Sleek A3 so comfy in its skin

Published on 8 November, 2020

Easy on the eye, the fourth-generation A3 has a premium feel inside

Overview

Amid all the noise this year about electric vehicles it has been good to escape to a world of petrol for a while, even if the present restrictions have extremely curtailed my journeys.

Not that this is the case for a lot of people. I am amazed how much traffic is still on Dublin's North Circular Road during the morning, and, as I listen to the traffic reports on Morning Ireland, this seems to be replicated across the country.

Luckily the day before the latest so-called lockdown came into effect I picked up a very tasty Audi A3 Sportback, and have had it since. It has made me really appreciate the joy of having a car that doesn't try to be what it isn't, like so many SUVs do.

The A3 is now in its fourth generation, it has been a huge success since 1996 and six years ago picked up the World Car of the Year trophy.

This came 12 months after the Volkswagen Golf - with which it shares the same basic platform - picked up the award. As well as the Golf, the MQB platform also underpins the Skoda Octavia, which is a phenomenally successful car, and the Seat Leon. It was the latter which I really loved for its style and attractive edginess earlier this year.

The A3 aims to be the premium contender in this once very crucial market for smallish family hatchbacks. It still is very important, but much more of the running has been made by the trend for SUVs and crossovers, with their height and extra cladding.

The A3 is sleek and low, just within the margins of comfort for me. The test car was the S Line model with the 1.5-litre 35TFSI petrol engine and an excellent S Tronic automatic box. All told, with nearly €7,000 of extras, it came to more than €47,000, but you can get into an A3 for around €31,000 and an excellent one for €40,000.

A very confident car, it is composed but encourages you to be a bit more dynamic about your driving. You can tweak your suspension, but it always remains on the firm side. It's not overly fast but will do the 100kmh in 8.4 seconds while giving very good consumption.

Audi's figure of five litres per 100km seems attainable and colleagues have said they were getting 50mpg. This consumption is helped by a mild hybrid system in the test car which uses regenerative energy.

Inside the car there is very much a premium feel about the nicely angled dash and controls, as well as well-placed bins, cup-holders and transmission controls.

The touchscreen takes a bit of getting used to and really annoyed my wife, but as soon as she found out how to turn down the very loud parking sensors she was happier.

The new A3 is slightly longer and wider than its predecessor. The two front seats are comfortable but things get a bit darker and lower in the back, even reaching across to clip in the dogs was tight. But once in, I could see how two adults would be comfortable enough.

However, the luggage area, with about 380 litres, was very accessible with no awkward lip. I did like all the safety equipment on board, which makes the A3 a very reassuring car. It is also easy on the eye in an understated way. There are prominent crease lines, attractive LED lights and a nice shimmer across the surfaces which gives a real upmarket appearance.

I think I might be getting too attached.