The design is very impressive. That being said I would live in this for one week, at burning man. However, I don't see the circumstance in which I would chose this over some normal residence. I would consider going cross country in it as well, although I'm sitting here trying to find the advantage to this over a…

Fair enough, I will find an S3 as soon as I can and make a more fair, educated comparison. I do have a friend with an STi and that's why I was able to comment there. Personally I have had 2 BMW X5's, an E46 M3, and a CLS55 AMG. I am not used to seeing the kind of minimalist design that the S3 is going with and to me…

Worse then that, you could be walking down the street in that zone and the police would come and shake you down for money... Maybe throw you a beat down as well just for good measure.

Maybe if you went into the Russian zone with a tank, or an Mi-28 and started taking land by force... Wait then you'd become the president of the Russian zone :)

The reason I think this is fair is that they are only being installed on sub-prime situation purchases. These are high-risk individuals. If this was being done across the board to all cars then I'd be in an uproar myself. These cars cannot be shut off when running, they simply cannot be turned back on after being…

There's a caveat. When us Wall St. guys get tested, its once. Before we start the job. We also get to choose our own date for the drug test, its not random or assigned by the company. Honestly I'm not even sure why its done, probably some kind of insurance, liability, or regulatory reasons. I have known many, well who…

See that would be a problem because every time you tried to get a new car you'd get beaten down and left with 1% health, no weapons, and no money in the middle of the street. But the whole thought of that scenario in the game made me LOL...

You have chosen to look at the non-Nav head unit. My buddy has the one with the full Nav and it looks far better: http://www.bing.com/images/search?…

I totally agree with what you're saying here and at first I thought the CLA was the worst example of the dilution of a brand that I'd ever seen. But, this S3 has 290 HP and its pretty light. I'm going to guess that its pretty fun. You're right in one thing though, if its going to be so limited in regards to the…

Well yes and no. So here's what I think an entry level should be. Enough luxury to remind you that you are actually in luxury car, but also little enough where you really want the next level. With this here I'm imaging that a Civic interior looks better and the STi is just an absolute technical marvel, and the very…

That's a very interesting comment right there... So about 1 year ago I show up at a Ford sponsored auto-cross where they are letting people auto-x their focus' model. I showed up in my E46 M3 (supercharged by me because it wasn't fast enough :) )... I loved the Focus. Not quite enough to trade for my M3, but I…

I'm currently having a very strong tendency to agree with you sir. Please someone find me an S3, I need to re-evaluate my over exuberant and rushed opinion. No I'm serious. I really do want to drive one of these and change my mind. I have this feeling that I'm going to love the light weight and dynamic feel of the…

I hear everything you're saying. I just can't get over how stuck on and out of place the retractable screen looks when its out. For me I'm always using at least some part of that infotainment system, so its never going to be retracted. I like a dash that caters to that info display and is centered around it.…

I've heard the argument that the dash suddenly appears nice on some of these vehicles after the retractable display goes away. This may be true, but what I've found in all my vehicles that have infotainment is that in real life I never turn it off. Honestly if it was just Nav, then yes maybe sometimes I would shut it…

I hear what you're saying there, but yes from what I see the S3 doesn't compare to the 4 series interiors. You could be right too, because I haven't been in the S3 and I have spent time in the STi. I know something else, there's a giant barren swath of plastic on the S3 dash and a screen that looks like it might have…

In which particular ways is it nicer? Are the materials of a finer quality, because the actual visual appeal, at least in my opinion are not there. I understand that there's no final word on aesthetics, but the over simplified dash just seems barren in the S3.

I'm looking at that STi interior, and well I didn't really need to look at it, because my good friend has one and I've driven it plenty. The appointments look nicer.

OK, I just looked up the 2 series interior shots. I haven't been in one yet, but from the images I just saw it still manages to at least hold some semblance of a luxury vehicle. The 2 series has just enough panache left to pull off the mini beemer place in the series, which is just what its going for. The S3, pulls…

Yeah I get it, I'm a little harsh here, but that was my honest first reaction. I also get that something performance oriented doesn't need a cushy interior, except that once again this is an Audi, and most expect more from their interiors. It just looks stripped down, minimalistic, but not in a good way. I've been in…

I wonder how much heat I'm going to catch when I say that interior looks like absolute bottom of the barrel crap. I'm not even talking about the aftgerthought display / infotainment thing, which has generally become a giant pet peeve of mine accross many manufactorers. For some reason this new design trend of just…