Foxy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 11:48 am
Be interested to know your impressions Scotty and whether you got a deal. I've been thinking about an Alpina for some time now, almost tempted to go for the B3 Touring or look for a low mileage D3 and have a fun car alongside.
First impressions, after only a few days, are very good. You can naturally feel the added weight of the car at first but this has become less noticeable. The Xdrive system seems extremely competent too and it holds the road very well, in and out of the corners, considering its a lump. In a good way the power delivery is slightly different though, which is hard to explain, but it rockets away very happily and just keeps going and going and going like a missile. It's sound is more about the engine note and not the exhaust - audibly it is still very good just not as raw as the RS and less synthesised with more V8 tones. The tech seems about the same, although the NV, leather dashboard and blue dials make a nice change and I just like the fact that the interior feels so much more of a luxury place to be.
Refreshingly, before I collected the car, I had a coupe of technical questions so took to phoning Alpina directly in Germany where they answered my call efficiently, transferred me to the correct department and I had the answers I was looking for in under 5 mins over the phone and followed up by email thereafter without any fuss or drama. That kind of service is way beyond anything I experienced when calling Audi. I will update things once I've been across Europe in it, hopefully in the coming weeks, but for now it does still bring a very big smile to my face.
Three weeks ago I enquired about a new car and was offered only 5k off list price but the wait was about 8 months and fortunately I found one more within my budget which had been hardly used, since new in July 19, however with no great deal to be had at the time, Gary Lott, the Alpina Brand Manager at Sytner, was extremely helpful, whilst bothering him with various questions and despite knowing I was buying a car elsewhere.