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She is the queen of the category, but we were looking for the ace - voila! vehicle

2022-08-15T06:58:21.931Z


A new version has been added to the Audi A3, with a combination of a 2.0 liter 190 hp engine and dual drive. What do you get for the added drive and power and is it worth a quarter of a million shekels


She is the queen of the category, but we were looking for the ace

The Audi A3 now has a combination that is unique to it in the compact-premium category.

2.0 liter engine and dual drive.

But she also has one problem that she should have dealt with a long time ago

Kenan Cohen

08/15/2022

Monday, August 15, 2022, 09:46

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No gimmicks, packaging of elegance, sophistication and sportiness (Photo: Kenan Cohen)

With a reputation as "the founder of the premium compact group", the Audi A3 is a natural fit within this category.

The comfort of the category leader not only in its seniority (the first generation was introduced in 1996, the current one with us from 2020), but also in the position it has created for itself in the market and with the leadership of the category's sales, where it competes against the BMW 1 Series and the Mercedes A Class of all One of them has its charge, the positive and the negative.

This does not mean that the car that sells more is better, it means that its perception as a young luxury brand with a technological and advanced image, does not remain only at the level of the marketing brief but also permeates its customer base and in the group that buys cars of this type, it turns out that this is a desired image.

And a final side note on image and place in the market, at least in this world of "luxury" cars, this category seems to be quite resilient to the crossovers it's based on.

The spacing is very good, the quality of the materials, at least in the front, is also good (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

Something of this image is definitely embedded in its exterior design.

Not extroverted, without flairs and gimmicks, an infusion of sportiness and elegance with clean lines.

Using the MQB platform on which the other compacts of the Volkswagen Group sit, means that the starting point of the A3 is that of a not large vehicle, and still, in terms of objective space in the passenger cabin, there is enough room for the driver, passenger and those sitting in the back.

The front seats (in the manual direction, hello Audi for a quarter of a million shekels - emoji of someone putting a pie in their face) are comfortable and provide good support for the lower back, hips and shoulders.

Much of the feeling of spaciousness here comes from the interior design.

Audi's choice of a clean, high-tech look, which seeks to stay away from gimmicks in the passenger compartment as well, allows it to remain fresh.

The quality of the materials around the driver and in general in front is very good as expected from the company.

At the back, the business is already returning to hard and quite simple plastic.



The human engineering here receives a high score, with a clear, accessible and convenient arrangement of the buttons and data displays.

It has a small flaw with the relinquishment of a volume button in favor of a kind of touch pad that increases the volume with a rotary finger movement.

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The official figure for the wheelbase does not indicate an extraordinary margin, in practice it is surprisingly good (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

The equipment issue was a weakness in other Audi models, this is also the case here.

It starts at NIS 255,800 and still comes with non-split climate control, with rear air conditioning outlets, but no charging sockets or even storage space on the back of the seats.

Smart key, split climate control are an additional NIS 7,600, electric steering for the driver's seat (only), a panoramic sunroof, blind spot detection, a B&O audio system and 18-inch rims are already an additional NIS 22,000.

What is there?

10.25-inch digital dashboard, 10.1-inch multimedia system with Apple and Android compatibility, leather upholstery, sports seats, and also an ashtray and lighter (it's written in the specs, really).

In short, not exactly the wealth you would expect to be flooded with in a car that with the list of accessories already touches 280 thousand shekels.



The safety systems include adaptive cruise control, automatic braking with pedestrian detection and a reverse camera.

Square, efficient, useful.

No unusual or unique patents. (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

Already at the beginning of the movement it is quite clear that this car is calibrated on the stiffer side, but it is not a matter of discomfort or a car that slams on obstacles.

Those who are looking for a carpet that floats above paving stones - this is not for them.

Those who do not like suspension swings and also like the measured and restrained movement of the car body over bumps will be fine with this.

But the ones that disturb here the most are the road noises that penetrate in at an unreasonable rate for a car that wants to offer an upgraded driving experience compared to popular cars.

As soon as the road is not perfect there is an echo of the noise of the wheels on the asphalt, of the action of the brakes.

And it's a shame, because with the exception of this story it is actually very quiet as we were impressed by driving on a well-paved road.



When it comes to its drivetrain, two key things set this A3 apart from its other variants.

While they use a 1.5 liter engine with 150 hp, here it is a 2.0 liter engine with 190 hp and 32.6 kg, the second difference is the drive system, where in the 1.5 the drive is front and here it is double. Both use a gearbox A 7-ratio dual-clutch transmission drives the car.



Not that 190 horses on a modern car is something that requires dual-drive. Hot compacts release another 100 horses and still don't require dual-drive. It also shows in how it moves.

It has long since abandoned the 3-door configuration in favor of a mature and fair appearance (photo: Keinan Cohen)

The car is in a state of high grip, too high even I would say.

It doesn't have enough horses to really challenge the good chassis at its core.

Even if you try to undermine her in her face in order to squeeze some smile, some afternoon frolic, every action combined with the reaction of the double drive anyway impairs the sharpness of the steering, and just wants to lower maximum power all the time, but as mentioned there isn't much of it to begin with.

So in this aspect, in this version, it still does not present the excellence of the 1 series, which, even without too much power, remembers how to make a car that participates in the game.



And in the end you get a car that is a bit here and a bit there.

Lots of potential with assemblies that are a few numbers bigger than the one that should make them sweat - the engine.

One assembly that is not big on her and even on the contrary are the brakes, if you forget that this is just a dual drive and not the S3, they will signal that it is too much for them with a slight decay and the beginning of a whispered move.



At the end of the test days, the dual drive A3 showed a fuel consumption of 12.6 km per liter.

A business card of solid prestige, without gimmicks and pretensions (photo: Keinan Cohen)

Let's start from the end, I wouldn't call any of the Germans an "attractive deal"

Coincidentally, or not, I come to this A3 right after returning one of the new players in this luxury compact car lot, the DS4.

And it didn't take more than a few tens of kilometers until the differences between the two began to become more and more clear. And as the kilometers were accumulated, the insights continued to arrive also regarding where it stands in relation to other competitors in its category such as the Mercedes A Class or the BMW 1 Series.



Let's start from the end, I wouldn't call any of the Germans an "attractive deal", the BMW and Mercedes are too weak and the latter is also too expensive. If we put the symbols aside for a moment there are better sportiness, more comfortable cars, more spacious configurations. Still with the symbols aside, from the objective point of view , road manners aside, DS4 suddenly sounds like a dream deal.



With the emblems back on the table, the choices are clear, Mercedes will go to those who are looking for the accessories, the preferred margin and are willing to pay a lot for the emblem, to BMW those who are mainly interested in the image (no one buys the 136 hp version for a good time ).And here, the Audi A3 with the 2.0 liter engine and dual drive which is a good car at its base misses the party, with a price tag not cheap enough to be attractive, an unimpressive list of accessories and performance not good enough to differentiate it significantly.

It could have been a burst of power for the shekel, but these are a lot of shekels... (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

On the technical side: Audi A3, 2.0 liter dual drive (40 TFSI)

Engine, drive:

gasoline, 4 cylinders, double


displacement (cc):

1,984


power/rpm (hp):

5,000/190


torque/rpm (kgm):

1,500/32.6


gearbox:

double Clutch, 7 gears



Dimensions:


Length (cm):

434


Width (cm):

198


Height (cm):

145


Wheelbase (cm):

264


Trunk (liters):

325



Performance:


Acceleration 0 -100:

7 seconds


Maximum speed:

241 km/h


Fuel consumption (test):

12.6 km per liter



Competitors:


BMW 1 Series, Mercedes A Class, DS4



Price:


NIS 255,000

  • vehicle

  • Vehicle tests

Tags

  • Audi

  • Audi A3

  • a3

  • Road test

  • Road Test

  • Champion Motors

Source: walla

All tech articles on 2022-08-15

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