Audi A3 1.8 T > Reviews (20)

In March of 2004 I purchased a three year old, Y-reg Audi A3 1.8 Turbo-sport three door.

The first thing that struck me with this car was the build quality and feeling of being in a very solid car. Despite being a smaller-sized hatch, this car has a surprisingly large amount of front space and a boot that could swallow whole families. Yes, the rear seats do have less leg room than you would expect in a car of this size, but the front sports seats cause this. In the non-sport model, the standard seats do allow for exra legs in the rear. The boot can comfortably hold three sets of golf clubs and if I collapse one side of the 2/3 split rear seats, six can easliy be squeezed in.

The interior trim is fantastic, despite being three years old, this car doesn't possess a single rattle or knock from any corner or orifice. My model has the black leather trim with front sports seats. The leather hasn't faded in any way that is noticible to me, so either it hasn't, or has faded very uniformly. The air-conditioning is second to none and can reduce the inside of the car to fridge-like temperatures in mearly minutes. The single-touch electric windows and tilt/slide sunroom are a really great feature too, providing extra safety as one hand needs to come off the wheel for only seconds.

The onboard computer shows a few different read-outs. Two of which are current mpg and distance till empty. I find that with varied town/motorwaydriving i get about 350miles from the tank with an average mpg of around 25-35. If I am constantly hitting the turbo hard and accelerating (!) then it has been known to go down to about 18, but that's extreeme.
I bought the car with 27k on the clock and it was as good as new inside, still had that great new car smell, especially with the leather. The sport seats were still nice and firm with no softening or dis-shaping whatsoever.

Perhaps the biggest notable comment regarding this car is the pace. With the 150bhp 20valve V5 enigne 0-60mph is achieved in around 8 seconds on the nose and the car will still pull agressively all the way beyond 120 (max speed 148mph). Stomp the accelerator down on the motorway and the nose still lifts slightly at 90mph. The turbo kicks in at around 2.5-3k revs, providing an incredible note of refinded whizz. followed again by a subtle spin down swoosh. The engine note is also superb, remaining subtle but tastefully powerful enough to give a nice roar on ignition and acceleration. Conversly, the stopping power of this car is fantastic, front and rear vented disk breaks bring the A3-T to a pretty rapid stop. Accompanied with very adept ABS and an adjustable traction control (EPS) this makes for a very safe car in both dry and wet conditions. Even with traction control off, the car is set up so well that there is virtually no body roll or overstear noticible at any time.

My A3 is 'shining silver' with full black interior and leather seats. Overall, I have been stunned at the quality, drive and especially performance of this car and would highly reccomend it to anyone looking to change up from a smaller car, but doesn't want to go for a saloon or sporty small hatch.