[Black Pudding]

Ordered today in Daytona Grey, and been told that it is at the port in the UK.
Hoping that even with the transfer of my cherished plate, to have it by the end of next week, or very soon after.
For the dealer to add the detachable tow bar is £1500

Fortunately we managed to do a good deal, including the Q promotion running 10-20 May nationwide.

 

[Phill-uk]

What Q promotion is that?
...and congrats on the purchase!

 

[Black Pudding]

Thank you.

£1000 back on any Q bought between 10-20 May

 

[californiadreamin]

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[Simon1233]

Just had a detachable westfalia bar with dedicated audi 13 pin wiring fitted to our q3 for less than £500. I would tell the dealer where to stick it and have an aftermarket bar fitted.

 

[Black Pudding]

Just had a detachable westfalia bar with dedicated audi 13 pin wiring fitted to our q3 for less than £500. I would tell the dealer where to stick it and have an aftermarket bar fitted.

Thanks for the information. I may have to look into this as £1500 sounds rather obscene!
I thought that all Q3s came with tow bar preparation already sorted, so the job should be simple (and reasonably priced!)

 

[Simon1233]

As far as I know all S-Line's are pre-wired into the boot space (in the right hand side compartment there are 2 multi-plug adaptors by the top of the wheel arch, ends are wrapped in a bit of foam) and the wiring loom literally clips in at this point. You will need a switched feed relay if you are having a 13 pin socket fitted and you want a feed for the fridge. The wiring kit that came had an extra wiring loom in case the car was not pre-wired and you needed to run extra cable.The towbar and armature itself is easy to fit, pop off the rear bumper, remove crash bar and bolt on the armature. The parts can be bought for around £350 from PFJones in Manchester and then you install them yourself, or, as I did, get someone to fit the whole lot for you. I didn't have time to do the job myself and also you need something like an autologic machine to tell the car that the extra wiring is there and also that when there is something connected to the towing electrics that the rear parking sensors should be inactive. The same applies for the rear fog lights.
Chap fitted it all last week in less than 2 hours, as ours is an S-Line the rear bumper already had a suitable cut-out and no cutting was necessary.

 

[Black Pudding]

Thanks for all the info Simon, greatly appreciated.
Do you have any photos that you could share with us?

 

[Simon1233]

Hi BP
Attached are some pictures for you, showing the back of the car without the towbar (pretty standard), the location of the pre-wiring in the rear right-hand compartment in the boot and then with the electric socket folded down and the towbar in place

Hope this is helpful
Simon

 

[Black Pudding]

Great photos thanks Simon.
Gives the ideal view of everything.
Looks like a great job done well

 

[Jules]

That looks like a fantastic job - totally re-kindled my thoughts about getting one fitted!
I go to Centre Parcs with 3 bikes on the roof - but it would be so much better with them on a nice low bike carried mounted on a towing hook - makes it much more accessible - and would leave the roof free for a top box...

 

[Black Pudding]

As I mentioned in the original post, I know that my car is already in the UK "at a port".
What I found out today was that my car was supposed to be going as stock to Belfast, but as I have bought it, it will be re-routed to the North of Scotland.
They anticipate the car arriving up here mid/late next week.

 

[Black Pudding]

Tow Bar Update.

After pricing up the Westfalia removable tow bar, fitted by an independent (non Audi) company, the full installation cost incl VAT was £840.

Audi informed me that there may be future problems as non OEM control boxes will not allow software updates. Not sure where that leaves Warranties, and certainly anything electric.

Anyway, as they knew that I was very seriously contemplating getting somebody else to do the job, I finally negotiated a significant discount.
Reduced from £1500 to £1000 for a full Audi supplied, fitted, and warrantied (3 years) removable tow bar.

Bit of a result

 

[SETIG]

That must be a result. It just shows that going armed with evidence makes them see sense.

 

[Black Pudding]

I asked that they charged me cost rather than retail, as they were making the profit on the sale of the car (suspect there is still reasonable profit on the tow bar too!)

 

[Simon1233]

I would ask them for an even bigger discount. I paid £490 for the westfalia bar fully installed. The fitter used a genuine audi wiring loom. It makes my blood boil when I hear this BS about aftermarket towbars affecting warranties...

The fact that an Audi original part is used and the car is coded to not use it's parking sensors of rear fog lights when a trailer is attached (which takes all of 5 minutes by the way) has no impact on any module already installed in the car.

I know that you are quite far up north, but ask pfjones in Manchester to quote you for a mobile installation - shouldn't be too far north of £550

 

[Black Pudding]

Here is the link

http://www.pfjones.co.uk/tow-bars/audi-towbars/audi-q3-towbar.html

 

[Simon1233]

BP, it's your money and your choice at the end of the day, but if it were me, given that the bar and dedicated electrics is £324.26 from PF Jones and according to their website, carriage is £10 to Inverness, I would be asking a mobile fitter the price of fitting and coding the towing requirements into the car. Sounds to me like the local firm who have quoted you are charging the full retail price of the westfalia bar.
I think the Audi towbar is supposed to be quite good, and the fact that the bar is permanently mounted but moved by a bowden cable means that you have 1 less thing in the back of the car. But for the money I think I would live with having the westfalia bar in the boot

 

[Black Pudding]

The tow bar being fitted is the detachable version, where the external electrics also fold away (upwards).

 

[Black Pudding]

Car supposed to be ready for pick up - Wednesday 22nd May.
Will go after work, and collect it at about 16:30