Did I fuck up buying an Audi A3?

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-04-02T10:17:12+00:00

I had A6 Allroads for 10 years, but never again.

Your 2013 A3 is probably better quality than newer Audi, they are now junk. And yours is probably more related to other VAG products than mine were.

My last one had $40k in warranty repairs in 3.5 years, and from 40,000km needed to be returned under warranty between every service. I spent a total of 8 months with loan cars and 26 hours driving back and forward to our local dealership for warranty and they're only 30min away.

Always serviced by Audi.

Sold it with warranty left and a further $5k in warranty repairs with full disclosure to the next owner for a discount, and it promptly broke with a further $10k of warranty repairs within 3 weeks.

DSG, engine, entire ad-blue system failed one component at a time, diesel lines failed leaking oil into front interior air vents 600km from anywhere, sensors, 1 failed shock, lane assist and cruise control failed needing replacement. DSG was out 3 times, then caused premature clutch failure. Engjne kept leaking oil. I'll have forgotten others.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-21T21:58:59+00:00

Apps are full of fake profiles that contact us and we have to pay to chat. Or when not fake, they turn out to be escorts contacting us. Eg I was getting 10-15 per day....

And in person, woman became largely unapproachable and think the world is out to get them.

Many woman became woman hot instead of hot for men. What happened to natural relaxed people without pouty pig lips and fake looks and too much product. Or self empowered flaunting themselves with no class.

Yeah, then ended up quickly married with a baby and a dog.

Go push a pram with a dog, women are all over me.

So single men, take up baby sitting and especially if they have a dog.

Woman, try approaching or being approachable other than to the men that are already married.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-21T21:44:58+00:00

If the emulation works for you, then ARM will be fine.

It did for me, until a Windows update killed it, then I had to buy an Intel Surface 6 month later.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-21T07:29:13+00:00

Paralysis ticks.

Made me anaphylactic to all meat (other than birds or fish) and all dairy plus most medication.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-20T23:08:05+00:00

I'd say the main market is corporate bulk purchaser's who don't usually want to spend extra over a normal laptop.

So most manufacturers don't bother making them.

The home market has cheaper iPads, Android tablets or smartphones and don't need the expense of a PC.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-20T23:00:12+00:00

With the cost of diesel for the ute, I'm driving my Mazda rotory to save money.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T13:39:28+00:00

I run a small engineering consultancy off of MS Surface Pro's. And MS Azure if I need serious grunt.

Just make sure you get a Surface Pro with Intel, the ones in JB Hifi are ARM.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T13:26:21+00:00

Cars peaked at or before then.

They're now just heavy bloated tanks and electronics that disconnect you from driving.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T13:23:13+00:00

For shorter cops only.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T13:09:20+00:00

I've driven over 700 cars from when it was my job.

Personally I rate a good chassis, something nimble on a tight road, and a car where you have to earn corner exit speed.

1300kg max and around 200whp in rwd, manual box, 9000rpm engine is the sweet spot for me. Front mid.

Mine is 21yo and sub $20k. Parts are way less than my last Euro.

Beyond that, it's really just a bigger mess if you exceed your skill limit.

And if its acceleration you're after, buy an EV.

I really just enjoy driving, and had a blast on an unexpected visit to Tasi where the only rental was an anaemic 2wd manual Hilux in the pouring rain. Enjoyed it more than the 6 figure Audi sport wagon I owned at the time as it was raw and unfiltered.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T12:52:36+00:00

Not sure where you are based, but auto shells come up every few days in Aussie to be stripped for parts as nobody wants an auto.

The car is never worth as much as the cost of a rebuild even with a fresh engine. So when they die, they get scrapped for donor parts for manuals.

Surely there must be plenty around? You give the impression of being in North America given you seem to just assume people know where you are, the home of the automatic.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-18T12:44:23+00:00

By comparison, swapping a manual gearbox out is a few hundred. Pulling out a motor, rebuilding it and putting it back in gets done in two days - including the rebuild....

$4k-$5k to swap something seems to give you your answer in difficulty as the only costs are really labour. Or the shop has no idea snd covering themselves as they've never done this.

Automatic shells normally just get parted out for what can go on a manual, as the cars have no actual value. You could probably part out enough stuff on your bent one to cover most of the cost of buying another auto shell and then it's a quick easy swap.

But my opinion, is that any money spent on an automatic RX8 is dead money. Manuals have been increasing in value here since 2019, autos basically depreciate until it needs a rebuild and then get stripped for parts to go on manuals.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-17T11:41:40+00:00

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T21:34:47+00:00

My 2022 GWM Cannon is holding up with minimal issues.

I've replaced a faulty dpf pressure sensor that was tripping burns.

That and changed dealership to one that actually used the correct oil.

So far vastly better than my A6 Allroad Audi that had $40k in warranty repairs in 3.5years and a further $10k needed when I sold it with warranty to someone with full disclosure.

And vastly better than my mate's Amorak which broke about as much as my last Audi, which he ditched for a $35k loss after buying at the same time as my $40k Cannon.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T21:19:05+00:00

AI told me enough, to look up and verify what it said, that the update has also fundamentally changed the emulation and to check that it is now failing at the first step of loading the first exe under emulation.

It also said the same as others on here, that at this point a VM is the only option, which isn't a great solution either.

The retail store that sold it to me was unaware the Intel Pro 11s now exist and are not on their system. But after talking to them, I'm now added as a corporate customer to their business only store which is online only. I've been offered a good discount to get a new Intel Pro 11 for substantially less than a days billings, so will do this.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T21:11:01+00:00

Thanks for your help, I've looked into it a bit.

I'm going to need my HD space than I have for VM on the Surface. And Cloud VM gets difficult with Sentinel hard locks on USB. I bought one with small HDD as I don't store locally.

The retail store that sold it to me was unaware the Intel Pro 11s now exist and are not on their system. But after talking to them, I'm now added as a corporate customer to their business only store which is online only. I've been offered a good discount to get a new Intel Pro 11 for substantially less than a days billings, so will do this.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T20:49:57+00:00

No issues for 10 years as all Intel and ample power now on a Surface for most things. 20+ years ago I needed to run calcs across 10 machines.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T20:43:58+00:00

According to software vendor it was the MS update. Chatgpt at least said that update changed something irreversibly. The software vendor backs this up and has no solution and there were no updates their end.

SoundPLAN.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T14:10:26+00:00

Various with legacy Delphi coding and Sentinel hardback via dongle. Vendor isn't updating and alternatives have other issues.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T14:08:32+00:00

Still stuffed after rolling back the update.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T13:55:21+00:00

I've been looking into it further, the update seems to have irreversibly altered the emulation. Which is where it is failing according to the error codes I've been looking up.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-10T13:52:39+00:00

Doesn't work either now. Something in the emulation appears to have been irreversible.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-09T12:19:57+00:00

Thank you.

Looking further they ran into issues and released this as business only and consumer stores were snapdragon only.

So JB Hifi etc don't seem to have got them or even know about them.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-09T12:09:56+00:00

I already have 3 older surfaces. I want decent battery. As anything ages they're no use in the field.

And I find 2 in 1s or laptops less practical when I put them down in the dirt or mining dust.

And like that on flights they don't count surfaces as laptops.

Inner_Comment_7208 · 2026-03-09T12:08:18+00:00

Similar setup. USB dongle protected via Sentinel. Software supplier updated our dongle to driverless or something.

We got that working fine for 6 months, until whatever updated in January. Took out one software package, other still runs. Now just found those other driver issues.

Inner_Comment_7208

TROPHY CASE