2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test - Introduction

Edmunds.com

2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test - Introduction

The 2015 Audi A3 is fully redesigned to go head-to-head in the battle of the compact luxury sedans.

Read the full story here

guy1974

The 1.8 is also a turbo charged four cylinder. Same as the engine in the new Golf.

bankerdanny

Shouldn't any car labeled as "luxury" come with heated seats standard at this point? Having to spend an extra $2,550 on top of a $32k base price is just wrong.

arcticbluetsx

guy1974 said:

The 1.8 is also a turbo charged four cylinder. Same as the engine in the new Golf.

The 1.8 is a great engine, but not available with AWD. It's a shame that the car isn't available with a stick...

guy1974

A luxury car doesn`t have to have heated seats. It starts with leather and HID lights. So not a bad spec for the base car.

christophermcg

In-Car WiFi is such a ripoff. We should be connecting our cars through our phones, not the other way around. The A3 base is nicely equipped though. Real leather is hard to come by.

kirkhilles1

Did you get the "Driver Assistance Package"? If not, that's a real shame as that $1,400 would give you the Side Assist, Parking System w/ Rear view Camera and Active Lane Assist. For people like me, these are KEY features that we are following the blog for. Not whether or not a fake wood looks good or not.

lucien4

bankerdanny said:

Shouldn't any car labeled as "luxury" come with heated seats standard at this point? Having to spend an extra $2,550 on top of a $32k base price is just wrong.

Note the $2,550 package also includes start/stop keyless entry, 12 way adjustable passenger seat and few other options. You can get the heated seats for $500 in cold weather package as well.

Most German carmakers aren't great value once you start adding few options. Not uncommon having to pay extra for it although the TLX has standard heated seats.

juddholl10

kirkhilles1 said:

Did you get the "Driver Assistance Package"? If not, that's a real shame as that $1,400 would give you the Side Assist, Parking System w/ Rear view Camera and Active Lane Assist. For people like me, these are KEY features that we are following the blog for. Not whether or not a fake wood looks good or not.

I can't say it enough: the perceived initial quality index is one of the most important parameters of new car evaluation as a real consumer product. Sure, you'd like to know that your washer/dryer works quietly and smoothly and you wouldn't care if there's wood trim (fake or not) somewhere on it because YOU DON'T SPEND ANY TIME IN IT (also wood trim on an appliance like that is dumb, but that's not the point). When you own a car you care about, you start to notice the things that might make you fall out of love with it. An uncouth trim piece can sour your whole experience. Also, some online configurators manage to get away with showing as little interior trim detail as possible (sometimes not even noting changes made in the build sheet), so I welcome Edmunds' attempts to close that gap without forcing me to go on a test-drive.

I want to know about ALL of it, and I personally think automakers need to supply fully loaded cars for testing NO MATTER WHAT. I feel that Edmunds needs to take super close detail pictures of every inch of the interior instead of 20000000 uncaptioned pictures of the exterior. You spend a lot of time in your car, so you should know everything about being in it before you buy it.

The mission of a long-term blog is to introduce a positive vocabulary with which to be objective about car buying, ownership, and driving. What's so wrong with that? If it's that a post about wood trim doesn't interest you enough, then you're counting on the wrong journalists to entertain you. Scholars these guys are not, but they know better than any of us about car interiors.

redskinsdmv

This should be an interesting long-term review, I personally don't like the styling nor do I trust Audi's reliability. Perhaps, this can change my view.

mercedesfan

These are very impressive cars and I'm looking forward to reading about this one. I do always have a slight worry in the back of my head about cars that are on loan from the manufacturer, though. Did Audi specially select this car for you for some reason? I much prefer when you guys just go to a lot and buy a car like you did with the CLA. I feel it gives a more honest picture.

patinthecity

Still find this car underwhelming. The original A4 was the answer to an entry-level Audi; it looked like a little high strung Boston Terrier ready to rumble. This A3 looks cute, but weird, like a Miniature Doberman.

tjpark01

I cannot seriously tell the difference between an A3, A4, A6, A8 in a picture. I know BMW and Mercedes cars look similar, but Audi cars look IDENTICAL.

kirkhilles1

juddholl10 said:

I want to know about ALL of it, and I personally think automakers need to supply fully loaded cars for testing NO MATTER WHAT. I feel that Edmunds needs to take super close detail pictures of every inch of the interior instead of 20000000 uncaptioned pictures of the exterior. You spend a lot of time in your car, so you should know everything about being in it before you buy it.

Look, I appreciate some of the notes and details, but I still disagree. Many of these entries are stuff that is pretty obvious once you spend a few minutes in the vehicle. What I'M personally interested in are things that aren't part of "initial quality". Things like maintenance costs (I had no idea what DEF fluid was before Edmunds, nor that dealers charged $140 for an oil change/tire rotation/filter nor that tires could cost $1,800 every 10k miles) are a big deal to me which is why I read the blog.

But, that really wasn't my original point. I wanted to know about the automated technologies. Not "spending" (its a loaner) $1,400 on this package would be a big mistake in my opinion as its crucial functionality for someone like me.

desmolicious

Early days I know, but it is interesting to see that this heavier, more powerful, AWD car is returning better fuel econ numbers than the MINI.

ctpaul

Isn't this car priced out at about the same price point as the Mini? Seems like a lot more bang for your buck here, even if I do happen to agree with a comment above that the A3, 4 6, 8 all seem just size variations on the same theme, much like the BMW equivalents. Is the "unique" styling of the Mini worth it? Or maybe it is the goofy graphics and interior styling of the Mini that costs extra.

chol92594

Even though the CLA is a bit more interesting to look at, it's hard to argue with the standard equipment that you get with an A3. Yes, it's $3000 to get the 2.0T, which puts the A3 more in line with the CLA in terms of performance, but you're also getting AWD with that as well. Plus, real leather, bi-xenons w/ LED running lights and LED tail lights, and a sunroof are all standard on even the base A3, yet all options on the CLA. Nothing ground-breaking, but it goes a little ways to make the car look and feel more upscale. If you don't need AWD, there's really no reason to not stick with the 1.8T if you don't need the extra power and you're trying to save some money. It's still a perfectly powerful little engine.

The only thing about the A3 that gives me pause is that it plays in roughly the same price range as a fully loaded GTI, while a fully loaded Golf would be a little less. Both of these cars have the same engines as the A3 (albeit without any AWD option, and the Golf's 1.8T does not have a DSG) and offer a lot of the same, more upscale features. I'm not sure if I could justify getting an A3 when a Golf/GTI for around the same price (or even a little less) would have more cargo room and rear seat space. I know that's comparing a luxury make to a non-luxury make, but at a low price point like this, I'm not sure if the badge on a car is as relevant when non-lux models would be viable alternatives.

darthbimmer

Edmunds already picked the A3 over the CLA 250 in their March 2014 comparison test, but I'm curious to read how it stands up over 12 months and 20,000 miles.

allthingshonda

Or you could get a fully loaded VW Jetta GLI SEL with the same engine, transmission, platform and most of the same features for about 8,000 less. The only thing different is that you can't get AWD, although I don't see the point in southern California.

chol92594

The GLI is a good car, but unless you're vehemently opposed to driving a hatchback, a Golf GTI would be a much better pick. The interior is better and it's simply more up-to-date than the GLI. I rode in a newer GLI and the ride was horrid. Hopefully VW made it at least a little bit better in the new GTI, but even then, unless you really need the power, there's no reason to not consider a standard 1.8T Golf. They're still decently quick and more comfortable than a GTI. To be honest, I don't really know why anyone would pick Jetta over a Golf when the Golf has more cargo space and is simply a newer car.