Possible move to Denver

[coolwater]

Howdy Rocky Mountain crew. Looking to possibly relocate to Denver metro area next year.

So how bad is the altitude effect on our cars? Any thing to look out for as far as mods? I have a 2015 s3 stage 2. Are the winter comparable to NYC?

Looking at Centennial/south Aurora area to have a shorter commute to tech center.

Cheers.

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Firefox250]

You'll notice a difference and not to mention we have crappy 91 octane. Just have your tune adjusted for 91 octane. As for the winters I would say similar but not as icy. The area you want to live in gets hammered with snow. Just make sure you have some Blizzaks winter tires and you should be good.

I live in that area, off of Smokey hill and Versailles. Be prepared to pay $3 a toll and that will add up quick if you take E-470.

[HazeMyth]

The loss of power at altitude generally varies between 30 and 33% on naturally aspirated cars, and 16-18% for forced induction. You'll notice a difference in your S3 I'm sure, but at least everyone else around you is losing at least the same or more power. Forced induction is king at this altitude.

[coolwater]

You'll notice a difference and not to mention we have crappy 91 octane. Just have your tune adjusted for 91 octane. As for the winters I would say similar but not as icy. The area you want to live in gets hammered with snow. Just make sure you have some Blizzaks winter tires and you should be good.

I live in that area, off of Smokey hill and Versailles. Be prepared to pay $3 a toll and that will add up quick if you take E-470.

Thanks for the info. The 91 oct only is a bummer. I'll be losing some power with the altitude. Plus even more going down to 91. I guess it'll still be a bit faster than stock.
I'll be looking around arapahoe so hopefully I can avoid the toll by taking that to 25.

The loss of power at altitude generally varies between 30 and 33% on naturally aspirated cars, and 16-18% for forced induction. You'll notice a difference in your S3 I'm sure, but at least everyone else around you is losing at least the same or more power. Forced induction is king at this altitude.

Yeah definitely one of the drawbacks to the high alt. Guess i'll just have to consider a RS3 or slap on a bigger turbo to gain the same performance I'm used to.

How's the car scene over there? You guys have cars and coffee? Looks like you guys have Car Usage Tax also just like in Virginia.

-cW

[DrBeerMD]

Vehicle registration fees are absurd here.
Your car will be slow as uck compared to NY.
Yes there is a Cars and Coffee scene..........close to the area you you want to live too. Check out Vehicle Vault on Google.
The toll road is an utter scam, I refuse to use no matter what. The costs are way out of line.
Snow reports are over blown and the weather in winter in Denver is quite mild IMO compared to winters elsewhere.
My advice, buy a winter daily and don't by Blizzaks. Keeps your S3 looking better. They spray sulfuric acid on the roads around here I'm convinced.

[4RCFED]

Vehicle registration fees are absurd here.
Your car will be slow as uck compared to NY.
Yes there is a Cars and Coffee scene..........close to the area you you want to live too. Check out Vehicle Vault on Google.
The toll road is an utter scam, I refuse to use no matter what. The costs are way out of line.
Snow reports are over blown and the weather in winter in Denver is quite mild IMO compared to winters elsewhere.
My advice, buy a winter daily and don't by Blizzaks. Keeps your S3 looking better. They spray sulfuric acid on the roads around here I'm convinced.

☝️
True story. There's maybe 3 days a year where the city shuts down from snow(give or take) and that Mag Chloride is shit. If you daily your S3 in winter, wash it every couple weeks. On the bright side, you're only a few hours to some of the best skiing in the country.

[HazeMyth]

They spray sulfuric acid on the roads around here I'm convinced.

They use magnesium chloride, which might as well be acid. One thing to keep in mind living in Colorado is that you should go hit the local wash as soon as you can after the roads are dry, and spray that crap off. It'll destroy your paint in no time!

Registration fees here are stupid, but at least some counties don't have emissions. As far as registration fees go, they drop drastically on cars over 5 years old, but newer cars really pay the price. I live in El Paso County, which has no emissions testing for standard fuel vehicles. Diesels still require emissions every 2 years, I believe. Denver County isn't so lucky with the emissions.

The car scene down in Colorado Springs is stupid. It's vaping Subaru owners, fartcan civics and VW's with useless blowoff valves. Denver has a much better car scene than my city.

[iamproph]

Don't take Arapahoe....worst road ever. Construction will probably take another 100 years near the I-25 interchange. Unless you meant Arapahoe County, and in that case welcome to the county!

[coolwater]

Thanks for all the info. Car tax in VA is like 4% of value of your car yearly. So I think the tax is worse here.

I see CO allows trade in tax credit. They don't allow that in VA. No real advantage to trade in at dealer.

I'm used to heavily salted roads in NYC, so that should be ok.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I start exploring.

-cW


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[HazeMyth]

The pro-rated trade in tax rate is garbage. You get a small fraction back, so it's still a loss.

[coolwater]

The pro-rated trade in tax rate is garbage. You get a small fraction back, so it's still a loss.

So you don't get to save on the full sales tax of the trade in value? That does suck. In NY you get 30k off the new car for tax purposes if your trade is worth 30k...

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[HazeMyth]

Nope, the taxable value is still attached to the value of the new vehicle, not the old one. When I bought my S5 I put about 30% down, and the taxes were still the exact same as if I would have put 0% down, or traded in a car that was worth 30% of the Audi's value. Buying cars here in Colorado is BS, and even more-so after a recent sales tax hike. I don't recall if that sales tax hike is specific to my county or if it was state wide, but it just keeps becoming more and more expensive to live here. It's still a far cry from LA, but these days the wages don't seem to match up with the living costs for most people here.

[Docwyte]

The mag chloride isn't bad, just wash your car.

The toll road is worth it when you have to get somewhere fast, there's never any traffic on it.

[agautohaus]

You won't regret it! Lived in the area for 6 years, loved it. Although there are pros and cons just like every other place on earth

the denver audi crew definitely gets down too

[coolwater]

You won't regret it! Lived in the area for 6 years, loved it. Although there are pros and cons just like every other place on earth

the denver audi crew definitely gets down too

What's up buddy. Yeah I remember you mentioned that last time at the C&C.
Got some colleagues that took the relo already. Seem to be pretty happy with the move.
One guy loves to ski and mountain bike so he's in heaven.

-cW

[coolwater]

Nope, the taxable value is still attached to the value of the new vehicle, not the old one. When I bought my S5 I put about 30% down, and the taxes were still the exact same as if I would have put 0% down, or traded in a car that was worth 30% of the Audi's value. Buying cars here in Colorado is BS, and even more-so after a recent sales tax hike. I don't recall if that sales tax hike is specific to my county or if it was state wide, but it just keeps becoming more and more expensive to live here. It's still a far cry from LA, but these days the wages don't seem to match up with the living costs for most people here.

That really is BS. Why even offer a trade-in tax benefit then? I've done no-sales tax transactions before where I traded my s4 in for 40k. Picked up an A5 for about 40k and paid $0 sales tax...
Ofcourse TTL and Registration are extra. Oh well. Hopefully car insurance is reasonable in Denver metro?

-cW

[coolwater]

The mag chloride isn't bad, just wash your car.

The toll road is worth it when you have to get somewhere fast, there's never any traffic on it.

Sure, it's the same in the NYC area. The only issue is finding a decent hand car wash place.

-cW

[agautohaus]

What's up buddy. Yeah I remember you mentioned that last time at the C&C.
Got some colleagues that took the relo already. Seem to be pretty happy with the move.
One guy loves to ski and mountain bike so he's in heaven.

-cW

Heck yeah. Honestly it's an entirely different lifestyle. Happy to grab a beer and discuss!

I'll say this I love nova just as much if not more which most people freak out at me for lmao

[treginginco]

1: Octane at 91 here is because of the altitude. Got that info from a pointy headed petroleum engineer who explained the whole calculation to me years ago. For someone who isn't good at math, I couldn't tell you what the fu** he said, but it sounded reasonable.
2: Forced induction is a life safer here at altitude
3: I''ve lived in Parker (south of the area you're looking at) for 16 years ---- great part of the metro area. We do get some whopper snow storms compared to Denver
4: The "official" word is that the Denver area is a freakin' frozen tundra wasteland in the winter. Okay, if that's what people who don't live here want to believe..... let 'em :)

Now if you'll excuse me..... my flip-flops just fell off.

[HazeMyth]

Sure, it's the same in the NYC area. The only issue is finding a decent hand car wash place.

-cW

Honestly, if you find a touch-free wash with a solid presoaking agent, that's generally good enough to get through the winter. I've got a wash just a few minutes from my house that has a pretty awesome presoak solution. I rarely ever hand wash my car in the winter, mainly because it's too damn cold and I don't trust a car wash to touch my cars.

1: Octane at 91 here is because of the altitude. Got that info from a pointy headed petroleum engineer who explained the whole calculation to me years ago. For someone who isn't good at math, I couldn't tell you what the fu** he said, but it sounded reasonable.

If you read most car manuals, it will actually tell you that you can use reduced octane if you're above 3500 feet altitude. Most naturally aspirated, non-performance cars can actually run 85 octane without issues at higher altitudes. Technically I can put 85 in my Tacoma without any issue, but we still stick to 87 or 91 octane since we're gas snobs.

[WannaBeRS4]

They use magnesium chloride, which might as well be acid. One thing to keep in mind living in Colorado is that you should go hit the local wash as soon as you can after the roads are dry, and spray that crap off. It'll destroy your paint in no time!

Registration fees here are stupid, but at least some counties don't have emissions. As far as registration fees go, they drop drastically on cars over 5 years old, but newer cars really pay the price. I live in El Paso County, which has no emissions testing for standard fuel vehicles. Diesels still require emissions every 2 years, I believe. Denver County isn't so lucky with the emissions.

The car scene down in Colorado Springs is stupid. It's vaping Subaru owners, fartcan civics and VW's with useless blowoff valves. Denver has a much better car scene than my city.

I totally agree on that. Colorado Springs has an awful car scene, 719 street scene is a joke. Denver has a pretty good car scene thou.

[JD S4]

Some seriously dramatic responses here..

One of the best places in the country to live - I've lived in a lot of them. Weather is fantastic (4 seasons but none of them suck as much as they do other places), people are mostly friendly, good jobs/economy, roads are generally better than most places in the country.. Snows a ton, 70 the next day.. Great skiing, tons of outdoor activities.

Your car will take a hit - but turbo (S3) is your best bet for altitude (better than Supercharged). The 91 is by design - altitude has an impact on the requirements and ability to burn fuel, 93 is mostly seen as a "waste" here to to the thin air coming in.. In some places - we have E85 (I have one local) and blend E85 and 91 to bring up to much higher (helps in the heat)... Great place to live - most likely cheaper than most NE regions and weather/people/outdoors win 100x over..

Great place!

[Brother Owl]

Denver rocks! (don't) Tell your friends!

[seal66]

You'll enjoy it. A lot of new construction going on, tons of jobs in all industries, beautiful mountains, mix plains, mountains, dunes, and mesa's, great food and beer scene.

The car scene is good. Not a lot of audi meets anymore, but the c&c's at vehicle vault and now golden are always a good show

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[coolwater]

Some seriously dramatic responses here..

One of the best places in the country to live - I've lived in a lot of them. Weather is fantastic (4 seasons but none of them suck as much as they do other places), people are mostly friendly, good jobs/economy, roads are generally better than most places in the country.. Snows a ton, 70 the next day.. Great skiing, tons of outdoor activities.

Your car will take a hit - but turbo (S3) is your best bet for altitude (better than Supercharged). The 91 is by design - altitude has an impact on the requirements and ability to burn fuel, 93 is mostly seen as a "waste" here to to the thin air coming in.. In some places - we have E85 (I have one local) and blend E85 and 91 to bring up to much higher (helps in the heat)... Great place to live - most likely cheaper than most NE regions and weather/people/outdoors win 100x over..

Great place!

Thanks. Good thing I have Eurodyne flash from home. Will just switch to 91 octane stage 2. Browsing some youtube 0-60 runs in Denver, it looks like altitude adds a full second to some cars...

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[coolwater]

You'll enjoy it. A lot of new construction going on, tons of jobs in all industries, beautiful mountains, mix plains, mountains, dunes, and mesa's, great food and beer scene.

The car scene is good. Not a lot of audi meets anymore, but the c&c's at vehicle vault and now golden are always a good show

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

Yeah, it's all good. I hear new construction takes a while. 12-18 month lead times....

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[coolwater]

Denver rocks! (don't) Tell your friends!

Think word is out already. :)

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[snolvr]

Thanks. Good thing I have Eurodyne flash from home. Will just switch to 91 octane stage 2. Browsing some youtube 0-60 runs in Denver, it looks like altitude adds a full second to some cars...

-cW

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Native here. I won't jump on my soapbox if you promise not to tell anyone else how awesome this state is :) Kidding of course. Yeah, most of the comments to your questions are true. Forced induction is THE only way to role here, especially once you start climbing the mtns. Quarter mile numbers adds a full 1 second and a decrease of almost 10mph compared to sea level as I verified through Bandimere. Car scene has really taken off here. Welcome to TRAFFIC, everywhere. 'Course this is because the secret is out. I-70 is a joke every weekend, year round now. You don't necessarily have to wash your car often in the winter as much as just spray the mag chloride off with a self serve wand, paying close attention to the wheel wells. Get a set of dedicated winter tires to fully enjoy the benefits of Quattro. Enjoy CO, still hard to beat given the quality of life/drawback ratio.