Das Ponto's 3.2 And the Long Road Home.

[DasPonto 23]

Hey Everyone, stubmled across this site on facebook and figured I should join!

Give you a little story while I am at it!

Back in the summer I started looking for an A3. Specifically the 3.2, now in Canada land those are few and far between, I think in all of Canada there were 2 or 3 for sale. All of which were high mileage. Now currently owning an 04' Gti cresting 215k it was time for something newer and less driven. So I broaden my search to the US of A. Selection improves greatly! I find one - 2007 with 10,700 Miles, seems a little to good to be true ( still on the fence in some regards ) in Miami. I hum and haw over it, to the point where I eventually ignore it. Month later, same car still up for sale. Ok time to get the internet on my side, post up a wtf kinda thread to see what the deal is. Review's came in mixed, but did have a few nice gents down in Florida pipe up about their own experiences and deals, one even offers to take a look at it! Well this is good news for me, having a 3rd party check out the car is a huge plus. Report comes back good, car looks as described and seems to be in fact a good deal. (Car Fax also came up clean)

Time to contact and deal, see what I can find out and what price I would be looking at. After a little bit of back and fourth the deal is struck and all of a sudden I own a car that is 5300km (3300mi) away from me. Shiiiit, what have I done? ok ok no big deal, lets ship it up. Buddy did it from Texas for roughly a grand. Start looking into it, prices are coming in higher... Well Eff it lets see what flights are. Holy cheap batman! I can't fly to a near by city for that price half the time. Alright book a flight for me and the girlfriend. (We had only been dating for 2 months, might have been suicide with a 5300km drive looming ahead of us together lol) She was pretty excited I was taking her to Miami with me. I well wanted the company and didn't think driving such a distance alone would be fun or wise.

The time comes to fly down and pick the beauty up, I am nervous as all get up... What if i get there and the car is gone, or a pos, or who knows what else?! Flight was delayed, cab was slow it felt like it was taking forever to get to the dealership! Dealership closes at 8... its quarter after 7 and I have no idea how much further I have to go. Reallly don't want to lose a day as we were on a very tight schedule (only had 5 days before we had to be back to Edmonton)

Well we made it. There the car sat, fresh rain drops beading on the freshly waxed body.

Finish the last bit of paper work and toss our gear in the car and we are ready to roll! First stop - Orlando!

Arrive there around midnight after 4 hours of driving and a few near heart attacks in Miami... Man alive talk about some crazy drivers, doesn't anyone know how to signal? Or you know let someone in? Thank goodness for the instant torque of the VR!

Day 2 we spent at Disney World

Oh right... Already had to stop at what would be the first of many gas stations.

then shopping followed by a stop off at a Forum members house for a quick scan before hitting the road yet again. Car checks out minus a few codes which would likely be from a dead battery (and later a non working heated seat, but who in Miami needs a heated seat right?)

Twins basil!!

Made it later that night to Jacksonville (Again around midnight)

The following morning came quickly, up and on the road by 5 am. The girlfriend seemingly alright, well she woke up, trudged to the car and fell back asleep within 10 minutes (Man these seats are comfy!! Thankfully!!)

So now that the fun is done its time to make some miles!

They start to fly by quickly and before we know it we have left Florida and are on to the next state! Next stop Atlanta, can't really remember what time we got there but it was daylight.

Hmm no zombies anywhere! I am disappoint.

We didn't stay long, just enough to get our bearings, more fuel of course and some food and back on the road. Making good time, we hope to hit Nashville in time for lunch with an old family friend who is now a country singer ( And well quite hot... But shhh don't tell my gf that!) Well we were making good time... Until Chattanooga, all lanes of traffic slowly come to a hault. Traffic jam. fffuuu. Then low coolant... DOUBLE FFFUUUUU. Ok time to find a dealership (Cringe) Luckily it was only about 3 miles away, so dipped off the interstate as soon as I could (2 hours later...)

Get to the dealership go in to buy some coolant. They are all very friendly, and offer to give the car a once over and fill up the coolant for me! Hmm alright, well I am sure this is gonna cost me but whatever rather have it done then have my car die before I even make it home. 25 minutes later my car is back around, they give me my jug of coolant and send me on my way. Free of Charge?! wtf that never happens up here. Bonus!

Another stop at a gas station...

And more miles to be made, sadly we did not make Nashville in time for the lunch so we decided to press on to our next planned stop St. Louis and the Arch! (Figured we might as well see some cool shit on our way)

Next up more fuel! Thanks to my speeds I think I averaged 20mpg for the entire drive.

I had already driven a ton and was beat, so time for the girlfriend to take the wheel. She was really nervous after seeing the drivers down in Florida haha, but did awesome.

Shortly after the delays we did make it to Nashville!

Quick stop to make sure we were heading in the right direction and we were back on the road to St. Louis, whiich we didn't get there til oh 8 or 9 I think it was.

The parking for the Arch was pretty cool, basically on some crazy cobblestone right on the bank of the river.

Stayed there for a bit, walked around took pictures etc. It was pretty cool to see. But we still had more to go that night, needed to get to Kansas City!

There was a lot of night driving, so needless to say I was in love with having HID's now, man alive talk about making things easier to see!

Around 10 pm I realized we wouldn't be getting to Kansas city any time soon... So had to tell the gf no hotel that night if we wanted to stay on schedule. Well she handled it well, and improvised.

I drove through the night and finally arrived in Kansas city somewhere around 4:30am, pulled into a rest stop slept for half an hour and got back on the road. Made it about another 30 minutes of driving and needed another power nap. After that I was good to hit the road to Sioux City!

Morning did come as well!

I had to laugh at the billboards you see across the states, either about jesus or strip clubs. And damn trucker discounts?! what a deal!

However this one made me laugh even more.

So we pass Sioux city, trade off driving and I fall asleep. Wake up to nothingness! aka South Dakota.

Man I though Saskatchewan was bad, this is terrible there aren't even any tree's!

Oh I lied, there was one.

Along the drive we did manage to stop at nearly every major chain of burger joints Canada doesn't have. Have to say Checkers has the best fries of the lot. Sonic was pretty good too.

Next stop though would be Mount Rushmore, never though I would actually see it, but low and behold there it is! haha Again, pretty cool.

Northward bound... which means snow.

Started running into it a bit into Montana, which is fine and dandy with quattro and all, but not so much with 5 year old 115 degree texas baked stock summer tires. So needless to say it was a little nerve racking. The roads though stayed clear through all of Montana so still managed to make good time!

Arrived at great falls Sunday morning around 11am or so!

And more snow after we got through Great falls.

Including some crazy fog.

Moment of truth! We have reached the border.

Time to see if all my paper work arrived and if I would be bringing this baby across into Canada land!

Alright crazy long post. Hope you enjoy. Will finish the story a bit later!

Cheers,

Ponto

[Crossy 6]

Dude your crazy !

[craggsy 91]

Awesome road trip. Puts my 2500 mile round trip to Austria and back into perspective

[DasPonto 23]

Awesome road trip. Puts my 2500 mile round trip to Austria and back into perspective

Thanks, it was a lot of fun... However a round trip to Austria I think would be more fun! I wish I could have cut over and gone up through the rockies, however that would have added an additional 1000 miles or so.

Had the car for almost a year now, loving it and man is quattro a lot of fun in the snow!

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Now that's how to do a road trip buddy! Epic read.

Welcome to the club

[DasPonto 23]

Now that's how to do a road trip buddy! Epic read.

Welcome to the club

Thank you!

I will post up the rest of the road trip later tonight or tomorrow if I have time! It was nuts, if or when I do it again I will take more then 4 days to drive home.

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Awesome. Hope you do, perfect excuse have a brew and have a read

Club Chairman

[Daverse 175]

Epic mate. So refreshing to see people doing things like this for something they love rather then just giving up. As Craggsy said, makes my 14 hour round trip to pick up car parts look like a trip to the shops.

Looking forward to the next installment

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[cornishvr6 52]

Welcome, What a great write up and roadtrip, Fantastic choice of engine by the way  

[Nex 17]

Welcome to the club dude, that was a good little read

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Any updates?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DasPonto 23]

Any updates?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah yes! Haven't posted in here in a long time. A lot of updates. 

Biggest one being the car is dead. Last winter while on a massive road trip I took a threaded rod through the engine block. Audi quoted 16k for a replacement engine. Thankfully insurance covered it under road debris. SO the car was written off

 

Here is a bit of its last journey. 

 

The drive to Vancouver. It was a lot of fun and the car is amazing in the mountains. Good send off for a car to die I guess? 

 

At my mom's before hitting the road

 

 

Since it's a 3.2 of course

 

 

Oh Scenery

 

 

More gas

 

 

Wildlife bridge!

 

 

Fun mountain roads!! I will say traveling on Christmas day the highways were dead!!

 

 

Bathroom break

 

 

Next morning at my sisters place in Vernon!

 

 

 

 

 

And probably my favorite picture of the old car. 

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

And more of the last Journey! The Short start to the trek back to home. 

 

Morning started off with dropping the girlfriend off at school (She moved to Vancouver to finish her schooling), then hitting the road to an awesome sunrise!

 

 

 

The new bridge in Vancouvers bay is pretty awesome, wish I got better pictures of it. 

 

 

And of course before I got to far... FUEL

 

 

Back on the road. 

 

 

Roads were all open! So that was a bonus. Since I never really check the passes for conditions. 

 

 

And managed one last stop before the break down. At least it was a pretty spot! And got some good pictures. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So summary - all in all I owned the First 3.2 I picked up from Miami for a little over a year, put on approximately 40k km or 25k miles in that year. It was a great car and a blast to drive.
The road trip through the rockies to Vancouver was great - about a 3000km round trip, well would have been had I finished it. 
 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

And here we go! The replacement. 

It took me about 2 months to sort out a replacement car after the old one was written off. Ended up driving the old family dodge ram with 850k km on it. Them diesels will last forever!

But without further delay here she was when I first got it into my parkade!

 

 

Needed a bit of a detail, so got to work on it. 

 

First pass on half the hood with clay bar

 

 

After getting most of it done. 

 

 

And of course that damn plate holder is back... efffff. And the side markers, those gotta go!! Will be paint matching them soon.. 

 

 

Then tonight I did some more detailing and debaging. 

 

Before 

 

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

And a couple interior shots for good measure. 

 

 

 

 

 

My goodness do I need LED tails... and interior led's haha. 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Thanks to a steal of a deal I upgraded my steering wheel to one from an S5. 

 

Old and busted

 

New hotness

 

Loving it. Feels so good and looks 100 times better!

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Shortly there after this arrived in the mail.

 

 

And made sure to get in installed quickly!!

 

 

 

 

Had a wicked sunset that night so snapped a few shots. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Managed to save my RS knob from the old A3. So installed that once it arrived back from BC as well. 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Igloo

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Road trip #1 with the new car!!

 

Last Minute Sunshine trip!

 

 

Night before... BOOTS FOR EVERYONE. 

 

 

 

3 hours of sleep... arrive to this.

 

 

 

well worth it. 

 

Especially once it cleared up for the afternoon.

 

 

Drove home after... 4 hour drive, down the mountains, with a tailwind - doing 140 kmh I managed 26mpg with three people and all our gear in the car. haha

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Hopefully that's not all to overwhelming, got a lot more pictures and I am sure there will be some questions! 

 

Hope you all enjoy! More to come. Including more road trips! 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[DasPonto 23]

Alright back with the next update that was done to the new A3. 

 

Finally had enough of my ugly ass orange side markers. 

 

 

Started with sanding. 

 

 

 

Then paint it black!! Matched of course. 

 

 

 

 

 

Seven coats later we let it dry.

Next day applied the clear coat and here we are!

 

 

 

All in all for 40 dollars and a rattle can job I'm pretty happy with the result, match was practically bang on. Actually they are shiner than my bumper currently is haha.

 

While I was installing them I decided my headlights needed a refresh as well. 110,000km of Alberta roads are murder on our front ends. 

 

 

Started sanding with 600 Grit, then 1000,1500 and finally 2000 before hitting them with plastic polish. And the end result?

 

Beautiful if you ask me. 

 

And picture from Cars and Coffee early in the year, side markers in, headlights polished and looking pretty decent. 

 

Just way to high is all... (That gets fixed I promise)

 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[Russvrt 85]

Great read ,I love the road trips you've done must see some incredible scenery ,,hope this one lasts longer than your last one..

[DasPonto 23]

Great read ,I love the road trips you've done must see some incredible scenery ,,hope this one lasts longer than your last one..

Thanks! And boy oh boy me too. 6 months in and 20k km driven with it already. Loving every minute of it. 

We are pretty lucky here for sure, nice open roads. Incredible scenery, makes for some fantastic drives.  

[DasPonto 23]

This is what was done next! (as previously promised)

 

 

Praise the lowered! 

Also I will have to include my 2nd attempt road trip to Vancouver, which did end in success haha. Will post a detailed account with plenty of pretty pictures eventually for that as well!

Hope you all enjoy, comment away! 

Edited August 26, 2014 by DasPonto

[c00k 435]

Very nice car, and brilliant read!

Think almost everyone on here loves a good road trip

[DasPonto 23]

Very nice car, and brilliant read!

Think almost everyone on here loves a good road trip

With a VR how can you not... ok well maybe with the fuel bill. Thank god I don't pay your guy's prices. I would be living in a shanty just to pay for fuel. But I still would totally do it.