Well, I was a single car household for all of a day. A quick trip in the am out to Pasadena revealed that my new A3 prospect had been sold the day before, and my sensible side was winning out wrt the thought of buying an S4 Avant. While 340hp is all well and good (along with the V8 burble), the reality of about a $10K higher purchase price, higher insurance rate, higher mileage (and questionable CPO status), and mostly 13mpg in the city (ouch) led me to make a command decision. So a few emails knocking another $K off the price, and J dropped the boy and I off at Union Station for a train ride down to Solana Beach, to be met by Harry for a ride to the dealership. After the once over and a test ride, it was off to do paperwork.
Of course it couldn't go all smooth. I was used to a fairly detailed driver information display in the center of the instrument panel. I noticed when I finished the test drive that this area was dark in the car. Hmm. The salesguy figured that someone had switched it off so he looked for the switch on the end of the wiper stalk switch. But there wasn't one. Then leafing through the manual. Hmm...lots of info on changing the display, but none on turning it on or off. Then another guy gets involved. Finally after about 15 mintues we come to the conclusion that this car, either because of being early in the production run (what the salesguy said) or becuase of the lack of options (what I think), does not have the detailed driver information system, but rather a bunch of icons that light up if something goes wrong.
Well, glad that got cleared up but it was a little dissapointing. I got used to the system in my GTI. Hmm, there are those expectations again. *sigh*
The other niggle is that the sport seat is cut a little odd through the shoulders and after about 45 minutes my shoulder blade was announcing its presence with authority. Hmm. Have to figure out a fix for that. Or just see how it goes over time. I have to admit to part of me wishing I'd gotten the S4, but I'm sure if I'd bought that I would have been driving it wishing I'd saved a bunch of money and bought the A3. Welcome to my mental world.
