The new 2015 Audi A3 rides atop the same MQB chassis structure that underpins numerous vehicles from the Volkswagen Group, including the upcoming seventh-generation VW Golf. It's a versatile and well-engineered vehicle platform, albeit conventional—it's ordinary stuff, from the steel unified body to the MacPherson strut front suspension and four-link independent rear suspension. While front-drive is available as a 1.8T paired with a 170-hp turbocharged 1.8-liter four, most A3s will be equipped with Quattro all-wheel drive and a 220-hp, 2.0-liter turbocharged four in the 2.0T. Both engines are lashed to an "S-Tronic" six-speed dual-clutch automated transmission.
With the new A3 four-door's styling (previous A3s were five-door hatchbacks), Audi has gone conservative. The larger Audi sedan styling cues are there, but scaled to the smaller structure of the A3. And while other Audi sedans have engines mounted longitudinally forward of the front wheels, the A3's four sits sideways in the engine bay. The whole car has a tidiness to it. The A3 isn't pretending to be anything except the small Audi it is.
To get a youthful perspective on a car that packs a suite of fresh technologies, PopMech took the new compact Audi to that revered school in Pasadena, Calif.—the West Coast's training ground for future transportation designers. Our Art Center College of Design students noticed details like the aero-aware shape of the slats that make up the signature Audi grille, and the antiseptically clean interior design. But then someone noticed that this particular A3 wasn't equipped with the Multimedia Interface (MMI). That youthful take on the latest automotive tech interface wasn't going to happen, at least not there and then.
The students took a few laps on the roads surrounding the school's campus and quickly came to the consensus that the A3 was "nice" and "sweet-natured," but kind of small for five adults. PM's more expansive experience found the 2.0T Quattro to be more than that: The A3 is exceptionally nimble, secure even when diving into tight corners at high speeds, and forgiving as the engine's thick well of torque pulled through any missed shifts. This Audi can pull with 258 lb-ft from a mere 1600 rpm all the way to 4400 rpm. There's plenty of torque just below and above those engine speeds, too, and the transmission is smart enough that it's not going to make many mistakes. Even without the optional paddle shifters, however, the transmission is responsive to driver inputs and fun to play with. The electrically assisted power steering is among the better of its breed, and it's controlled by a perfectly sized steering wheel.
After our trip to the Art Center, Audi sent out a better-equipped A3 sedan that included the advanced MMI and Audi Connect systems. And they're dazzling. Using an NVDIA graphics processor, the center screen in any A3 becomes a precise, three-dimensional instrument for knowing where the car is, where it's going, and, well, the world's accumulated knowledge.
All this integrates seamlessly with any smartphone. That's common—the trick here is an in-car 4G LTE data connection through AT&T that integrates Google Earth and Google Street View, as well as up-to-the-second traffic information, with the GPS navigation system. There's also a text-to-speech feature that allows on-the-road access to email and texts, and a car-wide Wi-Fi connection that allows tablets and other devices to access the Web while the car is traveling. Throw an iPad at your 11-year-old son and he can play Minecraft instead of rub-burning noogies into his 13-year-old sister's head.
There's a temptation to rue the electrification of the automobile—to grow nostalgic for a time when cars required regular lubrication more than updated apps. But that misses what cars have always been about: connecting people with other people and other places. The Audi Connect-ed, MMI-equipped A3 takes that to a new, better level.
With a starting price of $30,795, including an $895 destination charge, the base A3 is a fine car; to get the 2.0T with all of Audi's future-think connectivity will take at least $36,045. Add a few more options and it's an easy trip to $40,000. The future has, after all, never been cheap.
John Pearley Huffman has been writing about cars since 1990 and is getting okay at it. Besides Car and Driver, his work has appeared in the New York Times and more than 100 automotive publications and websites. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, he still lives near that campus with his wife and two children. He owns a pair of Toyota Tundras and two Siberian huskies. He used to have a Nova and a Camaro.
