Well yeah, I wasn't talking that far back, but basically if you compare any US sports car built in the last 10 years to a Jap/German equivalent, the interiors have always looked and felt cheap in comparison. Tons of hard plastic and very fake looking wood mainly. The recent vettes/stangs/Camaros have finally bucked this trend somewhat, however I'm still skeptical of their long term reliability.
Nice ride, I've got an S4 and love it. Far better than the 3 series and Z4 I owned before it. You get it in manual?
The thing about porsches isn't so much that their interiors are luxurious, but that they don't fall apart. Everything is actually bolted together, not clips and plastic pop rivets etc. I had a 2003 Z06 and the rental car interior after only a few years was very disturbing.I think that's actually kind of a misconception about Porsches. At least 911's up to the 993 (1998). Their interiors were spartan as fuck. Not cheap, per se, but just completely bare bones.
Granted, that's a 15-20 year old car at this point, but I don't see it being any fancier than a similarly aged Corvette:
Although that Corvette interior is pretty horrifically fantastic plastic. In any case, after the 993's Porsche pretty much went from being a low production sport car company to a high production luxury car company, and their interiors changed accordingly.
I'd probably do the same. No manual is really the only strike against the GT-R for me (you know, that and the hundred grand), but the DCT is half the point of that car.
Unfortunately all A3s + S3s in the U.S. (and all a3/s3 cabriolets worldwide) use the Dual Clutch "s-tronic" automatic. I enjoyed the transmission in an s5 cabriolet, so I think I'll be happy enough with it. (Audi's traditional automatic slush-box was absolutely terrible and I'm glad they are phasing it out)
You can buy a lot of hookers and vacations for the cost difference between a GTR and base model Porche. I think they're slowly pricing the GTR out of the price range where it was great. It went from an "affordable" supercar, to just a regular supercar... That looks not much better than a 370z (the nismo one is kinda cool). Still, I'd rather spend a few more dollars and get a BMW i8. There are a few GTRs in my neighborhood among co-workers, but they're generally just not even noticed by girls I'll be with even if I start drooling when I see one.
I wasn't talking about 90k cars, I was talking most entry level cars in general, they wonder why their shit isn't selling and it comes down to no one being able to afford one.
It's quite a bit quicker too, one of the tuning companies, with just a flash, was able to get 3.7 0-60 that's like super car territory. The other tuning companies haven't yet come out with their flashes yet, but it seems promising. I'll probably tune my a-3 cab, anything faster than 5.0 0-60 is just stupid fast. My tuned Evo was still only like 5.0, I couldn't even imagine getting to highway speed from a dead stop in 4 seconds.
What did you find was deficient vis a vis the S4? I've kinda got my eye on the S3 because though I love my S4, it's still a "big" car to me. It's the same reason I eyed a 135 when I owned a 335-- the standard "sport sedan" has gotten too big for my taste. The only problem typical of going "smaller" is that these more compact sedans usually cut corners in terms of trim quality and luxury. Would love if some company came out with a luxury compact sport sedan.. Not all of us feel that in order to get better quality we need to get a bigger car/model.
It's fairly simple; different cars for different reasons. M5 is a 100k luxury cruiser. C7Z06 is a 100k world-beating sports car. I have an M5 now and want a C7Z (have a deposit on one). There is nothing "coming out of Germany" that can compete with the new Z06 for the price and the cars that are 3-4 times more expensive - Ferrari 458, Lambo Hurancan - will struggle to keep up (again, pure performance here, not a badge fanboi discussion). That's what is great about being a car enthusiast these days; so many awesome choices.
The awd system in the S3 (haldex) is less advanced than the torsen in the S4, especially with the sports differential that will transfer, what, 70% of the power to the rear and properly slide around corners? The haldex is limited to 50:50 front:rear. So going around a corner at speed will definitely be more fun in the S4 at the limit (which I didn't really get to do).
Cool, thanks for the info. Did you notice any big differences in terms of interior build quality-- such as more plastic?
I was considering this for my next car, the non-cabrio version. Although the S3 looks like so much fun... I really cant justify it.
