Love this car!
I love this car. I have approximately 6000 miles on it. I like the feel of the car - very nicely done - and the pick up, but the engine noise is a bit loud. The manual says to shift earlier - right. I am a bit disappointed about having to choose between the Ipod plug or Sirius. For this kind of money you would think they could figure out how to include both options together. I really love the sun roof and moon roof. The drive is smooth and the seats are comfortable. I drove everything from the Fit to the A3 and by far this was the best car if you are looking for a hatchback. The only problem I have had was a bad sensor in the fuel tank set off the engine light, but it was fixed.
An "Adult" Kind Of Giddy
Okay, so I just bought my new A3 3.2 AWD Quattro today after driving the Volvo S40 T5 and the Acura TL-S. The Volvo was nice, but not in the same class, and the Acura was a great car, but a bit bigger than I wanted. The Audi is an awesome car. So much fun. Some folks say that the power gain in the 3.2 isn't worth the increased price. My feeling (having driven both) is that the 3.2 provides a much more steady power (no lag) and is better suited to the AWD. I felt the same way when I chose my VW GTI VR6 over the 1.8T a few years back. Steady power from the very low RPMs. Beyond that, the build quality is great, the nav system is awesome, and I'm smiling!
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $5,495321 mi away
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $5,495400 mi away
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $4,495401 mi away
Getaway car
Purchased my A3 2.0T after much research and driving the competition. I kept coming back to the A3, and so glad I did. This little vixen grows on you. The DSG, coupled with a very flat torque curve, makes acceleration so effortless that I find myself glued to the rear view mirror. I don't think "Audi made me do it" would stand up in court. Fit and finish is incredible. The sound system is very good (I wanted premium but settled for stock, and no complaints). I've been doing the conventional break-in (vary your speed) and still averaging 27 mpg. Overall I'd have to say this is the finest car I've ever owned. If I win the lottery, I'm going for an A8, but still keeping my A3!
Wildly fun to drive
It's light, powerful, precise, well-balanced and stops well. Great mileage in Drive mode, wildly fun on mountain roads in Sport mode. Bluetooth and see-around-corners lights and seat heater work well. Very comfortable for driver. Premium comes with good electric seat - for the driver only. Passenger seat manually adjust with big wheel to tilt seat, like our 87 VW Cabriolet - this is a horrible method. Air conditioner works fine on first trip. If restarted when warm, air wants to freeze you, so it ceases to be automatic. Bose stereo is great, but CD changer is very hard to reach and ther is no iPod input! And no workaround except FM transmitter, which is not good in saturated FM market.
A3 Seat Time - Never enough
Test drove Honda, Subaru Outback, Mazda CX 7. Drove the A3 and knew this was the car for us (well, it's actually my wife's car). We live in an area where straight roads are rare and curves are the majority. The 6 speed manual is the smoothest and easiest I have ever driven. Living in the mountains, I vowed never to own a 4 cylinder car. But the 2.0 Turbo climbs up long grades in 6th gear with no problem. Steeper grades I have to shift between 3rd, 4th and 5th gears and that just means I am in for whole lot of fun. My wife calls this my mid-life crisis car but she looks pretty hot driving it herself.