Overview
A Marks & Spencer ready-meal. You and I both know that the Audi A3 shares all of its mechanical bits and bobs with not just Volkswagen’s Golf Mk8, but also the latest Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon. But that’s not the image it projects to the world, is it? Drive an A3 and you’re a business-class go-getter in a hurry. You probably use words like ‘ideate’ and talk about ‘low-hanging fruit’ in your Zoom meetings.
It’s been a roaring success for Audi, particularly here in the image-obsessed United Kingdom, so the recipe hasn’t changed much for the new 2020 A3. Same basic platform as the last A3 (which was quietly rather excellent, if a tad stodgy to drive), the usual fleet of turbocharged four-cylinder engines, and a six-speed manual or seven-speed twin-clutch automatic, labelled ‘S-tronic’.
Driving
The highest compliment you can pay to a regular ol’ four-pot engine like this is to try and start it while it’s already running. That means it’s quiet, smooth and cultured. And the driver is a bit forgetful. Anyway, the A3 pulled this off more than once. The suppression of vibration and engine thrum from idle and at normal town speed is really very impressive indeed – leagues better than the thrashy Mercedes A-Class. Less pleasant is the manual gearbox. The shift quality is fine, but the gearknob itself is a disaster. Feels like there are bits missing from each side, and it looks like a prosthetic knee from the Star Wars galaxy. But we’ll talk more about overdesigned trim when we get to the cabin section.
You can spec an S-line A3 with a 1.0-litre tri-cylinder engine, and it’s a sweet little powerplant, but if you’re planning to lord it down the outside lane of every motorway in the land like the thrusting bizniss-person you are, this mid-range 1.5-litre four-pot is the do-it-all motor of choice. Maximum torque (184lb ft) is under your right foot from 1,500rpm to 3,500rpm, and you need never rev it higher than that. Against the clock, this version takes 8.4sec to get from 0-62mph.
On the inside
Chief among the changes is a new ‘MMI’ infotainment centre, now set into the dashboard rather than in a foldaway screen above it. It’s operated by touch, so the tactile MMI clickwheel is binned. Sure, the new A3’s cabin is more minimalist for it, and Audi’s 10.1-inch display, fitted as standard across the range, is one of the very crispest, most responsive and logical touchscreens this side of Volvo or Tesla’s, but it will mean more fingerprints, and more time with eyes off the road. Zooming into maps in particular is, as one Top Gear road tester delicately put it, ‘complete cack’. Despite a computer 10x as powerful as the old A3’s chip…
It’s easier to reach than the screens in cousins Golf and Leon, mind you, and the idea to house the vents up high around the driver’s binnacle and directly in front of the passenger is a good one. Plus, they’re still operated by physical buttons which are miles more intuitive than touch-sensitive sliders, though not as expensive feeling as the knurled, Bentley-esque controls found in the old A3.
Roomy, though. Adults behind adults fit just fine, though the middle seat is still a squeeze and legroom there is eaten by the high floor tunnel. The Sportback shares the range with the A3 saloon, and though its 380 litre boot loses out to the saloon’s 425 litres, it’sobviously a more versatile space and is quadrupled in volume when the rear seats are flipped down. The loading lip’s flatter than key rivals, and there’s hidden underfloor storage. So, have a look in an A3 Sportback before you subject yourself to three years in a Q3.
