After selling my previous gasoline Audi A3, I decided almost immediately that I wanted my next car to be a facelifted Audi A3 Sportback e-tron.
The size, compactness, tech and design of my previous Audi A3 suited me perfectly, but I wanted something a bit more advanced and fresher. I also really wanted to try something electric. That’s when I realized the perfect option for me would be the A3 Sportback e-tron.
But wanting is only half the battle. In Ukraine these models are basically nonexistent and are considered exotic. I ruled out importing from Europe right away — not worth it, higher mileage and worse equipment. That left only the US as an option.
For several months I monitored the salvage auctions — Copart and IAAI. I should say right away that this model isn’t very popular in the US because of its size — the car is relatively compact, and Americans like their cars bigger. During the search, a couple of great and (even) intact examples came up, and a buddy from W8 Shipping and I tried bidding on them, but they went for insane money — not worth the trouble of shipping from the US at that price.
My initial criteria were:
- a facelifted model, since it already has decent optics and MIB2 with CarPlay support
- Sport Packet – sport seats, steering wheel, spoiler
- Cockpit (virtual instrument cluster)
- car color – Nano Grey, Glacier White or Ibis White
From those criteria, it followed that I needed at least Premium Plus trim with the Sport Package and Technology Package.
New cars showed up on the auction at about 1-2 a week. Of the ones that came up, they were either badly damaged, had bare-bones equipment, or were pre-facelift.
At some point a colleague from W8 Shipping sends me a link to a lot on IAAI and says this one’s worth bidding on, the best option available right now. Opening the link, I saw a 2017 Audi A3 e-tron in Premium Plus trim, which I’d previously ruled out because of an unpleasant-looking hit (to my eye, anyway). Everything else about it added up to nearly the best possible equipment for the US — all it was missing was Bang&Olufsen audio, pedal covers, roof rails, Home Link, and factory-activated adaptive cruise (which can be activated later).
After talking to bodywork guys and other people who know their way around damaged cars, we decided it really was a decent option — an understandable impact overall and not a complicated repair.
I also ordered a Carfax. The report turned out to be surprisingly clean: one owner, the car was regularly serviced at an Audi dealer, and also regularly detailed. It was immediately clear the owner had been meticulous and careful.
We decided to bid on this lot — we bid on it twice. The first time we won it at $5,900, which would’ve been an awesome price, but the seller got cold feet and didn’t release the car. A week went by and we tried again, this time deliberately bidding higher — nobody really outbid us, and we won it at $7,000. 30-60 minutes of waiting after the auction, and I get the news that I’m now the owner of an Audi A3 etron 😅.
Then came the lot payment, the auction fee, and sending the car to the W8 Shipping yard in Seattle. After it arrived at the yard, the guys took some additional photos of the car.
Then, literally 1-2 days later, the car was already loaded into a container and sent to the port.
I was given the container number so I could track where the ship carrying my car was.
At the moment, the ship with the container hasn’t left Seattle yet. Departure is planned for 01/29-01/30, but the route is very long — it’ll sail through China, with an estimated arrival date of 04/25. Some might say that’s a long time, but it actually works in my favor, since I’ll have time to save up more money for the repair.
That’s all for now — in the next post I’ll write about what parts I’ve managed to order and buy. I’ll also cover what features and equipment options the US-market Audi A3 etron generally has. And I’ll share my plans for upgrades after the main repair.