Performance Tested - 2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Performance Tested - 2015 Audi A3 Long-Term Road Test

The 2015 Audi A3 is already our favorite entry-level luxury car. So how does it stack up against its competitors in a straight up performance test?

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vvk

Wow! I bet this car would respond fantastically to a set of racing slicks on an autocross course.

legacygt

Does the ATS belong in this group? Isn't it a bit larger and an RWD platform?

fordson1

So when you tested the GTI, you set the tires for full-load, standard inflation listed on the door jamb and in the manual, but when you tested the A3, you used non-full load, comfort inflation found in the manual only. Your testing protocol says, "Tire pressures are adjusted to the recommended cold inflation pressure found on the door placard and in the owner's manual," but that fuzzy wording allows this sort of fudging - and that's a pretty big fudge.

Understood that the GTI has summer tires and the Audi all-seasons and the cars themselves have different missions, but there are huge differences in skidpad grip, slalom and braking distances that are only partially explained by the different tires...the rest of the difference is due to the variations in your testing protocol...maybe the A3's front tires would not be heating up had they 41 psi in them rather than 36.

darthbimmer

I'm surprised you didn't tabulate your instrumented tests from the BMW 228 here. I looked elsewhere on the site and found it delivered 0-60 in 5.1 sec, 60-0 in 111 feet, and lateral acceleration of 0.88g. As good as the A3's numbers are, those are better. The M235's performance would be better still.