Yesterday when I had turned my Loaner in to pick up my Baby Audi, I saw the salesrep who sold me my A4 1.8TQ, and he asked how I like the car so on and so forth. After that, we got talking about the new TT and the S6 and S4 shortly coming to our shores. And the Audi Models in Europe. I then innocently said to bad we can't get the S8 in the USA. He replied to that in January 2000, Audi will be shipping the first US Spec S8 to the United States with a 360+ HP engine. Didn't get all the details from him. But has anyone else heard this?

-

There may not be a whole for the A3/S3 to fit into in the US. What exact niche would it fit into? Its competition would be?<p>Golf GTI? (not good for VW to compete with itself)<br>Mercury Cougar?<br>Ford Escort (the new sporty version)?<br>Infiniti G20?<br>Honda Civic? Prelude? other?<br>Acura Integra?<p>I dunno...this niche is already full of cars...the A3 would be more expensive<br>than all of them in stock form...the S3 would be WAY more expensive.<p>I don't think the A3 is coming to the US...and especially not the S3.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM<br>

I can't see the A3 ever coming to the US, especially with the turbo beetle and the GTI.<p>But the S3 is a different story. The great news is that the S3 wouldn't have any competition and there are people out there (like me) who would have bought an S3 or A3 instead of an A4 in a split second if it had been available.<p>I think that if they imported, say 5000 S3's, made it a special edition, all quattro (obviously, it's an \S\X\ car), all silver, and make that the only way to get the baseball glove interior from the TT showcar. I think you'd sell all five thousand cars in the first month at a $35,000 pricepoint. The buyer psychology would be that for $35,000 I could have an S3, for $10,000 more I could have an ///M Coupe and be less original and there are slow 2.8 coupes on the road but there are no wimpy-engined A3-bodystyle cars in the country.<p>I think it'd be a great car to import, if marketed correctly, and I don't think Audi would be out of line charging slightly more than twice the base cost of a Cougar.<p>Cameron<br>

Ok, I know the S3 would be a great car, but what about VW's new Golf VR6 4Motion? It will have 204hp and the haldex awd system. If you look at the cost of a GTI GLX at $22,600, add a $3000 premium for the haldex system and the new 24V VR6, it puts the price at $25,600. Also consider the fact that noone really knows much about the Golf 4Motion yet - as no reviews have been conducted. Check out VW Vortex for the latest photos of the new Golf and Bora 4Motion. CAR magazine in their review of the S3 ended the review with a statement that they are awaiting the new Golf 4Motion which should offer similar performance at a greatly reduced price. Hmm. It does appear that the new GTI will get the new 24V VR6 in the 2001 model year, but 4Motion is not confirmed at this time. What if PES did a supercharger for the new 24V VR6 and could put out 300hp at low boost? I know I would be interested. <p>I doubt Audi will ever bring over the S3, because it would be simply too high priced for this market. It would be too difficult to sell a hatchback against the TT for the same price or slightly less, especially if the 225hp TT is priced at about $36,000 base price. Now VW could definitely bring over the Golf 4Motion, and it is just a matter of time.

Margins on A3 too low and competition too great to make it worth while at this time to bring it into the US Market. They need to beef up the existing business they have now before they enter into more competition with BMW and others. <p>The S8 may be an image thing with them. The cost of emmision testing alone can eat into any profit they would see from the limited sales - What's it going to be here $100K.<p>Reggie<p>98.5 30vQMS