Car is ok, good communication with owner

The car was just what I expected and needed…everything about this rental went smoothly!

Car was potentially low on coolant? Could not get the AC to work even on full blast, which made the drives very warm and made it necessary to roll the windows down frequently.

Great car handled well in slush.

We had a mixed experience with this Audi A3 for the 2 weeks we had it.

The communication with the hosts was clear, prompt, and thorough. The pick up location was easy to access and return with plenty of gas stations nearby to fill up. The vehicle was full of gas, spotless clean inside and out, and had a new air freshener tree hanging from mirror. Had a charger with USB-C cable and a vent mounted holder for convenience. Plus a snow brush scraper in the trunk.

The A3 was very sporty and spirited with plenty of horsepower (especially in sport mode) to get up to speed on the highways and pass people on two lane roads. Comfortably stiff performance and very responsive handling around corners and curves. The tires were very good in the snow and phenomenal on dry pavement. The infotainment system was easy to access, navigate, and master. Fuel economy was 28 mpg average, but keep in mind this is a high performance vehicle that requires 93 octane.

There were significant challenges however with this A3 with cold temperatures. I feel like the vehicle had sat for a while unused.

First was trying to open the fuel delivery door. It was frozen shut from the moment I got it at first fill up. I had to contact the hosts for advice. They explained and it helped, but it was a repeated issue during the time I had the vehicle. I thought I was going to break the door almost every time.

Next, when it came to cabin comfort and all windows defrosting, for 13 days and nights it was a disaster. Only about 2/3rds of the front window and a softball to football sized spot on front side windows defrosted at full fan and high heat. It blew plenty of heat and fan worked. It was uncomfortably hot and visually scary day or night. The rear side windows were fully iced and the rear window was always on defrosting with lines. I had to buy a bucket of damp rid and put it in the backseat floor the second day and kept it there the rest of the time. I cleaned the interior windows, but didn’t really help. Over the two weeks I was able to turn the heat down little by little until 70 degrees was enough and finally on the 14th day the humidity was gone and no fogging at all.

Forget about driving this if the temperature goes below zero Fahrenheit. It’s been exceptionally cold and for two days below zero was terrible. One day was -8 and three times on my commute it said the temperature was overheating and to pull the car over immediately and let it run stationary until cooling down. It took me an hour to go what normally takes a half hour. I had to buy antifreeze when I got to the nearest store and ended up needing about 12-16 ounces. The next day, it was -22 and it blew no heat in the cabin, the vehicle showed an EPC code and warning lights flashing and went into limp mode as I couldn’t go faster than 20 mph. I ended up putting about 32-48 ounces of antifreeze in but still didn’t help. I had to leave the vehicle where it was and borrow someone else’s vehicle and got to work late.

With the aforementioned issues, I looked in the glove compartment for the instruction manual and found that there was none, but thankful for Google and AI. I did unfortunately discover in the glovebox that during my rental there was expired insurance card. I’m not sure who would have been responsible in the event of an accident, so that is concerning and next time I rent from anyone on Turo I’m going to request proof of insurance in force before taking possession of vehicle.

The last day it was 10 degrees and had no problems at all. Cabin windows all finally clear. Fuel door perfect. Normal heat and no warnings on dash.

I would probably only rent this car again if the temps were above freezing.

I would likely rent another vehicle from these hosts, albeit confirming insurance in place.