2003 Audi 3.0 Avant Test Drive

Casey's List:

The Good

Nice Red paint
Practical
Lumbar support is highly adjustable
Great style
Quality feel
Nice touches, like emergency triangles, first aid kit and headlight washers

The Bad

Must be a member of Mensa to use the a/c controls
Bad radio reception

Casey's take on the Avant*

Avant Owner

The first thing I noticed about the Avant was the wonderful Amulet Red paint. Audi's colors are pretty dull, ranging from 3 shades of silver to a bland blue. Their book and website also don't portray the colors well; when the salesman asked me what color car I'd be interested in purchasing I looked at the colors in the book and didn't like any of them. There was a red listed (Amulet Red), but it looked like Old Lady Maroon that you'd find on an old Lincoln. I asked what year the red Avant out front was because it was a beautiful red and it turned out to be an '03. Weird, since that color wasn't listed in the book. Well, that was Amulet Red; the book just gives a very misleading interpretation of it. Think Chevy Truck brilliant red (I've always liked Chevy's reds the best). We decided to take the Avant for a test drive (not just because of the color!). This model was a 3.0 with Quattro and we wanted to see how it drove.

The 3.0 Quattro designation on this car means it has a 6 cylinder engine and all wheel drive. It felt peppy but without the buzzy engine that the 1.8 turbo had. It drove smoothly, and while it didn't feel exactly fast, it wasn't hurting in the acceleration department. It had very good visability, thanks to 8 windows and relatively small pillars.

Back at the dealer I played with it a bit. I opened the hatch to see what all came in the cargo area. The standard emergency triangle was there, folded up in a box and stored in the door. There's also a full sized spare with matching rim. I pulled open one of the side hatches and to my delight discovered an amp, meaning there's a probably a sub around somewhere. The rear seats split 40/60 and were easy to fold down, although I had trouble getting the larger one back up. The floor of the cargo hold has d-rings and came with a net to lash things down with. The cargo floor is carpeted, but the carpet folds up to reveal hard plastic covering the spare; a great makeshift floor for muddy/wet/dirty items.

*I'm writing this 6 days after we test drove the Avant and my opinions may be a bit biased, as we purchased the model we test drove.