Wow thanks for all the feedback much appreciated. I had kinda written this thread off because of lack of a responses but then out of know where here we are.
So a couple things would be helpful especially if you're not a VW/Audi fan. Like the year, make, and model plus what exactly was it that made you dislike it. Reliability, comfort, long term fit and finish, bad dealership experience, ect would be helpful to know. This could potentially be the first European car I've owned so that alone makes me a little hesitant.
As far as size goes yeah I know the A3 is small but that is what kind of drew me to it. This would be my daily commuter car to and from work(around 15mins), dropping my son off at school, or just hopping in with my wife and heading down to Costco. No long road trips in this and no need to be able to fit bigger items bought at the local hardware store.
We have a 2014 GMC Acadia Denali with a 8x12 trailer for long trip/hardware store runs.
Anyway, keep the advice coming. Cars like the 3 Series and C Class weren't even on my radar so I will definitely check them out as well. One question I had though is do you guys really think it's a bad time to buy? I could put the purchase off until late spring/early summer of 2021 if you guys think used car prices will be better by then.
Used car prices seem to be a bit crazy the last 10 months or so for some reason. I bought a 2017 AMG C63 Cabriolet last October for $57k with 17k miles on it CPO. Then about 4 months ago I went in to the same dealership and they had a 2019 C63 Cabriolet for sale, same color as mine, similar options and 8k miles and they were asking $89k for it. I don't know what it finally ended up selling for of course but you could almost buy a new one for that kind of money.
My wife's VW was a Golf she purchased new. The car was only a year or two old when I met her and it was already starting to fall apart. Build quality was just awful and it only got worse the longer we kept it. We ended up giving it to her young half-sister who drove it a few more years and it was basically a pile of junk after a few more years (the car wasn't even 10 years old). Her sister traded it for a newer Jetta which was also a steaming pile of poo. Problems after problems. A buddy of mine also had a Jetta he bought new and it went through 3 transmission by the time it had 70k miles on it. Those were automatic transmissions. I swore I'd never own another VW again. Our neighbors seemed to love their Tiguans but I've heard they have all sorts of issues too.
A guy I used to work with had an A3 that he had constant problems with. He ended up selling it and bought a new A3 which he had a ton of problems with too. I kind of lost touch with him but you would think that would be enough to get him to never buy another Audi again.
I just wouldn't but anything made by VW or Audi. Too many horror stories for me to take a chance on them.
I had a 2014 Mercedes E550 Coupe prior to the C63 and that car was pretty good. I traded it in for the C63 after 3.5 years of ownership and I put 50k miles on it during that time. I liked that car quite a lot actually. It was comfortable, luxurious and pretty fast too. My only complaint was the brakes. If you pushed the car moderately hard you could overheat the front brakes pretty easily if you weren't careful. I don't know if that was a cooling issue or what but I basically had to keep from being too aggressive and overheating the brakes which kind of sucks in a car that makes over 400hp at the rear wheels. I don't have that problem with the C63. The E550 isn't really a sports car though, the C63 definitely is.
My wife had a 2013 CLS550 which we both loved but it was totaled about a year and a half ago by an inattentive driver who pulled out and hit my wife. We ended up getting another CLS, this one we bought new and we still have it. The proximity sensors in the front annoy us at times but overall we have no complaints about the car. It's a really nice driver, we took it up to Napa in June of 2019. Great road trip car.
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