Audi A1 1.4 TSI 2010 Review

Audi A1 1.4 TSI

What We liked
>> Fabulous interior quality and cargo area
>> Supple ride
>> Strong mid-range from the engine

Not so much
>> May be too generically Audi for some
>> Double clutch gearbox is expensive
>> Ride deteriorates with S-Line pack

About our ratings

As small as a MINI, as well built as an A4 -- meet the new small Audi that's got a huge job to do convincing premium car drivers that good things really can come in the smallest packages.

And there's no doubt that when it comes to quality and kerbside appeal the A1 has got off to the best possible start.

Order books for the eagerly anticipated supermini open locally in May 2011 when it will take on cars like the MINI Cooper. Audi is trying hard to have a model under $30,000 in Oz. The cheapest MINI is currently $31,100.

Three engines will be offered, two petrol and one diesel. The 63kW 1.2 and 90kW 1.4-litre TFSI petrol engines take centre stage plus there's a 77kW 1.6-litre TDI diesel. Manuals are standard but a seven-speed twin-clutch S-tronic transmission is available solely on the 1.4. It doubles as a rich (wo)man's automatic.

Start/stop and regenerative braking technology will be standard across the range.

We tested the 1.4-litre TSI engined car, a flagship model which is tipped to be the big seller.

In terms of design, the car doesn't match up to the sheer cheek of the MINI, but works hard to convince you that it's a fully fledged member of the Audi family, rather than a stand-alone baby car. There is the typically Audi grille, a steeply sloping C-pillar and a hatch that looks like a 60 per cent copy of the one on the Q5.

It gets headlights whose daytime running lights look disturbingly similar to the ones in the new A8, too, and they even have a front-facing camera that detects oncoming cars at night and automatically switches between high and low beam.

Otherwise, it's a strongly Audi family design, but they've followed MINI down the personalisation path with 800 possible exterior combinations to back up the 10 original colours. As well there is a huge range of different-coloured adhesive films to cover the roof arch and you can paint the side mirrors to match, too.

Oh, and there is also Competition Aerodynamics pack (for a car that will never see competition) and there is the ubiquitous S-Line package at the top of the range.

If there has been widespread customer criticism of the quality of the plastic material on the current MINI, look no further than the A1 for the cure.

There's a long, curved instrument panel that gives the impression of being impossibly wide for a car this size, four round vents that can be coloured as you wish and a pop-up 6.5-inch MMI screen for everything from navigation to the audio system. There is a pair of cupholders, coin holders and a general cubby hole, plus healthy door pockets and an unusually useful glovebox, too.

The seats look, well, younger than they do on any other Audi and rear legroom is useful for children and, on short trips, adults. They've given the luggage space more thought than MINI, too, because there are fold-down curry hooks on both sidewalls, an elastic holding strap on one side, a perfectly flat floor and four tie-down hooks. And it's much bigger when you fold down the rear seats.

Where Audi has filled the A1 with the signature interior quality you'd expect, they haven't quite given it the chirpy character of the MINI and, in terms of its performance, the 1.4 is clearly after the Cooper, not the Cooper S.

Even with the direct-injection, turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine sitting across the front axle, the A1 isn't going to scream off into the distance in a haze of tyre smoke. Instead, it's going to be strong and flexible in any gear, at any time.

The 1.4-litre engine has 90kW, so it's no weakling at high revs, but its real strength is between 1500-4000rpm, where all of its 200Nm of torque is available for heavy lifting all of the time.

That it gets to 100km/h in 8.9 seconds is really only half of the story, because the rest is about its flexibility, which is very helpful around town.

It's a smooth engine, too, and has a cranky little rort to it on full throttle blasts, with the exhaust note getting deeper as it pulls past 4000rpm and then yelling in enthusiasm right up high. But it's never intrusive and, when it's mated to the optional seven-speed DSG (or whatever Audi's calling it these days), it's pretty slick, too.

There's good fuel economy as well, with Audi claiming 5.2L/100km, and that number is helped by the stop-start system that isn't as smooth on takeoff as it probably should be, but that's about it for driveline grizzles.

There is a smaller, 1.2-litre turbo petrol motor if you want to spend less up front, and a 1.6-litre turbodiesel, with economy under 4.0L/100km, if you want to spend less over the car's lifetime.

Ride quality is a big issue around the cities and the A1 is surprisingly supple – at least in its standard form. And, given that there is a lot of the World Car of the Year-winning VW Polo underneath, it should be.

Its handling is clean and neat, rather than the edgy sharpness of the MINI family, but its ride quality easily surpasses the British car. Where that starts to fall apart is on the larger, 18-inch wheels of the S-Line models, which leave the A1 struggling to cope with repeated vertical impacts.

So all indications are that Audi has done exactly what we expected with the A1. It feels like every other car in the family and, in truth, it actually feels more like an A4 than an A3 in the way it copes with everything the road can throw at it.

It is beautifully built, it is strong and feels utterly bullet proof. But there's a downside to that and that is that, where the MINI stands on its own, the A1 could suffer from not having enough of a unique character compared to its siblings.

But for a lot of people, a sub-4m car that costs less, is dripping with quality fittings and feels like an A4 will be just the ticket...

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