Test drive Audi A3 1996 - 2003 hatchback

Yellow light

In the Audi A3 catalog, this color is called Tukangelb - in honor of the beak of a tropical bird. It is he who is especially good in the plumage of the Audi A3 premiere that has just broken the premiere.
A small sports car should be yellow - this is an axiom. So that, as in the beak of Tukan, this relative of the woodpecker swallows the whole fruit - fall into the black gut of the cabin and, pressing the pedal, take off on the highest branch of the forest. And let yellow with black - the color of the formula team Jordan, the Ingolstadt company won much more sports glory.
If you are not on the inside of ornithology, then if you please another causal series. The VW Touran and the new Audi A3 are the first cars built on the basis of the next fifth generation Golf. The yellow light, after which it will break into the green avalanche, has been setting the tone in the C. segment for not the first decade.
NEST. If earlier A3 was considered mainly a car of business women who did not need to scare those around them with overall transport, as well as housewives, whose husbands are not so gloomy as to give Nexia, today the company positions the model exclusively as sports. Hence all the changes in appearance. A wider eye section, a more rectangular radiator grille above the license plate and a massive lip with foglights from below. A hard horizontal line walking along the entire side and a white flashlight of a turn signal, like the S3, is perhaps that’s all. The designer, who switched to Audi from Alfa Romeo, proved that he was de Silva, but still Walter-ultimately the exterior looks conservative in German.
   
The same picture from the inside - the dust from the instrument panel slightly brushed off, the central console has become new, everything now resembles the interior of Audi TT. But the spaciousness became noticeably more. The car base has increased by as much as 65 mm, so now sitting is relatively comfortable behind, although in order to climb there, you must still take shape in three deaths, and a five-door A3 is not yet released. At the wheel, the landing became deeper, which, on the one hand, is more sports, and on the other - although by 10 mm, but the new A3 became lower. True, with long legs, it is still uncomfortable here-the seat pillow is adjusted in height, but is not adjusted by inclination, you have to sit out, resting with the right knee on a kind of handrail, it is not clear why connecting the central tunnel with the console.
Habits. Audi, as befits a solid company, offers a model with five engines, four boxes and a full -wheel drive transmission for top versions. In our yellow Tukan there is a 2-liter FSI-Mitsubishi, for example, a similar injection technology is called GDI, but it led to two victories on Le Mane. Of the six-traffic gearboxes proposed by the manufacturer, we were able to take advantage of the first four strength-the island of Sardinia, where the test drive was not rich. Switching is clear, but soft, without sports spinger. On the second you can accelerate to 80 km/h, after which 6 thousand about 6 thousand about/min. The cutter straightens the cruel driver, and the engine wins. When climbing the mountain, even with speed of speed, it is not only desirable to lower the transmission, it is necessary - on the bottoms this motor simply does not pull.
But the turns of the car passes flawlessly: the modernized Mac Farson in front and the four -leaf rear suspension - before there was a beam - they are designed to ensure the stability of the movement in the sports manner. ESP helped us not to fly away from the road, which has a standard configuration in the new A3. When we found between the hills it is not clear why the platform pierced by asphalt the size of half the football field and, turning off the ESP, twisted a wolf, A3 showed itself obedient and without electronic tops.
A version with a 1.6-liter engine next to the FSI-as a first-bit next to the COMS. He does not have seats with such hard edges, and the color scheme of the proposed bodies is more faded, and the bottom pipe only sticks out. Their 102 hp The car is honest, but does not provoke records. He does the exercises with the disabled ESP with noticeable rolls and drifts. Including due to the fact that the standard 16-inch discs are standing on this version and, therefore, rubber here is higher.
 
Feed base. Now in line - A3 2.0 TDI. Western and eastern car manufacturers do not particularly indulge in the Russian buyer with sports versions, especially equipped with diesel. Audi is an exception: we will have the entire lineup of the company, except not too popular A2. So if you are not embarrassed by the quality of the domestic diesel fuel and the fact that we have almost as much as gasoline, a flag with four rings in your hands.
Although A3 2.0 TDI is not only what the Germans call Tankstelle Freude - joy at the gas station. 4.5 liters of fuel per hundred that the car consumes on the autobahn is not its main advantage. On the bottoms, he pulls, feelings, even better than the FSI gasoline: he cut the second and immediately rested his vertebrae on the back of the seat. The car accelerates up to 100 km/h in 9.5 seconds, and the maximum speed is 207 km/h. No wonder this version will be available all -wheel drive, which will not be on the FSI, as well as the already known for the Le Manovsky supercar and the updated Audi TT, the DSG semi -automatic box, which is also not provided for gasoline two -liter.
The diesel, of course, is more jumper, but it sounds, we will pay tribute to engineers, very sporty. But in all the no -silent gasoline versions in terms of the engine, the whistle of air constantly acted on the nerves, as if the glass was not completely raised. This is not a subjective moment - everyone noticed.

 
Habitat. On the 3.2 Quattro version, they did not let us ride. The representative of Audi AG said that only two six-cylinder specimens were brought to Sardinia, and in order not to arouse a healthy excitement from journalists-the Chinese and Israelis were held behind the Russians-the top versions decided to restore in the garage.
In fact, the reason was slightly different. Generally, during our test drive from Ingolstadt, a dispatch flew flew, which lacked the mark of lightning! Urgently!. The engineers of the company was undertaken by the car's upgrade. Instead of 241 hp, which was announced at the premiere in Geneva, A3 3.2 Quattro now has 250 hp. Power growth was achieved due to the reconfiguration of the exhaust system.
However, this is not the limit. In 2004, they promise RS3 with an even more powerful biturbo. Recall that the S3 produced until this year has only 225 hp. And also, they say, there will be SUV based on A3.
Seasonal migration. The Russians will see the new Audi A3 at the August car dealership, at the same time the dealers will have a 102-horsepower version with 5-speed mechanics. Then it will be possible to place an order at 2.0 TDI, but only with front -wheel drive. Two -liter FSI and 3.2 Quattro will appear in December. The last portion of A3 will enter Russia closer to the spring of 2003.
Russian prices for cars have not yet been determined, but Audi AG, as expected, assures that they will not be very different from the amounts that they ask for the predecessor model. In Germany, where the orders for the car are already accepted, the price of the 102-horsepower A3 1.6 in the ATTRACTION configuration starts at $ 20.7 thousand, and for A3 Attraction 2.0 FSI C 150 hp. They ask for $ 24.3 thousand. Evil tongues have already managed to notice that exactly between these two prices there is a 115-horsepower BMW 316ti Compact, which is still a higher class car at a price of $ 23 thousand. However, Audi AG does not bother. Over seven years of release, Audi A3 managed to distribute 875 thousand copies. Among them - 148 units sold in Russia last year.
Text Dmitry Gronsky, photo of the author and Audi
 
Model/Modification Audi A3 2.0 FSI
Manufacturer/country Audi AG/Germany
ENGINE
Type/number/location of gasoline cylinders/4/in -line
Working volume (cubic meter) 1984
Power (kW (L.S.) at about./Min.) 110 (150) at 6000
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 200 at 3500
TRANSMISSION
Front drive
Mechanical gearbox 6-speed
Brakes, safety
Front/rear ventilated disk/disk
ABS, assisting electronic systems
Front and side airbags for the driver and passenger in standard configuration
Dimensions/mass
Length/width/height (mm) 4203/1765/1421
Wheel base (mm)/clearance (mm) 2578/120
Tires 225/45 R17
Mass weight/full (kg) 1275/1875
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 55
Maximum speed (km/h) 211
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 9.1
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 9.6/5.3
The price in Moscow has not yet been determined

Additional equipment (price in Europe)
17-inch alloy wheels $ 495
Acoustic parking sensors $ 363
Glass hatch with an electric drive $ 858
Heating of mirrors and washer nozzles $ 132

 

A source: "Autopilot"