Audi A1 Sportback 2019 Review

Audi has learned plenty of lessons over the extensive life of the A1. Firstly, it learned that only 20 per cent of A1 buyers asked for a three-door, so that’s gone, leaving just one five-door body style.

Secondly, it learned that it sat too far outside the corporate styling guidelines, so now it sports a Sport quattro-inspired nose and edgier styling.

And thirdly, it learned that its own engineering department can’t be trusted to knock out totes legal diesel engines, so they’ve gone, too.

Like the original Audi A1 before it, the second generation of Audi’s smallest model shares the bulk of its engineering hardware with the Volkswagen Polo, so it’s lucky that the new Polo is so comprehensively good.

It sits atop the Volkswagen Group’s MQB-AO platform, which gives Audi’s smallest player access to all the best mechanical, electronic and consumer stuff in the parts bin.

It’s gone from a clearly feminine target audience to a broader church, thanks to its more aggressive styling, and there’s even a 40 version that unashamedly harks back to the original quattro rally cars, with its white wheels and slotted nose.

With oil-squashing power shoved to the sidelines, the new Audi A1 relies on 1.0-, 1.5- and 2.0-litre petrol power, and there are no immediate signs of mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid or pure EV versions of it yet.

When it arrives in Australia around the middle of next year, the A1 is not likely to lob with the tiddling milk-carton motor, worth 70kW in entry-level form. There is some curiosity within Audi Oz about the 85kW version of the same motor, but it remains to be decided.

They have locked in the A1 35 TFSI, with a high-tech 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor and 110kW of power, and the Miller-cycle 2.0-litre turbo four, worth 147kW.

They run the gamut of Audi’s new naming structures, ranging from 25 for the base car to 30 to 35 to 40 for the 147kW car.

And then there’s the pricing. Audi Australia won’t lock in a price just yet – a lot can change in six or eight months – but expect it to be dearer.

“There’s an opportunity for the new design and technology to take a premium position,” was Audi’s spin, so expect it to cost more than its predecessor and probably even sell in smaller numbers.

Narrowly undercutting BMW’s MINI range, the outgoing Audi A1 five-door currently opens at $28,900 in Australia.

Everybody complained about the old A1’s rear seating, so that’s grown bigger along with the car, which now breaches the four-metre barrier at 4092mm.

That’s another 56mm stuck onto the back of the A1, mostly behind the front seats, and it takes it out to about a carbon copy of the MINI five-door’s footprint.

Even though it looks far wider than before, it’s an optical illusion because of the far lower roof height (1.41 metres) and it’s actually marginally narrower than before (1.74 metres).

The 2394mm wheelbase helps out with the rear legroom, in particular, and the handling as well, and the adoption of a compact torsion-beam rear axle allows for 335 litres of luggage space (up 65 litres) or 1090 litres with the seats folded down.

The wheels top out at 18 inches, courtesy of a set of 215/40 R18 Bridgestone Turanzas, but the poverty packs kick things off with 15-inch boots.

The interior is a mix of nice and whoops, with Audi bewilderingly risking its tech-focused reputation with inner door skins and the dash top made from hard-touch, brittle-feel, clunky-sound plastics.

It’s nicer to look at than it is to touch. Far nicer.

Get your fingertips and elbows beyond that, though, and you find an interior that’s pretty nice, clean, expansive and with plenty of high-tech touches. Just not nice plastic touches, just like on the Volkswagen T-Roc.

There are customisable interior and exterior design options, including trims and mirror caps and wheel colours and even the roof, but it’s in the cabin where it makes its biggest strides forward.

The interior theme is all new for Audi, with the central touch-screen for the multimedia unit coming in two sizes depending on the budget – though having approximately zero knobs to control it may have pushed the A1 out of reach for the less tech savvy.

There is the 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster ahead of the driver and the largest infotainment screen available is 10.1-inch.

The new Audi A1 has easy-to-operate smartphone interfaces, with iOS and Android compatibility, two USB connections and the option of Audi’s smartphone box with inductive charging and better reception by using the car’s larger antenna.

The upper models, like the 35 TFSI Edition One launch version, boast an 11-speaker Bang & Olufsen 3D sound system, with 560 Watts of output.

There’s bound to be a hot-poop S1 at some point, but nobody’s whispering about that just yet (though it’s a likely 2020 starter), so the 40 TFSI will be the hardest hitter for now, ripping to 100km/h in 6.5 seconds and reaching up to 235km/h.

And that’s not bad for a tiddler-ish car with 320Nm.

The strength of the range will be down in the 35 TFSI, though, with its 110kW of power and 250Nm of torque. It’s slower, reaching 100km/h in 7.7 seconds and stretching up to 222km/h, but it always feels strong enough.

It’s a nice engine, without feeling especially smooth or sharp. It feels strong, rather than urgent, and it makes no pretensions (other than its visuals) to be a hot hatch.

It’s walking a fine line between looking like a hot hatch and going like a standard/warm hatch, and another one between being a city dwell and riding like the development team never saw a square-edged bump.

The front end runs a pair of MacPherson struts, while the rear is a lower-tech torsion beam set-up, and there’s a choice between the default suspension setup and a stiffer Sports suspension (though the 40 TFSI with its 2.0-litre engine has adaptive dampers).

As hard as we looked, we couldn’t find the stock suspension on any of the cars on the launch fleet. And a fleet it was, with four different engine outputs.

So what we found instead was that the 35 TFSI’s ride quality was fairly representative of all the A1s on the sports suspension. And it’s unconvincing.

Firstly, it handles crisply, with the well-weighted steering leading the rest of the car merrily and accurately. The A1 points hard wherever the steering is aimed and changes direction with enthusiasm.

It’s calm on faster corners thanks in part to the longer wheelbase, and the pointy front end helps it in tighter corners.

However, our question mark here is with the ride quality. It’s firm, and that’s OK. Some people like it like that (particularly Audi development and product-planning people who have MINI in their sights). Some people don’t.

We tried both the 17- and 18-inch models and the improvement, if any, was scant on the smaller wheels.

Instead, while the body control is admirable in corners, the road noise can be intrusive on coarse-chipped surfaces and there is more crashing noise over square-edged bumps than there is in the Polo donor car. Never noticed it in a Polo, now that I think about it, not even in the GTI.

The set-up can change at the flick of a button, but not the core spring stiffness. Just the powertrain, the steering and the dual-clutch transmission’s shift patterns. (Though the 40’s adaptive dampers can stiffen and soften off).

Even the big engine doesn’t ever feel like it’s going to trouble the neck muscles, but it’s strong everywhere and revs willingly to about 6500rpm.

The 1.5-litre version is a neat engine, full of little tricks like direct and indirect injection, the surprisingly useful coasting/sailing function that slips it out of gear to save fuel and variable valve timing and lift.

That doesn’t make it the nicest engine in the class. It has a few nice patches but it’s not silken and it’s doesn’t sound sweet, other than in the upper reaches that few real-world buyers ever both with.

The gearshift is crisp and sharp, mostly, and the power-down is excellent, too.

That it also scores safety stuff like active cruise control, pre-sense for collisions, a parking system, a reversing camera and hill hold underscores the techy nature of the new Audi A1.

But be very, very sure the ride quality is for you before you ask for the sports suspension.

How much is the 2019 Audi A1 Sportback 35 TSI?
Price: TBC
On sale: June 2019
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder
Output: 110kW/250Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: TBC
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: TBC