Picture Gallery: 2008 Audi A3 S-Line | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 |Discuss
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She was not particularly impressed with her friend’s purchase. Her feelings were: “If you are paying THAT much money, it should be large.” I also remember her saying something to the effect of: “We went to dinner and my knees were squished in the back seat.” To top it off, it turned out her friend had purchased an A4 Avant, not an A3. Needless to say she wasn’t in tune with that fact that there are small premium vehicles available, and there is a market for it. But I digress.
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This week, I have two white hatches in my driveway, the newcomer being the Audi A3 S-Line, powered by the same 3.2litre engine found in the A5 I drove a few weeks back, in a smaller package — can’t you imagine how fun this car could be?
My tester is also equipped with the six-speed DSG transmission. Personally, I love this wonder of technology, although I have yet to try one on the track (I will be soon); I can imagine it will be extremely invigorating and an absolute thrill ride.
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Other options on my A3 S-Line are the open sky system, which is basically a gigantic sunroof covering the entire roof, for an additional $1,500, and bi-xenon high intensity discharge headlights with automatic self leveling and Audi adaptive light ($1,200) and a few small packages such as the iPod interface and Bluetooth phone preparation.
The A3 2.0T model with a six-speed manual transmission comes well-equipped with a starting price of $32,300, while the S-Line 3.2L quattro model starts at $43,700. The options added to my tester bump the value to an as tested $49,350.
2008 Audi A3 S-Line
MSRP as tested (including destination): $50,250
For more information on Audi and the A3 visit Audi Canada
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You know, Audi makes a nice interior, and has been the industry benchmark for some time now, but I will say this: why does it have to be so darned complicated? The trip button on the wiper stalk, the reset button to change the menu, the computer menus that start flashing in your face randomly… okay, I will concede that once you get used to it and read the manual, they do work, but most other cars allow access to these functions much more intuitively.
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The A3’s seating position is spot on; front and rear headroom are adequate and leg room is excellent in the front. Leg room in the rear can be skimpy if the front passengers are tall, but for the average adult the seats are comfortable enough and leg room isn’t much of a concern.
Trunk room is fairly generous but the rear seats are inclined, which reduces some cargo space. From the back of the seats to the end of the trunk area depth is 82cm at the bottom and 70cm at the top, due to the inclined seats. Width is nearly 1 meter at 97cm, and with the seats down I measured 150cm to my drivers seat from the rear.
The rear hatch has an ingenious interior handle that stretches the length of the tailgate, making closing the hatch a breeze from any angle. Honestly, the A3 looks excellent parked next to my white Mazda3 sport in my driveway. I believe the Mazda is slightly sad from neglect, though.
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The A3 certainly does not disappoint in the area of sporty qualities; similar to the A5 I drove a few weeks ago, with power delivered to all four wheels when requested, the A3 just squirts away from corners. The stock 17-inch tires aren’t the grippiest, though and an upgrade to the 18-inch summer performance tires would make turn-in and cornering speeds much quicker.
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The DSG transmission is something that you really have to get used to. Up and down shifts are extremely quick and with paddle shifters on the steering wheel, gear changes become second nature. As an automatic transmission the DSG works wonders as well; my only real complaints are: when shifting to reverse it takes quite a while for the gear to engage and clutch slippage can be felt. It really does feel like someone is slipping the clutch when reversing, giving somewhat of a jerky reversing sensation when reversing on an incline.
I’ve also noticed this on accleration from a stop, with the combination of the power the 3.2L engine delivers and the DSG transmission, you either tip toe off the line or shoot off like a mad man (or woman). Certainly not the smoothest experience you can have in a car.
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As a result, I ended up with an average of 11.2L/100km, which isn’t all-together horrible. Actually it isn’t half bad when you consider the type of driving I was doing. What I did find odd was that even in sixth gear at 120km/h, the A3’s engine was revving around 3,000rpm, which seemed kind of high and rather loud for cruising in a luxury vehicle. For comparison, this is about 1,000rpm higher than the Audi A5 manual in sixth gear that I tested a few weeks back.
I did certainly enjoy the A3, but its as-tested price is a lot of coin, and there is a lot of good competition in the $50,000 price range.
*Rating out of 5:
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*Rating based on vehicle’s classification
2008 Audi A3 S-Line
MSRP as tested (including destination): $50,250
For more information on Audi and the A3 visit Audi Canada
May 30, 2008, 04:14:23 am ^^^^In Canada anyways...where everything "Audi" is ridiculously over-priced...
May 30, 2008, 09:09:09 am Interesting day 3 observations about the DSG. I don't notice the reverse slippage in my Jetta 2.0T, although the delay in engagement of reverse is there. And the acceleration from a stop is smooth except when coming to a stop and immediately accelerating, where there is a big delay due to programming in selecting 1rst, so on acceleration it downshifts from 2nd to first. I'm told Audi and VW don't share the same ECU programming.
Excellent as the DSG is, its inability to select the proper gear mid corner and exit was the reason our family switched cars and I bought a manual transmission car.
Which is why what stood out for me the most in this comparison test:
http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/topic,57742.0.html
...was that the Evo: " The Evo's secret weapon, however, is its transmission. It's always in the right gear. Unlike the paddle-shifted transmissions in the GT-R and the R8, the Evo's six-speed thinks for itself and maximizes the car's performance. Sure you can mess with its paddles if you want, but only if you want to go slower."
May 30, 2008, 10:22:33 am
No, non-luxury performance cars offer much better bang for the buck than luxury performance cars, wherever you live. It's the same as the Corvette-versus-911 debate that has been raging for decades, and the more recent GT-R-versus-911 Turbo debate. If you want speed and don't care about luxury, the Vette and the GT-R are the way to go. If you want luxury with your speed, they're poor substitutes.
Yes, an EVO will blow an A3's doors off on a track or a backroad. No one is going to deny that. But spend 8 hours inside each and THEN try to tell me that the Audi's higher price is just sodomy and price-gouging etc etc etc.
May 30, 2008, 10:52:16 am
A frequent complaint I've heard about DSG transmissions is when you're NOT driving it like you stole it, they're not as smooth as traditional automatics. I guess we'll have to see how they perform in non-sporty cars like the Mitsubishi Outlander to figure out if it's just VW/Audi's DSG that has this issue, or whether it's something innate to the design.
May 30, 2008, 10:59:30 am
Thanks for including these numbers.
May 30, 2008, 11:15:28 am
I guess the oposite to the Evo and STi discussions when people say that for 40K-50K you can get an Audi/BMW that has a nicer interior and then start comparing the two.
May 30, 2008, 01:20:13 pm
From an Edmund's test:
2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR
As-tested price: $38,940
Mountain road time: 2:06.91; Rank: 3rd
Streets of Willow lap time: 1:29.02; Rank: 3rd
0-60 mph: 5.6 seconds (5.3 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip)
Quarter-mile: 14.0 seconds at 97.4 mph
60-0 braking: 111 feet
Slalom: 68.9 mph
Skid pad: 0.92g
2008 Subaru WRX STI
As-tested price: $39,678
Mountain road time: 2:10.72; Rank: 6th
Streets of Willow lap time: 1:30.05; Rank: 6th
0-60 mph: 5.3 seconds (5.0 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip)
Quarter-mile: 13.5 seconds at 101.8 mph
60-0 braking: 109 feet
Slalom: 69.7 mph
Skid pad: 0.90g
The STI is a touch faster to 100 km/h, and a half-second quicker through the quarter mile, but on both their "mountain road" and street test, the EVO is quicker... substantially quicker on the mountain road, too.
This is from their recent "Finding the Best Car For Any Road" article.
Yeah, but the 135i will beat 'em both in terms of acceleration; has the cachet and luxury of the A3 and costs less than any of 'em. Unless you live in some god-forsaken tundra-land (like, say, Sudbury, for instance), then RWD and a set of snowboots will suit just fine.
May 30, 2008, 01:43:13 pm Quoting the article,
'There is the Mazda3 with full luxury package and of course the VW GTI — but that’s pretty much the same car as the Audi.'
A fully loaded VW GTI with DSG lists for $32,695, the as-tested price of the A3 $50,250. Quite a difference for 'pretty much the same car.'
I guess some people will pay anything for 'badge prestige', eh?
May 30, 2008, 02:54:08 pm
And, I'll wager, will get absolutely trounced in any real-world road. The STI is faster in a straight line than an EVO, but it still lost by a fair margin to the "slower" EVO in real world conditions. The 135i is a phenomenal machine, and I'd love to own one for many reasons, but it's performance vs. an EVO is not one of them...
May 30, 2008, 05:23:49 pm
'There is the Mazda3 with full luxury package and of course the VW GTI — but that’s pretty much the same car as the Audi.'
A fully loaded VW GTI with DSG lists for $32,695, the as-tested price of the A3 $50,250. Quite a difference for 'pretty much the same car.'
I guess some people will pay anything for 'badge prestige', eh?
That + a 3.2V6 + Quattro + other goodies the Audi has.
I'm not trying to say it's cheap, but it's not a GTI.
May 30, 2008, 07:27:59 pm Yes the GTI has the 2.0T you have to compare the A3 2.0T to it -- they are very similar in price at that point as well.
May 30, 2008, 08:59:04 pm
Maybe you're right, but the article DID raise the comparison. I went to the respective websites and priced a comparably-equipped GTI ($35,285)and 2.0 A3($43,000). The DSG transmission can't be ordered with the 2.0 A3 but is included in the GTI's price because that's the only automatic available.
Still a very significant price difference of $7,715 for essentially the same car IMHO. On top of that, the GTI at least looks like a hot hatch. The A3 looks like a mini-station wagon, as nice as it is.
May 30, 2008, 10:04:02 pm The S-Tronic is the Audi DSG and it's there.
May 30, 2008, 10:07:14 pm
Essentially the same car? Very significant differences in interior materials, sound deadening, seats, etc. Probably better sound system in the Audi as well. Yes, there's some premium for a badge, but it's certainly not all of that $7,715.
May 31, 2008, 12:51:46 am
You're right. of course. My bad.
May 31, 2008, 01:06:35 am
Essentially the same car? Very significant differences in interior materials, sound deadening, seats, etc. Probably better sound system in the Audi as well. Yes, there's some premium for a badge, but it's certainly not all of that $7,715.
That was quoted from the article. The A3 2.0T is built on the same platform, has the same engine and apparently the same transmission as the GTI. The rest of it's just badge engineering - you're riding the same horse, it's just a bit better groomed, and the A3 still looks like a little station wagon. Doesn't seem worth the steep premium over the GTI, but that's just my opinion.
May 31, 2008, 01:47:37 am
Essentially the same car? Very significant differences in interior materials, sound deadening, seats, etc. Probably better sound system in the Audi as well. Yes, there's some premium for a badge, but it's certainly not all of that $7,715.
That was quoted from the article. The A3 2.0T is built on the same platform, has the same engine and apparently the same transmission as the GTI. The rest of it's just badge engineering - you're riding the same horse, it's just a bit better groomed, and the A3 still looks like a little station wagon. Doesn't seem worth the steep premium over the GTI, but that's just my opinion.
There's a lot more to a car than just the platform and drivetrain. Maybe rrocket or articsteve can give an itemized list of what a Lexus ES offers over a V6 Camry? It's the same sort of thing.
May 31, 2008, 03:59:33 am
Essentially the same car? Very significant differences in interior materials, sound deadening, seats, etc. Probably better sound system in the Audi as well. Yes, there's some premium for a badge, but it's certainly not all of that $7,715.
That was quoted from the article. The A3 2.0T is built on the same platform, has the same engine and apparently the same transmission as the GTI. The rest of it's just badge engineering - you're riding the same horse, it's just a bit better groomed, and the A3 still looks like a little station wagon. Doesn't seem worth the steep premium over the GTI, but that's just my opinion.
There's a lot more to a car than just the platform and drivetrain. Maybe rrocket or articsteve can give an itemized list of what a Lexus ES offers over a V6 Camry? It's the same sort of thing.
If you looked at the spread between the actual cost of building a Lexus ES vs a V6 Camry, or between the A3 2.0T and the GTI I wouldn't at all be at all surprised to find they're pretty similar and totally unlike the spread between their actual purchase prices. A huge percentage of engineering and manufacturing costs are related to the most complex and difficult to manufacture components, which are the engine, drivetrain, suspension, etc and their associated control hard/software. Changing body panels and interior components are long-established processes and are relatively straight forward and cheap to do because the underlying platform in a lot of cases is left untouched or only slightly modified. Don't forget, most of these luxo-vehicles ar NOT engineered from the ground up and almost always are based on a much-cheaper platform. Every time I see a Lexus go by, I never fail to see the Toyota just under the skin. Cheers!
May 31, 2008, 04:51:16 am
Maybe you're right, but the article DID raise the comparison. I went to the respective websites and priced a comparably-equipped GTI ($35,285)and 2.0 A3($43,000). The DSG transmission can't be ordered with the 2.0 A3 but is included in the GTI's price because that's the only automatic available.
Still a very significant price difference of $7,715 for essentially the same car IMHO. On top of that, the GTI at least looks like a hot hatch. The A3 looks like a mini-station wagon, as nice as it is.
The apples to apples comparo is the R32 which I believe is 500 pounds lower price in the UK then the A3 S-line.
June 01, 2008, 02:54:55 am
Maybe you're right, but the article DID raise the comparison. I went to the respective websites and priced a comparably-equipped GTI ($35,285)and 2.0 A3($43,000). The DSG transmission can't be ordered with the 2.0 A3 but is included in the GTI's price because that's the only automatic available.
Still a very significant price difference of $7,715 for essentially the same car IMHO. On top of that, the GTI at least looks like a hot hatch. The A3 looks like a mini-station wagon, as nice as it is.
The apples to apples comparo is the R32 which I believe is 500 pounds lower price in the UK then the A3 S-line.
In the States, the R32 is $32,990 and the A3 S-Line is $34,915. A very reasonable price difference considering the Audi's interior materials upgrade and two extra doors.
June 01, 2008, 03:03:45 am
Essentially the same car? Very significant differences in interior materials, sound deadening, seats, etc. Probably better sound system in the Audi as well. Yes, there's some premium for a badge, but it's certainly not all of that $7,715.
That was quoted from the article. The A3 2.0T is built on the same platform, has the same engine and apparently the same transmission as the GTI. The rest of it's just badge engineering - you're riding the same horse, it's just a bit better groomed, and the A3 still looks like a little station wagon. Doesn't seem worth the steep premium over the GTI, but that's just my opinion.
There's a lot more to a car than just the platform and drivetrain. Maybe rrocket or articsteve can give an itemized list of what a Lexus ES offers over a V6 Camry? It's the same sort of thing.
Right, because when VW does it it isn't something as squalid as badge engineering it's the much more respectable practice of platform sharing.
June 01, 2008, 03:36:04 am
And if I went around this forum, continually tearing into Lexus for the ES and Acura for the TL, you'd have grounds to call me a hypocrite. But I don't. To the contrary, I just said it was no different than what Lexus does, so you have absolutely no grounds to insinuate that I hold VW/Audi to a different standard.
June 18, 2008, 09:00:42 am
I would limit 'badge engineering' labels to vehicles where (essentially) if you were to take the front and rear clips off, the balance of the body and interior is essentially identical and perhaps some mechanical mods - G5/Cobalt, Civic/CSX etc.
The ES, TL, and A3 may all have a common base - aka platform sharing - but everything else intrinsic to the brand is specific and distictive.
You'd never mistake a Volvo S40 for a Mazda 3, but they share DNA, for example, and at 5 paces the Civic and CSX are largely indistinguishable save the 'badges'. And Honda has done a great job blurring the lines in the badge with their "H" come "A" logo.
Not necessarily a Websters Dictionary definition, but my 2 cents.
June 18, 2008, 09:46:21 am
I would limit 'badge engineering' labels to vehicles where (essentially) if you were to take the front and rear clips off, the balance of the body and interior is essentially identical and perhaps some mechanical mods - G5/Cobalt, Civic/CSX etc.
The ES, TL, and A3 may all have a common base - aka platform sharing - but everything else intrinsic to the brand is specific and distictive.
I fully agree. If the trunk, doors and hood can be bolted to the "other" brands car, I'd call it badge engineering.
June 21, 2008, 01:07:32 pm The A3 is nice for sure, but you can get a nicely optioned Mercedes C350 or Lexus IS30 for the same price. Unless you really needed a hatchback I know which I'd choose...