DRIVEN + VIDEO: FIRST Video Review Of The All-New 2015 Audi A3

I feel no emotion when I look at an Audi A5/S5. The design, inside and out, is safe, bland, boring and unadventurous. "Nice" is an appropriate word to describe Audis design language.

I want to feel something when I walk up to my car. I want to feel like the car is yearning to be driven fast and hard. Yet I still want it to be well organized and well thought out.

I'm sorry, but the Audis are just boring. All of them. 5-7 years ago I thought they were artistic and beautifully designed. Now they are just safe cookie cutter designs applied to 15 or so different sized cars. Plus the fact you can get a golf/Jetta with much of the same hardware for considerably less, makes this car less appealing to me.

You must be driving some Japanese car and don't appreciate a great German vehicle. Audi is offering some of the best products on the road now. I believe some automakers styling has gone way too far. For me personally, Audi's styling is outstanding. They have the best interiors, fine craftsmanship regarding fit and finish. I was in a BMW dealership this past weekend because I was comparing BMWs X3, with Audi's Q5 and MB GLK. If anyone thinks the interior on the X3 model is high quality, let me sell you a Pontiac "plastic" Aztec my friend has. The BMW car salesman had the nerve to say to me, starting in the 4 series coupe and all future models "will have a significant improvement in the materials inside the vehicle". "We are aware that BMW has the finest engines, but they need to catch MB and Audi on the interior quality". Then he went on to say, "and those run flat tires that BMW puts on nearly every vehicle we have ask BMW to use standard High Performance Tires", after he just spent $2500 to outfit a 5 series that was turned in from a lease with new run flat tires.

I LOVE my Audi S6 and is a SUPERIOR piece of machinery to the once king of that segment (5 series), because of the fit and finish, high quality materials used inside the cabin. Does anyone really car one car is 4.5 seconds 0-60 compared to 4.8 seconds. Common On. I am a car enthusiast and if .03 seconds 0-60 difference is going to make you buy one car; be my guest. At the present moment, Audi is making an fantastic product - so keep driving your "tuner cars".

Lol, what does BMW have to do with anything?

And I'm glad you LOVE your S6...wait wasn't it an A6 a few weeks ago? Fantasy land must be delightful. Also I never said performance times have anything to do with the desirability of a car. I just don't find Audi designs very desirable or dynamic from a purely aesthetic standpoint. They look "nice", but their look is getting old/tiered and don't excite IMO.

"after he just spent $2500 to outfit a 5 series"
You must be the worst tire shopper out there. I can put a set of tires on a M5 for $2200, and normal 5er $1600 at the dealer.

This car looks so much different from any other Audi...said no one.

The A3 sedan will be a huge seller for Audi in key growth markets such as China, Russia and the U.S.

The A3 will not take sales away from the A4. The A3 is designed to be a compact car and the gateway to the Audi brand for young, likely single buyers that are looking for a luxury brand vehicle at an affordable price. These buyers do not need to carry adults comfortably in the back seat but they do want features of more expensive Audi sedans such as the A6 and flagship A8.

The A4 will remain the choice for the slightly older buyers who likely have a family and need the extra backseat space.

For all those criticizing Audi's design language, for the millionth time the 2015 A4 (which will debut middle of next year) and the new Q7 SUV (which will debut next summer) will highlight Audi's new, more aggressive and differentiated design language.

Of course, USA gets an A3 sedan only, automatic only and a TDI without Quattro. How did Audi USA screw up a great thing SO badly?

The A3 hatchback does not sell well in the U.S. hence the reason why it didn't make it stateside. The six-speed dual-clutch automatic is a significantly better setup for the A3 sedan than a manual. The transmission is extremely smooth and precise. The lack of Quattro for the TDI is not a big deal.

From Car and Driver below:

"The sedans, though, are where Audi is focusing its efforts. A base model will use a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 170 horsepower and more than 180 lb-ft of torque, a new unit unrelated to the old 1.8T wedged into Audis of the last decade. (It’s part of the EA888 engine family, further details on which can be found here.) A slightly larger 2.0-liter version of the engine, omnipresent in Volkswagen and Audi products, and will serve up about 200 horses in the all-wheel-drive A3 Quattro. Diesel makes a return appearance in the American A3, too, and would you believe that more than half of the A3s sold in the U.S. in the past few years were TDIs? The new 2015 A3 will carry the latest Volkswagen-family 2.0-liter diesel four—TDI geeks, here’s its backstory—delivering about 150 horsepower. Torque from the diesel will probably come in at around 250 lb-ft.

From what Audi has said so far, it appears as if only the 2.0-liter four will be paired with all-wheel drive. That the base 1.8-liter engine and the 2.0-liter diesel will be front-wheel-drive-only isn’t a big deal, really—Benz will be selling a front-drive version of the CLA250—although the diesel’s torque might make hard launches a bit of a handful. Dynamically, we came away mostly impressed from our drive of a Euro-spec three-door hatchback, which bodes well for the sedan. The suspension consists of struts up front and a multilink rear, while steering is of the efficiency-boosting electric type."

"The six-speed dual-clutch automatic is a significantly better setup for the A3 sedan than a manual. The transmission is extremely smooth and precise. The lack of Quattro for the TDI is not a big deal."

I totally disagree.

I given a lot of grief to the ILX for being a Civic, so let me say this about the A3, IT'S A GOLF!

This is a good, modern design but just not sure there's enough separation from the styling themes of the VW Passat and Jetta. I think there will be alot of appeal for it, but will face tough competition.

Will it steal sales from the A4? I think that will be inevitable, depending on buyer priorities with space and price.

@mclaren428: Send me your email address to gkearns56@yahoo.com and I'll gladly send you a picture of my beautiful new Audi. I have family who work for Corporate Audi/VW and buy a new vehicle each year under the family plan. Keep driving those Japanese cars and let been know how those well those cars fair.

Not impressed by the design; surprisingly, the new MB CLA looks much more inviting. BMW 1 series still looks like a pot bellied pig.

What an incompetent young reviewer from Auto Express, comparing some aspects of the Audi A3 SEDAN with the BMW 1 series COUPE. We shouldn't jump to conclusions based on an incompetent source.

The Germans know more about their own German cars than the Brits do. So better to get advice from the German experts.

The largest German auto mag is Autobild.

Autobild compared the BMW 1 series against the VW Scirocco . The Volkswagen beat the BMW in almost every performance and driving measure -- as well as was more fun than the last place BMW.
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/test-vw-scirocco-2.0-tsi-gegen-bmw-125i-coupe-760626.html

Autobild compared a sedans with sedans: The BMW 3 Series against the Audi A3 sedan. They found the Audi as good or better than the BMW on most measures, including performance and driving dynamics. Autobild's conclusion was that the slightly smaller Audi A3 sedan would be a cheaper alternative to the BMW 3 Series. The A3 sedan gives Audi a good chance "to finally push the 3 from the throne".
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/audi-a3-limousine-bmw-3er-test-4249005.html

The Audi A3 sedan's designer explains a few things about the car's design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXAmTPn5RKA

Correct me if I'm wrong, since I don't read German, but clearly they compared the most lowly 3 Series model to the A3 (not sure what the trim levels for the A3 are, but it appears it's a high trim level but not the S3). I would expect BMW to outfit their 316i with a less powerful engine and lower-performing tires and different suspension settings. Their bread and butter 3 is the 328i, which I would assume has a better setup than a 316i would. Not really sure this was a "fair" comparison. That would be like comparing an Audi S6 to a Mercedes S280.

Actually it is a fair comparison between comparable levels of engine lines for each model.

Autobild compared the smallest engine A3 1.4 TFSI (140 HP), 0-100 km/h 8.4 seconds, 27,400.00 Euros with the smallest engine BMW 316i, 8.9 seconds (30,950 Euros with Steptronic auto transmission)

Autobild did not compare two other variants of the A3 sedan model line: A3 1.8 TFSI and S3 2.0 TFSI.

The A3 1.8 TFSI (180 HP), 7.3 seconds, 29,600 Euros which could compete with the BMW 320i 7.5 seconds, (35,550 Euros with Steptronic auto transmission)

A3 1.4 TFSI and A3 1.8 TFSI
http://tinyurl.com/qckylxw

The S3 sedan supercharged 2.0 TFSI (300 HP), 4.9 seconds, quattro available in January 2014 in Germany, price 40,000 Euros, could compete with
- BMW 328i, 6.1 sec, 39,900 Euros base with Steptronic auto transmission (328i xDrive is 42,400 Euros)
- BMW 335i, 5.7 sec, 46,100 Euros base with Steptronic auto transmission (335i xDrive is 48,600 Euros)

So the new A3 sedan does target the 3 series -- customers will save a few thousand on price and get better gas mileage, as long as they don't care that the car is 6.6 inches shorter in length.

The A3 is more of a threat to audis own A4 than it is to any other brands model.

94geo: If "the A3 is more of a threat to audis own A4 than it is to any other brands model" then why is it that Germany's largest car magazine said the new A3 is as good as the BMW 3 Series and can dethrone the 3 Series and be an alternative for the 3 Series at a much cheaper cost? May it's because the German analysts knows that this BMW 3 series will be around for several more years while the next generation bigger, better Audi A4 will be out over the next year?
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/audi-a3-limousine-bmw-3er-test-4249005.html

" then why is it that Germany's largest car magazine said the new A3 is as good as the BMW 3 Series and can dethrone the 3 Series and be an alternative for the 3 Series at a much cheaper cost?"

Lol, maybe they said its a good alternative b/c both are relatively new so they compared them. There is no reason why it would not also be true of the A4 if compared. And the conclusion they came to is fairly obvious. The A3 is good alternative b/c it cost less, and only at the sacrifice of rear space. With that logic you could say a 3 series is a good alternative to an A6.

94geo, LOL, "MAYBE they said"??? So you admit you did not read the article, did you. What Germany's largest car magazine said was that Audi A3 sedan is as good or better than that BMW 3 Series sedan on most measures, including performance and driving dynamics. In fact, as I showed, the three A3/S3 sedan variants were faster than the four 3 series variants. Price was not the only reason the Audi A3 sedan was considered an alternative.

Common sense should tell you that the A3 would be a good alternative to every car in the middle class luxury segment: BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C Class, Cadillac ATS, Acura TL, Lexus IS, Infiniti G, Lincoln MKZ, Jaguar X-Type, Audi A4. [Common sense should also tell you that some of these cars have more rear space than the BMW]
924

Common sense should also tell you that when Audi designed the A3 sedan to be an alternative to the 3 Series, Audi would also design the next generation A4 (to be released spring 2014 in Europe) to distinguish it from the A3 so that buyers would not consider it an alternative. So the current generation A4 will not suffer much because it has only a year before it is replaced with the next-gen A4. However, the current 3 Series will have to suffer competition from the 3 Series for several more years until at least the next gen 3 Series is developed.

94geo: "With that logic you could say a 3 series is a good alternative to an A6"
Common sense should tell you that the 3 Series will not be a good alternative to an A6 or 5 Series. If you disagree, why don't you try to make a solid case based on facts and logic. And then I will use common sense to show you why you would be wrong.

The majority of car buyers in this segment will have rear seat passengers who are less than six feet tall -- for these car buyers the A3 will be superior all-round value than the 3 Series (since these rear passengers should have no problems fitting in the A3 sedan's rear space). It's only car buyers with rear passengers taller than six feet who might find the A3 sedan's rear space a bit tight -- such passengers simply have to sit in the back to find out whether or not this car is too small for them.

Audi is targeting the A3 sedan at the demand destruction of the BMW 3 Series. Audi is not concerned about the A3 sedan affecting sales of the A4 sedan....

Since an all new A4 sedan will be out in 2014. Obviously it will be better than the current A4.
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/audi-a4-2014-und-weitere-audi-neuheiten-3925949.html

lmao.

audi failed to touch 3 series with a4 so the great new plan is have an a3 sedan.

fail...

if they had a a3 coupe that may have a good shot against the current 1 series, but it doesn't seem to hold a candle toward the upcoming 2 series which looks far sleeker.

i tried to buy an a5 and they almost had me until i test drove it. the audi had better external design for sure, but the bmw had better interior (much better with current models) and the bmws drive a lot better and is much more to my taste. i will try audi's again when i change cars next year as it is always prudent to cross shop but don't have my hopes up.

The A3 had more than a good shot against the current 1 series. Audi S3 2.0 TFSI hatchback won this German comparo test against the BMW M135i x-drive
http://tinyurl.com/dxsshtc

How fail? You haven't even driven the new A3 sedan. The largest German car mag Autobild -- which tends to be pro-BMW -- concluded that the new A3 (already available in Germany) is an alternative to the 3 series, and could take the throne from the 3 series. That's a significant comment coming from these German reviewers who drive and test German cars a lot more than American car mags.

The next gen A4 and A5 should have significant weight savings and performance improvements over the current A4. Given the positive reviews of the new A3, things look promising for the A4/A5
http://tinyurl.com/qbgdb5u

I used to have an S5 optioned with Audi's 'drive select' that allows you to choose between dynamic (sports), comfort and auto for steering, transmission, engine and rear sport differential (I didn't get the suspension) -- it makes a difference in how the car drives compared with the standard S5. I've never driven the A5, but I assume the drive select option is available.

rumnyc, I would wait until end of next year (2014) to get another Audi because Audi is launching a brand-new, more aggressive, more differentiated A4 sedan, A5 coupe and Q7 SUV in 2014.

The 2014 A4 and Q7 will be the two models that usher in Audi's new design language for sedans and SUVs respectively. Expect their interiors to be totally new with Audi's continued tradition of best-in-class fit and finish, ergonomic design and materials quality.