Andrew

Who is waiting for one? I'm in Canada and waiting for the 225Q though I could get a 180Q right now. Anyone know anything about availability and effect of chips? Dual exhaust jobs? Is all this worth C$7000 in your opinion? Thanks in advance.

Royce Howland

I'm also in Canada, waiting for a 225Q. When I signed up, the wait time was estimated to be pretty much equivalent for either the 180 or 225, so I figured what the hey, go for broke. (Figuratively speaking.)

Having just this past weekend driven a 180Q, I'm now able to compare the feel vs. the 180FWD that I drove some months back. Purely subjectively speaking, based on test drives of a bit under an hour each with no high speed maneuvers (just aggressive city driving, freeway, heavy traffic and residential), I'd say the 180Q does feel a bit more sluggish than the 180FWD. As expected, it also felt like a smoother transfer of power to the pavement. Not having driven a 225, I think I'd favor the higher power for a stock Q vehicle. Is it worth $7K? I dunno, it depends on your familiarity with after-market tuning and your tolerance for tinkering and risk. I'm low on both counts.

Search the archives, in the recent past there has been extensive discussion on chipping by some pretty knowledgable members of the forum. Putting a dual exhaust on the 180 has also been discussed, and as I recall, it was thought to be troublesome.

If you really don't want to wait, something that has been mentioned by a number of people is getting the 180 now and upgrading to the 225 when it becomes available. Talk to your dealer about what kind of trade-up deal you could get. Worst case, you should be able to move the 180Q easily in a private sale. Demand should remain high for a long time. The wait list at my dealer is currently 2 - 3 years based on their expected allocation rate, and depending on how many people bail off the list over time.

Royce