[steveneville]

I was lucky enough to get an invite by Audi UK to spend a weekend in Munich testing out the new A1. This was back in September. It was absolutely mind blowing. There was an arena with static A1s on display. I liked the police version they had or Picklerjaeger as they call their road toll enforcers in Austria. The first day was spent whizzing around the test circuits next to the runway by the airport. Various A1s were available; the 1.6TDI and 1.4TFSI. For completeness there was the BMW Mini and the Alfa Mito to play around with. The petrol A1 was spoilt to my mind by the S-tronic auto transmission. Perhaps its just me but I really don't like automatics unless I'm driving in a city; then I use a bus! The hospitality was second to none.
The evening was spent in the A1 city surrounded by A1's in a sort of showcase environment and pretty German girls plying us with beer. Smart hotel accommodation in the shape of the Novahotel.
The Sunday was a drive around Bavaria in deserted countryside (unlike SE England), lunch in a restaurant and a final thrash down an autobahn. We got 200km/hr out of our petrol A1; not bad going.
Just to top it all I'd just collected an A4 3.0 TDI quattro from Bedford Audi. The salesman had already been to test the A1 and warned me to be prepared to be "blown away" by the A1 experience. He was quite right. I love the A4 quattro too.
Next year we plan to replace the long suffering Micra with an A1 as a second car.

 

[Jae]

Steven,

How did you get a paid trip to Munich with Audi? That was a press/audi only event. Where did you stay?

Jae

 

[steveneville]

I'd filled in a card at the local Audi dealer asking to be kept informed about the A1. After the dealers and the press had been taken to their respective launches, covering their specific needs it seems like Audi invited 80 or so customers from each of several different countries. Most of the others were Audi customers too. The only catch was having to get to Brum early on a Saturday to catch the flight. The hotel was in Munich airport. I was just astonishingly lucky; now where is that competition entry to win an A1?

 

[Jae]

Well, congratulations on that! Welcome to the Forum!

 

[Jae]

Do you have any pictures by the way?

 

[steveneville]

I have a several photos of the event; well those that the Audipolitzi allowed us to take. Some of their cars were hush, hush und it was verboten to take ze pictures of ze newest Audis.
I'll upload a link or whatever is easiest to view

 

[Jae]

Well, my best bet is that you saw the 5 door A1

 

[steveneville]

Photos are at http://gallery.me.com/steveneville#100317

Nope there was not a 5 door A1 there; that I recall anyway. There was the A1 E-tron plus a load of other mega expensive Audi stuff. Also some of the older Audis from the 1980's onwards. They were introducing the new A7 and had examples of the competitors from BMW, Merc, Jag etc.