerned about is the fact that I'm traveling as a family of 4. So luggage space will likely be an issue unless we plan properly. I found this article that shows we can carry the equivalent of 5 carry on cases or this image with 4 (perhaps larger) bags.

I'm off to Europe in August and renting a MB S63 Coupe and wondered the same about what luggage would fit in the boot. I went to the local Mercedes dealer (same dealer as Audi) and put my luggage in an S Class coupe they had on the showroom floor. It wasn't an AMG model, but figured the boot would be the same size.

Long story short... We need new luggage :(

You may want to drop into your Audi dealer with your luggage and see if it will fit with an S3 if they have one

Per Audi European Delivery FAQs, Ingolstadt is closed for factory tours, available for deliveries from 7/30 thru 8/24. (I'm not sure what the age limit is for kids on factory tours.)
During my trip, I did factory tours of Audi and Porsche but couldn't fit the BMW factory tour into my schedule. In a bit of overkill, I visited all four automotive museums and would rate them: Porsche > (BMW = Mercedes) > Audi.

I googled "driving in Germany" prior to my trip and found lots of good advice. Riding to Audi, I asked my limo driver about speed limits and he said +10 kph over the posted limit is typically ok... but in camera enforced sections of the Autobahn OBEY THE LIMIT!

Have a great trip!

Yes, I considered doing that as well just thought it was a bit strange showing up at a dealer with luggage :/

The problem I think we're facing is that we know how much (or little) will fit in the trunk. We just need to pack less!

Yes, good points. We'll be there about a week before they're scheduled to close so hopefully no limits to just the delivery. I'm also seeing a lot about the speed limits in Germany but more so in Switzerland. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my speed down :)

Oh and I haven't researched Driving in Germany yet, but I'm sure it's good advice!

Even with doing a bit of research, driving in Germany "seemed" a bit daunting at first, simply because you're in an unfamiliar place with your brand new car. We stayed in Ingolstadt again that night and after dinner once the town settled down considerably, we just drove around for 30 minutes getting used to signage and everything. In no time I think you'll feel just as comfortable driving through Germany as driving in the states. Very intuitive overall.

If helpful - here's some photos/video/commentary from our trip last May.
https://vettervacation.wordpress.com/

I'm from Switzerland and let me tell you that you want to watch your speed while in Switzerland. The fines for speeding tickets are based on your income. I remember a story of some Chinese guys who bought Ferrari's and Lambo's in Italy and then drove through Europe. In Switzerland they got caught speeding excessively. Long story short, they lost their newly bought cars. Switzerland will confiscate them and depending on how much you were speeding you won't get the car back and the fine for the speeding tickets was several hundred thousands of dollars, because these guys were all millionaires and billionaires. Switzerland has many stationary radar traps and also unmarked vehicles on the side of the road with radar equipment in the front especially in the cities such as Zurich. These cars are innocently parked on the side of the road catching speeders. Germany is relatively harmless in comparison. I've got a few speeding tickets in Germany. The highest one was like 80 Euros doing 130 kph in a 100 kph zone. I still remember one where I got find 10 Euros for going something like 55 in 50 zone. It cost me $25 to wire 10 Euro to Germany :-). Now they take credit cards and you can pay the fine online. If you go to the Netherlands, they issue speeding tickets based on your average speed. They measure how long it took you to drive a certain distance and if the average speed was above the limit, you'll get a ticket. ED is plenty of fun, though in Germany. If you want to truly experience the car, do it in Germany. Lots of unrestricted Autobahn in Northern Germany, not so much in Southern Germany. Luggage space will be very tight. The RS3 trunk is tiny. I went by myself to pick up my RS5. Stayed for almost one month and packed a large suitcase. I needed work clothes as I combined it with a business trip, but the trunk was pretty much full with one suitcase and my backpack. Wouldn't have been able to fit two suitcases and the RS5 trunk is quite a bit larger than the RS3 trunk.