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.
The Greatest Sleeper
I traded an 04 R32 for the A3 and haven't been disappointed yet. It has good performance and is fun to drive fast or slow. DSG is just great.
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $4,99564 mi away
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $9,995111 mi away
- 2.0T WagonMSRP: $4,999700 mi away
A3: Best in its class.
I drove the 3.2 All-Wheel drive but preferred the 2.0T. The 2.0T was more responsive and felt torquier down low. Impressive after coming from a VR6 GTI. I wasn't sure I could give up the MT for the DSG but after driving the car for a couple of days there was no going back to a MT for me. I drove this car back to back with a Mazdaspeed3 and with the DSG I could drive the A3 faster than the Mazda on the same course. The A3 is just too easy to drive fast with DSG. There is some road noise as others have commented on which I atribute to the tires and stiff sport suspension. The ride is very good given the handling abilities of the car. The fit and finish is first in its class.
Perfect marriage of trans and engine
As the owner of an '05 S4 Cabrio, I am a bit spoiled. When it came time to buy a winter and commuting car, I decided to test drive the A3 2.0T with DSG. Honestly, I am not sure which car is more fun to drive! The DSG is such a seamless AT that the car just wants to go, and has almost undetectable shift lag. Put that together with the supreb handling, unparalleled Audi cabin, and high fit and finish overall, and you have one sweet little ride. The hatch and knock-down back seats make it a pretty versatile car as well. My 14 year old keeps telling me about all the chips and performance equipment we could throw at it, but why bother? It runs circles around most cars on the road as it is.
Bigger than it appears. And it Rocks!
The car seems pricey for an A3 sized chassis, but the car seats everyone comfortably. The hatchback also can fit a lot. I bought a big grill at Home Depot and the sales associate looked at me like I was crazy for thinking the grill in its box would fit in my car. It did. Hatchback closed. The car accelerates and handles great. I do seem to go through tires a bit, and I've been told that by mechanics that the A3 does seem to chew up the front three tires faster than normal.