Have you ever won an online auction for a car you’ve never seen or driven? Man, it’s exhilarating. Last night, right before I went to sleep, I put in a bid on this Audi A3 E-tron that I thought was acceptable, but was hit with the dreaded “You are the highest bidder, but your bid has not met reserve.” I put my phone down and went to sleep. Oh well, I guess I’m not taking this one home. Or am I?
I’ve been looking for an appropriate daily driver for a few months after selling our beloved Buick Regal TourX. My wife has the Porsche Cayenne Diesel, and loves it, but all of my cars are on a collector car insurance policy and can’t really be used for everyday driving, and definitely can’t be street parked at our city apartment with no garage. I was looking for a somewhat fun daily driver that I could street park in the city without feeling bad about it, put the dog in, haul some furniture, and do Home Depot runs.
I had sort of settled on the A3 E-tron and had been looking around for one, but never found one in the spec I wanted. For a few months I was all but convinced that every single one of these cars was sold in fucking silver. I don’t want anything greyscale, so I had to seek out one of the rare colorful examples, and that’s when this one popped up. I’m not much of a red car guy, but it’s head and shoulders above grey or silver, and the chocolate brown leather interior was enough to put me over the top. I’m kind of jazzed to go get this machine and take it on a lengthy road trip.
I fell in love with this chassis when I tested its S3 sibling. It’s the perfect blend of nimble and small that I want in a fun driver, but with enough luxury that I don’t feel like I’m being penalized. Plus I won’t have to get gas very often what with its 16 miles of electric range, diminutive 1.4-liter turbocharged engine, and hybrid drive efficiency.
If the S3 had been available with a long roof, I might have bought one of those instead. But I’m also a little conscious of my fuel consumption and know electric and hybrid are the way forward. I miss having an EV around the house, but Ohio’s charging infrastructure is a goddamn mess, so it’s probably not the right move for me at the moment.
I saw this car listed somewhere a few weeks ago for $14,000-ish, which was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but it scratched the right itch. I let it go. I saw the very same car on eBay a few days ago, and started putting in some bids. My reserve-not-met bid was $12,000, but it wasn’t accepted, so I was willing to let it go again. This morning the listing was updated with a Buy It Now price of $11,999. Nobody was bidding against me, so I decided to let the time run out and see if I could haggle them down a few more bucks. Then, just as the auction ran out, the seller dumped the reserve to $11,575 and my bid was accepted. I’d won!
With 68,000 miles on the odometer, it’s a bit more well-used than I’d hoped for, but it looks clean enough in the admittedly-low-resolution photographs. We’ll see what I’ve gotten myself into when I fly out to California in a couple of weeks to pick it up. Watch this space, it should be interesting.