The short version
The first cold mornings in the Hill Country show up in November. You walk out to the driveway, the windows are fogged, and the car cranks a little longer than it did in October. That is not a breakdown. It is a message.
German cars are built around precision. Clearances between moving parts are tight. Oil is the lifeblood, and when it is cold, it is thick. On a cold start, the oil has to move from the pan to the top of the engine before the moving parts are properly protected. That takes a few seconds longer when the temperature drops. The engine management system knows this. It enriches the mixture and raises the idle speed to warm the catalytic converter and get the oil flowing. A longer crank and a slightly higher idle on the first start of the day is the car doing its job.
What you want to listen for is the difference between a normal cold start and a fussy one. A normal cold start settles into a smooth idle within a minute. A fussy one stumbles, hunts, or stalls. That stumble is not the cold itself. It is something the cold is exposing.
The most common culprit is a weak battery. Cold reduces cranking power. If the battery is on its way out, the first cold morning is when it shows. The starter turns slowly, the voltage dips, and the engine management system gets confused because it is not seeing clean power. A simple battery test tells you if that is the problem before you chase anything else.
Another suspect is the fuel system. A small leak in an injector or a failing fuel pressure regulator allows fuel to bleed off when the car sits overnight. On a cold start, the engine has to crank longer to build pressure back up. That is the long crank you hear. It needs a real diagnosis to find which component is leaking.
The cooling system matters too. A failing coolant temperature sensor tells the engine the wrong temperature. The car thinks it is warmer than it is, so it does not enrich the mixture enough, and the cold start stumbles. The diagnosis is what matters.
Here is the honest part. If the car starts, idles smoothly, and drives fine after a minute, you do not need to spend money. Watching the oil level and letting the car idle briefly before you drive is a legitimate choice. The car is not broken. It is just cold.
If the cold start is getting worse, bring it in. The person who diagnoses the car is the person who calls you about it, and the shop works on one car at a time. Call with the year and the mileage.