Hi there,

I finally got ahold of my 2003 A4 Avant 1.8T, it took 3 month to ship
it from NJ/Penn State.

First impressions:

Lots of buttons to dig through: Took me quite a while how to turn the
rear wiper off
when I picked the car from customs yesterday.
The car came without an owner's manual, so I resorted
to buying an owner's manual/maintenance manual combo locally.

I pushed the steering wheel all the way in, but the only way to get my
hands fully extended
was to tilt the seat backwards. Could not find an upright position
with hands fully extended
where I could reach the clutch. I guess I'll have to get used to
porsche-like semi reclined seating.
Not such a big deal.

I'm pondering the want vs. need for Bentley manual giving that I will
be only doing simple
tasks covered in the manual I've bought leaving anything from oil
change onward complexity wise
to the service department to handle. Do advise if my Bentley manual
driven edufication warrants the
cost of the manual, please.

Aside from 15" steel wheels for [studded] winter tires I plan to do
absolutely zero tuning on the car as I see
no need and I'm not a fart-can exhaust kind of guy. The awesome sound
insulation allows
to rip all the way to the redline whenever situation calls for it.

Maybe I'll install a stiffer rear sway bar eventually (if I get the
car to produce any body roll,
so far it's been composed no matter what I threw at it). That would
require way stickier rubber than ContriProContacts so that's not
likely to happen any time soon.

How much did you pay for an extra key in the States, UK, Canada, etc?
(My A4 came with exactly 1 key)

My apologies for removing a 5SP quattro avant from the States: they
must be hard to come by.
Locals share the preference of Americans for automatics while I see no
merit of automatic+turbo combo,
and, besides, in contrast with my previously owned subarus the lever
action is crisp and the throws are short. Awesome job audi. It's a
pleasure to shift.

Thanks.