[sussexvet]

Hello to all Q3 forum members.
I currently have a four year old automatic Honda CRV EX with all the bells and whistles with only 24,000 miles but I feel the need to consider a change.
My petrol auto CRV is a well made car with few issues but having driven down to Spain a couple of times I have one notable concern and that is its inabilty to cope with long hills when driving at motorway speeds.
I have found that the car performs exceptionally well except that my 2 litre petrol engine cannot maintain an adequate speed when going up long steepish hills to the extent that cars I have previously overtaken glide past me with ease.
I have considered replacing the car with a diesel auto CRV as I know that it has more torque and should cope better.
I have reviewed a number of alternative makes of car similar in size to my own which would provide a better performance level and this led me to visit my local Audi dealer initially to see the Q5. I found this to be a little large and certainly outside of my budget for a new car. The salesman advised that there is to be a Q3 later this year which seemed to meet my requirements. He even took me to see a pre launch Q3 in white which was the SE spec with lots of goodies bolted on.
I am suitably impressed with what I have seen but not yet made up my mind to purchase until I can test drive. I am in no hurry so may wait until the 12 registration comes out.
Just to give some information on our needs is to say that my wife and I are active pensioners so the car is mainly just the front seats being used but we do have a need to load two sets of golf clubs with trolleys etc etc in the boot with the rear seats folded plus more when driving down to Spain.
I have read a number of reviews on the Q3 but not quite the spec which interests me which is the 2.0TDI quatro, 177PS with 7-speed S tronic transmission.
I would appreciate views of forum members on which way they would recommend before I jump into a transaction.
Thanks

 

[Gareth3685]

Well at this stage its hard to give reviews as only a handful of people have seen the car and no one has driven it yet, I think you'll be best placed to make your mind up once the dealers start getting demonstrators in November/December to test drive one.

I must say that looking at the specs on Parkers your 2.0 CRV is no rocket once you add on the auto (147bhp, 0-60 11.8secs top speed 110mph). I think you'll be impressed with the 177bhp with the S-tronic, to be honest I think you'd even notice animprovement between your current car and the 138bhp 2.0TDI so you wouldnt have an issue with the larger output engine. Obivously the diesel torque advantage will mean swifter performance up hills.

Edited by: Gareth3685

 

[sussexvet]

Thanks for providing your input to my question.In addition to a less than dynamic performance of my CRV it has by current standards a very high CO2 level of 196 which means that the annual RFL at £245 is £85 more than the Q3.I have also calculated some fuel cost comparisons and this is a very significant improvement with the Q3. I assumed I would take two trips to Spain in a year for 6,000 miles and then another 4,000 miles in the UK for a total of 10,000 miles. The cost of diesel for the Q3 with a stated fuel consumption of 47.9 mpg compared with petrol for the CRVwith an actual fuel consumption of 30 mpg is significantly less. In fact using very recent fuel prices in France and Spain the Q3 benefits dramatically as diesel is so much cheaper in France and even more so in Spain. My calculations suggest that I would save nearly £800 in a year which is a huge improvement and would help to pay for the extras I might order with the new car.Whatever car I eventually buy the new diesel engines being used by manufacturers are very welcome as fuel prices continue to soar on a far too regular basis.

 

[Gareth3685]

Get your order in early - despite stiff competition from the Evoque there will still be considerable lead times for the Q3 (as there are with almost all Audi's at the moment). For those of us on this forum that ordered as early as we could in July I think delivery in November/December will be ambitious.

 

[sussexvet]

I must admit that I am in no hurry to place an order and will probably wait until March when the 12 reg's come out.As an aside, my wife has just taken delivery of a Nissan Juke which took 7 months from order to delivery. I know that part of this delay was related to the eartthquake and subsequenttsunami but before the problems in Japan the delay was triggered by a huge demand for the CVT automatic gearbox and a change of supplier.

 

[Dan]

Hi and welcome.
I too think you will be fine with the performance from the 177ps engine. I've driven through to the South of France and Barcelona Spain a couple of times and think the engine should be an excellent cruiser and hopefully the comfort levels should be fine. We'll know more when we can have some proper test drives.
As suggested above though it would be worth a chat with your dealer because if you are looking for March 12 registration then you might need to place your order this year