My Experiences in Germany Part 1
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 10:03 pm
Guys
I will try to keep this very simple, and even though many of u would have travelled to Germany and enjoyed ur cars on the autobahns, I am sure that I am now in a position to give a little deeper insight to the REAL experience here.
Well firstly, I have been in Munich now for 2 months, and only brought my car over to Munich 2 weeks ago, a journey that took me 12 hours to do. Covering the journey aspect on a high level note, I must say that the car behaved so well at speeds north of 120mph, and if you have ever been on the E8 road from Stuttgart, then you would know that for at least 30 miles, you really have challenging roads ahead of you, fair share of turns, uphills, downhills, at one stage I had thought that I was on a racing track! Then it made sense, that since Porsche and Mercedes manaufacturers are based there, a road track as such would be great for test drives...... Overall, German roads are great, not to the same quality as UK, but with better drivers on the road, and no fear of pushing the car, it was well worth and will continue to be worth the experience.
Now some of u may know, that since I have changed my tyres from 255 to 275, I have always had free play between 60-80mph, then it dies down when i push it over those speeds......well the car was fine post 100mph, which will lead to my next and more exciting key points.
Now Audi dealers In Munich, especially the service departments are open from 6am to 8pm! now that is what I call convenience! After work, I decided to pop in, and have a chat about the free play in the steering.
Upon my arrival, one of the technicians came to the car park with his torch, and did all kind of checks, and wanted to keep it for a day to see what was wrong. I then started talking about performance upgrades, etc, and was introduced to a guy called Mac for short.
Mac came across very knowledgeable, and firstly decided to show me and then take me for a spin in an S5 with an MTM supercharger, churning out 505bhp! The ride was mad, these guys can really drive, the car was just awesome. Anyway moving on, they have MTM & ABT sector in the service area, with all kinds of customisation, something I have not seen in UK dealers.
Next topic we discussed was my tyres, I toild him I had 275's, I swear the guy just started laughing at me, and wanted to see the car again, as he didnt beleive me! Well I did, and he looked stunned. Few comments from him, firstly, he told me how crap, aweful the godyear brand was and secondly I should not have that tyre on under any circumstances. He said that Audi would never allow such a tyre on their RS4's......hey, that did wake me up, and I was lost for words, as I could not say anything because I have already had problems.......
We then moved on to the next topic....trust me, it gets better!
I told him that the car was producing much less power that 414bhp, and I needed to get some performance out of it. He said what was the current power output. I mentioned to him that the car had been dyno'd and was spitting out 370bhp....He was not alarmed. He said that he was aware of the problem, partially related to the ECU and partially the valve oil issue. He said that I must take it to the larger Audi Centre, pay for the Dyno there, then come back to him, as Audi will then work on the engine and get it back to the original power, regardless of what it takes. The interesting bit, wait for it.....Audi will pay for this! There has been two instances already! It doesnt get any better, so I have booked this for next week.
Now, beleive it or not, the same Audi Centre also does Vinyl wrapping, and he showed me the Audi R8 they had done.
Below is what my Sprint Blue Avant is getting done:
1 matt black wrap all round
2 the roof rails and side mirrors in carbon fibre
3 the front seat plastic backs in carbon fibre
4 the wheels finished in matt titan grey
I have booked the work to be done on the 11or 21st May, so I will be posting pictures soon.
Now some of you may have already seen these pics, but below I have attached some pics to give you an idea.
So, so far my experience in Germany has been good, the car is at motherland, she seems happy, so I will be treating her to a complete make over!
Thanks for reading guys.
RS Matt Black
I will try to keep this very simple, and even though many of u would have travelled to Germany and enjoyed ur cars on the autobahns, I am sure that I am now in a position to give a little deeper insight to the REAL experience here.
Well firstly, I have been in Munich now for 2 months, and only brought my car over to Munich 2 weeks ago, a journey that took me 12 hours to do. Covering the journey aspect on a high level note, I must say that the car behaved so well at speeds north of 120mph, and if you have ever been on the E8 road from Stuttgart, then you would know that for at least 30 miles, you really have challenging roads ahead of you, fair share of turns, uphills, downhills, at one stage I had thought that I was on a racing track! Then it made sense, that since Porsche and Mercedes manaufacturers are based there, a road track as such would be great for test drives...... Overall, German roads are great, not to the same quality as UK, but with better drivers on the road, and no fear of pushing the car, it was well worth and will continue to be worth the experience.
Now some of u may know, that since I have changed my tyres from 255 to 275, I have always had free play between 60-80mph, then it dies down when i push it over those speeds......well the car was fine post 100mph, which will lead to my next and more exciting key points.
Now Audi dealers In Munich, especially the service departments are open from 6am to 8pm! now that is what I call convenience! After work, I decided to pop in, and have a chat about the free play in the steering.
Upon my arrival, one of the technicians came to the car park with his torch, and did all kind of checks, and wanted to keep it for a day to see what was wrong. I then started talking about performance upgrades, etc, and was introduced to a guy called Mac for short.
Mac came across very knowledgeable, and firstly decided to show me and then take me for a spin in an S5 with an MTM supercharger, churning out 505bhp! The ride was mad, these guys can really drive, the car was just awesome. Anyway moving on, they have MTM & ABT sector in the service area, with all kinds of customisation, something I have not seen in UK dealers.
Next topic we discussed was my tyres, I toild him I had 275's, I swear the guy just started laughing at me, and wanted to see the car again, as he didnt beleive me! Well I did, and he looked stunned. Few comments from him, firstly, he told me how crap, aweful the godyear brand was and secondly I should not have that tyre on under any circumstances. He said that Audi would never allow such a tyre on their RS4's......hey, that did wake me up, and I was lost for words, as I could not say anything because I have already had problems.......
We then moved on to the next topic....trust me, it gets better!
I told him that the car was producing much less power that 414bhp, and I needed to get some performance out of it. He said what was the current power output. I mentioned to him that the car had been dyno'd and was spitting out 370bhp....He was not alarmed. He said that he was aware of the problem, partially related to the ECU and partially the valve oil issue. He said that I must take it to the larger Audi Centre, pay for the Dyno there, then come back to him, as Audi will then work on the engine and get it back to the original power, regardless of what it takes. The interesting bit, wait for it.....Audi will pay for this! There has been two instances already! It doesnt get any better, so I have booked this for next week.
Now, beleive it or not, the same Audi Centre also does Vinyl wrapping, and he showed me the Audi R8 they had done.
Below is what my Sprint Blue Avant is getting done:
1 matt black wrap all round
2 the roof rails and side mirrors in carbon fibre
3 the front seat plastic backs in carbon fibre
4 the wheels finished in matt titan grey
I have booked the work to be done on the 11or 21st May, so I will be posting pictures soon.
Now some of you may have already seen these pics, but below I have attached some pics to give you an idea.
So, so far my experience in Germany has been good, the car is at motherland, she seems happy, so I will be treating her to a complete make over!
Thanks for reading guys.
RS Matt Black