Audi A3 2.0 TFSI quattro 2016 Review

While it’s a perfectly capable sedan, this top-spec A3 doesn’t deliver on the promise inherent in its $62,650 price tag. Despite standout features like unique, customisable drive settings and a flawless idle-stop system, the car lacks a wow factor, both in its aesthetics and its behind the wheel experience.

There’s a certain expectation when you’re buying a car above the $50,000 mark – at least for me. If I were to drop that sum of money or more, I’d be hoping my chosen vehicle had some kind of wow factor. One-of-a-kind design, for example, or a unique technology feature – even a super-comfortable ride – would suffice.

It’s not that the Audi A3 is notably lacking in design, tech or comfort – in fact, it ticks pretty much every box in terms of modern car necessities. It’s just that it doesn’t really possess anything that makes you feel like you’re driving a $62,250 car. It’s forgettable because it’s flawless, but not fun.

For starters – It’s a sedan. I’m sorry if this sounds shallow, but sedans simply aren’t trendy anymore. Why? There’s no real reason, but I’m guessing SUVs have played a big part. People want to feel more important than they are, thus they buy a big car to compensate for whatever else is lacking, or to monster people during the after-school pick-up. Meanwhile, hatchbacks are affordable, zippy and aimed squarely at a responsive target market: young women like me.

Sedans, perhaps unfairly, have been relegated to being an afterthought. People will buy them if the other body types are too expensive. I personally have no issue with driving a sedan if the manufacturer can get the design right. As an example, I recently drove a Mazda6 and found it to be streamlined and elegant.

I’ve always found Audi’s cars to excel when it comes to design but, in this case, I feel the designers missed an opportunity to reinvigorate the classic body type by making it difficult to ignore. Instead, the A3’s mid-size body underwhelmed me – I thought the front grille was aggressively big and the rest of the design seemed chunky and unremarkable – except for the fact the one I drove came in ruby red.

However one surprising talking point was the LED headlights, which quite distinctively wrap around the side of the car, either side of the grille. When you turn the ignition on, they strobe at you as a greeting.

“Oh, are they the cold white ones or the nice golden ones?” one friend asked upon seeing them. I hadn’t actually thought to check that yet, but when I illuminated them we confirmed they were the creepy white ones.

I was chatting to another friend about the car and he also asked, “What are the headlights like? Are they golden? I prefer golden yellow headlights, they make a big difference.”

So, apparently, this is a thing – headlight colour. And apparently Audi fails the friendly headlight test. In its defence, the evil headlights also happen to be automatic and very effective.

Once you’re inside the car, the aesthetics improve. The rear vision mirror is minimal and elegant and I thought it was clever how most of the air vents, dials and gauges mimicked the circles in the brand’s iconic logo.

The visibility is solid, as is the legroom, but the seats are frustrating to configure (they use manual levers to move back and forth rather than being powered) and while the boot is wide, it’s quite shallow. Having said that, I used theA3 to transport 10 fold-down chairs and a massive bag of cushions after hosting a function and it took all of them with ease, leaving enough room for a passenger.

There are leather seats and a leather steering wheel, although it has a flat bottom that – it could be argued – means it’s not really a ‘wheel’ at all. The flat bottom makes it a bit cumbersome to manoeuvre and calls to mind a funny piece I read by James May, in which he questioned mankind’s inexplicable desire to reinvent the wheel.

“What, exactly, is a man saying by having a steering wheel that is any shape other than the one Leonardo da Vinci drew around his spread-eagled man?” May asked.

The top-spec A3 I drove offered plenty of prerequisites for the modern motoring age, including – but not limited to – radar cruise control, a brake-hold function, satellite navigation, voice control, parking sensors, idle-stop and blind spot monitoring. It was missing seat heaters however.

Bluetooth pairing is excellent and the car even automatically marks its location in your phone after you’ve parked so you can avoid wandering around side streets aimlessly searching for it (we’ve all been there).

The control centre of the car is its LCD screen, which pops up from the dash and can get a little obtrusive – although you can hide it and get most of what you need on the smaller screen next to the speedometer, which I thought was nifty. The smaller dash screen also displays lots of useful information like the name of the person you’re talking to on the phone, the short-term petrol use and a mini navigation screen.

Speaking of navigation, I found the A3’s system insufferable. It’s fiddly to select a destination and while I tried using it several times to get me to my destination, I ended up giving up and using my iPhone’s navigation system instead. Not a good sign when a $700 phone outsmarts a very expensive car.

Annoyingly, I found the gear lever lacked defined positions, meaning there was one particularly awkward moment where I was trying to do a three-point turn as another kind driver patiently waited for me, only for me to put the A3 in park, rather than reverse. Needless to say, the other driver’s patience wore thin.

Probably the coolest feature of the A3 is its drive select mode, which allows you to customise the driving experience, like an understated version of Pimp My Ride (without all the hydraulics)

The three options are comfort, auto, efficiency or dynamic. You can pick one position, or you can individually customise each feature, like accelerator or transmission, which is something I’ve never encountered in another car.

The “Efficiency” setting aims to lower fuel consumption and seemed to make the brakes more effective. “Comfort” seemed to make everything smoother, “Dynamic” made the steering more responsive and “Auto” just felt like a regular drive.

Another feature I found impressive was the idle-stop system. After driving the Mazda6, which I thought tended towards a jumpiness in its stop-start function, I found the A3’s system virtually imperceptible. At some points I actually checked to see I still had it on because it was so quiet.

Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to decrease the fuel consumption all that much - my week of city driving clocked in at 8L/100km.

The A3 wasn’t all bad, but the price was a bit of a sticking point for me. At $62,650 I was expecting perfection. Instead, I got satisfactory with a few impressive extras.

To be fair, the version I drove – the A3 2.0 TFSI S tronic Quattro – was top spec and thus a bit pricier than the base model, but still.

I personally think Audi should stop resting on its laurels and work a little bit harder for my dollar.

Price: $62,650 (as tested, plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 140kW/320Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 6.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 141g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP

Also consider:
>> BMW 1 Series (from $36,900 plus ORCs)
>> Infiniti Q30 (from $38,900 plus ORCs)
>> Mercedes-Benz A-Class (from $38,400 plus ORCs)