salynch

So... I'm going to attempt to keep this intro short-ish, but it's a long story.

Rewind back around 25 years, I purchased my first car, a 2000 VW New Beetle turbo and through that I end up meeting a number of local (Houston, TX) European car fanatics and eventually a few from the northern California area through various online networks, etc., so I've kept up with Audi for quite some time, but was never really convinced of giving one a close look for myself. After the Beetle, I went through a number of different cars between my wife and I - '02 WRX, '06 Mustang GT, 2016 Mini Cooper S, and several others.

Late last year, my wife decided she wanted to trade in her '19 Miata for something with a little bit more room. We looked at a few different things, but ended up buying this CPO '22 A3 Prestige in Atoll Blue with just under 7k miles - the first Audi I ever drove, oddly enough.

2022 A3 Prestige, 2018 Tacoma TRD Sport 4x4

After a few months of driving both vehicles, and realizing that we don't really make good use of the Tacoma's features as a truck, I took the plunge and just traded the Tacoma in for '24 Q5 Premium Plus in District Green w/ Okapi Brown interior just yesterday.

2024 Q5 45 Prem Plus

First impressions - It's definitely a more pleasurable drive than the Tacoma (shocker) and it's so much quieter than the Tacoma or the A3 for that matter. I'm thinking about some minor cosmetic modifications on the cars, but nothing too drastic. They're both pretty uncommon cars around here due to the exterior colors, but I'd still like to do something to tweak the looks a bit.

TrevorFox

So, are you looking for cosmetic tweak advice (you didn't really have a question posted)? I would suggest protecting both cars with PPF (paint/protective plastic film) on the entire front (hood, bumper, side quarter panels) from road debris resulting in paint chips and scratches. I believe you live in TX, so there should be detailers that provide this type of protection. For reference I had IMS Detailing in NH do my A6 Allroad along with the door cups and added the rear bumper. They also did a ceramic coating on the paint as well. Here's a link that may assist you with understanding the protective coatings. Paint Protection Film Hooksett NH | Ceramic Pro KAVAKA PPF | IMS Detailing

Enjoy you Audi

salynch

Thanks for the tip and the welcome!

In Texas, confirmed so I'll ask around about getting PPF done. Definitely seems like a good idea given the bugs and random road debris around here.

Regarding cosmetic mod questions, I guess I'm mostly interested in the simple(ish) DIY stuff, not really interested in spending major money for the cosmetic mods aside from maybe wheels which I'm pretty comfortable shopping for without the forum's help.