Audi A3 E-tron Forum and Electric Vehicle News

Someone rear-ended my 2005 A5 1.8T and insurance totaled it so got the 2016 A3 E-Tron. I naturally started making comparison between the two.

A3:
1. shorter and narrower
2. no spare tire
3. smaller glove box
4. no drawer under the front seats
5. no slot under the steering column for the owner's manual but there is a knee airbag now
6. homelink system is a extra option not standard
7. my normal driving style on the A4 would use more gas and battery on the A3 so i had to adjust my driving style
8. gas tank is 9 gal v. 18 gal on A4 so I still fill up at least once a week but cost is lower
9. suspension is smoother
10. from a dead stop using only the gas engine, the avg. mpg is in the single digits whereas on my A4 it was in the 20 or 30's avg. mpg
11. not sure if cruise control is actually saving gas in any gas modes yet. the avg. mpg is in the 20s whereas I could get 30 or 40 avg. mpg on the A4
12. i'm constantly switching the display on the dash to see various information. not sure why they don't include the drive stats on the MMI screen.
13. after a full charge and unplugging, there seems to be an odor in the garage. if i leave it plugged in, no odor. Anyone experience that? very strange
14. cannot get the right outside mirror to adjust when parallel parking
15. for CD or jukebox, the shuffle option doesn't seem to work
16. for CD or jukebox with shuffle enabled, no option to select next random track
17. there is no instruction on how to install the front license plate=> correction: the dealer must to do it and supposedly when purchasing the car you may have signed a waiver to not have it on which in some states require a front license plate.
18. why only support Apple iPhone and not Android?
19. Unless reversing, Parking Assist must be manually turned on. (think head-in/first parking and don't want to hit what's in front)
20. getting use to the engine shutting down when at a full stop at a red, which is good.
21. finding a charging station away from home is challenging, especially free charging stations
22. turns (at a particular speed) handles almost the same
23. charge mode drains the gas a little more than i thought it would but still figuring out if that's my driving style
24. i can't feel the turbo kick in anymore. it's a smoother boost
25. no valet key
26. no emergency plastic key
27. in my 35 mile commute, i was able to get 80 to 90 mpg in hybrid mode
28. around 7 to 8 gals of the tank of driving, i was able to get around 60 to 70 mpg in hybrid mode.
29. cannot lock or secure the charging cable


I think that's it for now.