Audi A3 Sportback: design dilemma?
Is the new Audi A3 Sportback's exterior design too conservative? Audi Australia's Managing Director has his sayThe Audi A3 has long been a fixture in the premium small car segment, a segment Audi says it invented with the A3 in the mid 1990s. Migrating to the advanced MQB platform that also underpins several crucial vehicles in the VW Group range, including the Golf, the A3 Sportback is a much more involving vehicle to drive and chock full of cool features -- see our road test for evidence.
However one area of the brand-new car's evolution has divided opinion: exterior design. Is it too conservative in a segment that covets youthfulness and originality? Does it look too much like a copy of its predecessor? Can it stop the Mercedes-Benz A-Class's runaway success? We posed these questions and more to Audi Australia MD Andrew Doyle.
Do you think that some people might look at new Audi A3 and think "It looks just like the last one"?
"I don’t think so. There's enough of a design language difference in the car, especially also once you get in the car, that people will recognise that it is a whole new A3 from the ground up.
"Design, drivability and also agility, there's a big, big difference. We believe once we get people in the car, having driven it, they'll love the car."
"We talk about style, this [A3] style lasts forever without taking an outrageous, fashionistic type approach. Not to say our competitors have done that, I think their car certainly looks good as well, but Audi's design language speaks well and if you look at other models that are maybe older -- or even the previous model A3s -- they still look nice. And I think therefore what you get with a design like that is a timeless design that doesn't really age.
"It might not have the wow factor when you first look at it -- it is a little bit more than skin deep. When you have a close look at the design, there's some really outstanding styling cues. We feel the design is certainly very appealing and very sharp, but we didn’t want to go over the top. The design itself is also something that grows on you, particularly as you move closer into the detail of the design."
"Certainly the A-Class is doing very well in its early days, but we've only just launched our car. We've got an innovative launch campaign, we've got good supply, our dealers are all doing their national launches now, we've got one of the biggest out-of-home advertising campaigns.
"I think we're hitting the right target. It's a younger group but also it appeals to an older generation. I think how you approach that is the fact that we have a good, strong database of existing A3 owners, the car looks good, and A3 always has a good resale value too."
Will the six-month waiting list for the Mercedes A-Class work in your favour, considering you've got good A3 supply?
"I would certainly encourage anyone that is perhaps on a wait list to have a look at our car, why not [laughs]. But you know, that's natural if that happens. You can't always perfectly time a launch of a car, but I think now more and more people are hearing about the A3 we'll get some good conquest sales."
"It's what we would have always planned. We invented the segment in 1996, this is the third generation A3, it's a whole new model from ground up so we allocate appropriate budgets from a communications point of view to get the message out there."
You've previously stated the A3's goal is to lead the market, that means you plan to outsell the A-Class?
"We have our own sales goals and ambitions for A3 and our goal is to achieve that. But it's not all just about sales. It is a good litmus test sure, but the A3 has to be around for a model lifecycle. So it's not all about the first three or four or five or six months sales, you know.
"It's about the design language and integrity of the car, it has to be a long standing vehicle that will sell consistently in the long run and I think that'll be the case."
With its multi-million dollar marketing campaign about to hit full throttle, there's no doubt the new Audi A3 Sportback will be front and centre in metro areas, and it deserves to get its fair share of the pie because it is an accomplished car. But having spent a few days with the new A3 Sportback, from 30 paces the new car looks like the old one. There's just no getting away from that fact.
In a marketplace that thrives on innovation -- not just in a technological sense -- the coming months will be very interesting indeed. As Doyle aptly quipped, "May the best car win".
Want to weigh in on the subject? Have your say on the car's design in the comments section below.
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