Test drive Audi A3 2003 - 2008 hatchback

Gorgeous minimum

Our acquaintance: Audi A3 1.6
Audi A3 was first represented in Geneva in the spring of 2003.
The body option is still one - a three -door hatchback. Engines: gasoline 1.6 liters, 75 kW/102 l. With.; 2 l, 110 kW/150 l. With. with direct injection and V-shaped six 3.2 liters, 177 kW/241 l. With. Diesel with direct injection and turbocharged 1.9 liters, 77 kW/105 liters. p., 103 kW/140 l. With.
Cars with all engines are currently delivered to Russia, except 3.2 liters. Price - from $ 25,000.

The motto is decorating modesty today not in fashion. Leather designers climb over so that the result of their work will hold attention. And in fact? Yes, the appearance of the cars is sometimes outstanding. But the reaction of the public, especially at first, is not unconditionally approving. However, everyone can offend the artist ...
You can’t count the new A3 A3 in any way for the victims of design experiments. His appearance, perhaps, is even too conservative. Narrow, squinted headlights, powerful selecting wheeled niches, squatwater silhouette, a modest grille of the radiator - all this seemed to return from the past decade. However, not all: the glasses of headlights and lanterns became transparent, a stylish line on the side of the sidewall, a fashionable relief threshold, original, but quite convenient rear -view mirrors appeared. Ba, now the right is also big! It seems that in the German zoos among the bears, mor began ...

The athlete pleases the spaciousness
The current A3 is wider and below its predecessor. Noticeably (65 mm) was added to the wheelbase. So, has become more spacious, the salon? After all, cars built on the Volkswagen IV platform have always been crowded in the back seat. This drawback is overcome: the author was placed without problems behind an almost two-meter colleague-photograph. And when, for the shooting of the panel of the instrument, Pan The tripod was relocated in the back seat, he found it not without surprise that he could, albeit close, would sit down behind himself. Of course, the convenience of landing in a three -door hatchback is always relative, but the length of the Audi A3 interior is a much more full -fledged four -seater car than, for example, a completely family skoda Octavia. The three of the back? Formally, everything is observed: the third superfluous has its headrest, an inertial belt and ... a hefty tunnel, because of which he is forced to sit with his legs wide apart.
So, despite the stunned sports in the interior and the appearance of the machine, to call Audi A3 tightly turned the tongue. True, the finish in dark colors does not add visual spoke, but this is a matter of taste.

Where will we go?
If I had my will, I would have transferred the editorial office somewhere in the non -tights of the Moscow Region - in the eternal traffic jams of the city, you involuntarily forget that the car has been created to drive it ... Although you get a lot of impressions: from excellent sound insulation, a luxurious audio system with a six -dingylum hidden in a glove compartment Chainger. Mindful of the universal struggle for ecology, we began to pay more attention to the operation of engines in transition modes - other victims of the Euro IV Euro IV require a virtuoso ownership of the clutch pedal. Our ward, although he did not show an instant reaction to the gas pedal, touched quite confidently. The short first gear allows you to reduce it briskly, and the exact, verified moves of the lever is to turn on the following on time. So, having got out of the bustle of the city, it is worth crushing the right pedal stronger. From a place on the first - up to 50 km/h, the second gear - nearly 90, the third - almost up to 140, then the modest volume of the engine begins to affect. The speedometer dial is generously marked up to 260 km/h - eh, not with this engine ... although the 1.6 -liter eight -clapstone confidently spins to 6400 rpm and pulls well from 1,500.
The series of steep turns at first makes you reinsure - winter in the yard, and although the asphalt is clean, it is worth going more carefully on winter tires. However, this is more psychological than a technical problem - the habit of making a stock on soft and supple winter tires. Shod in impressive (206/55R16) Pirelli-Snowport-210, Audi A3 confidently writes the arc of a turn. High -speed winter tires created for German autobahns and Italian highways are a very pleasant compromise for the city and the suburbs, where snow is more likely surprise than everyday life. The steering wheel, which makes three turns from the stop to the stop, will not be called fast at the present time, but the sensitivity of control does not strain at high speeds, and in close turns you do not have to use speed steering skills.
So far, the irregularities of the road surface are not distinguished from the general background, there are no complaints about the suspension. But gross coating defects, on the contrary, are felt with shocks and acoustic design. But the controllability at a traditionally high level - Audi A3 is not embarrassed by either waves or washing board - in any case, the suspension provides dense wheel contact with the road.

Amazing nearby
The car market is becoming increasingly similar to the mobile phones market. Bright, with an unusual design, youth models - caliphs for an hour. Only a few months later they are pushed to the shelf marked the sale. And at first glance, business appliances will be in price until they are technically outdated. Not surprising: the fashion is quick, windy and sometimes stupid, and the style ... it is either there, or it is not.
By the way, Audi really appreciates his style - even with the most modest engine, the basic A3 will cost at least $ 24,927 in the ATTRACTION configuration; Richer Ambition, Ambiente - up to $ 29 577. And this is excluding additional equipment with which our 1.6 -liter would receive a price tag of $ 32,433. Oh, this euro ... (now Audi puts prices in dollars at the rate of 1, 19 dollars for 1 euros at the time of delivery of the number.) But soon a 3.2-liter gasoline engine with all-wheel drive transmission will appear, and the 140-horsepower two-liter diesel with excellent dynamics with more than modest fuel consumption will be on sale.
So the 1.6 -liter Audi A3 is a compromise between price and prestige. This chassis asks for a more temperamental motor, but with it the price deserves the most temperamental expressions. However, these are financial problems that are not customary to recall in a circle where prestige is appreciated.

SUMMARY
+ Effective brakes, excellent handling, comfortable suspension on small irregularities, good sound insulation, informative steering wheel.
- modest dynamic capabilities, weak comfort of the suspension on sharp irregularities, the noise of the engine at high speeds, vibration on pedals, and a perok reserves.
Anatoly Fomin. Photo: George Sadkov
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"