I first wrote and published my review on my Audi a3 2.0 TDI Quattro over a year ago as it was the first car that I had owned that I really liked. I owned the car between mid-2008 and December 2010 and it was my first “grown up” car hence why I decided to treat myself to it. After falling pregnant with my boys I was rather unwilling to trade it in for a more family friendly 5 door car however looking back it really was essential.
***Exterior***
The Audi A3 TDI 2.0 Quattro has a very sporty look to it as the "sport" name may suggest. The Audi A3 model has a very sleek look to it anyway for a medium sized hatchback car however the 2.0 TDI Quattro model has some features which give it that added "sporty" look. For example this model has a more rounded shape to it and includes a rear spoiler and double exhaust at the back. This is sporty looking without giving the car the tacky "boy racer" look.
The car has body coloured bumpers and wheel arches with colour coded wing mirrors. The particular model has sporty 5 spoke alloy wheels as standard however you can pay extra and upgrade to more expensive alloy wheels. The front of the particular model has a very sporty look and has slightly lowered suspension being the "sport" model than some of the other models of A3 and the standard TDI models. The front of the car has front fog lights and a silver grill on the front of the car. It is possible to get the car in around 30 colours. There are both metallic and block colours. My car was a star grey which is a metallic colour. If you are buying from new to buy in metallic colours adds about £300 onto the price of the car.
I have had 3 door model which I felt has a slightly sportier look than the 5 door version of the same model.
***Interior***
The interior of the Audi A3 2.0 TDI Quattro is finished to a high quality. If you buy from new there are a variety of options for the interior and you can customise the seat colours, material and dashboard. My seats were black part leather which were extremely comfortable. Full leather seats cost around £800 extra when buying new. The upholstery inside Audi's looks of a high quality and is not overly patterned therefore is less offensive than in some makes of car.
The dashboard has a high quality look and looks solid and does not look overly plasticy. As the 2.0 TDI Quattro version is a sporty model the gear stick and dials are trimmed in chrome and the foot pedals are aluminium.
The car is very spacious inside for a medium sized car. The car easily carries 5 adults comfortably and the back of the car also has a lot of leg room not just the front of the car. What surprised me most was the size of the boot. I can fit four suitcases in the boot without having to remove the parcel shelf as the boot is large but also deep (however not as large or deep as my current Seat Leon). The BMW 1 Series has a boot half the size of the Audi which was one of the many reasons why I chose and A3 over a 1 series.
Although the car externally is quite sleek the car does not feel dark dingy and enclosed in the same some hatchbacks with a small back window are and the windows let in a lot of light, however because they are tinted the car does not get excessively hot or bright.
Standard Security and Safety Features Include:
-ABS Anti Lock Brakes
-ESP- Electronic Stability
-Front Seat Belt Pre Tensioners
-Driver Airbag
-Passenger Airbag
-Front Side Airbags
-Alarm
-Immobiliser
-Central Locking
-Isofix Car Seat Compatible
The A3 2.0 TDI Quattro comes with a variety of features internally including:
- Heated front windscreen and Door mirrors
- Electric front windows
- Air Conditioning
- Climate Control
- CD player
The gadgets inside of the A3 are very simple to use in particular the radio and CD player which is a main priority of mine. Built in sat nav is also available if you are buying from new for a further £600.
I also had rear parking sensors on my car. From new this costs around £400 extra. I used them sometimes but I feel in City Centre situations for parking especially when parallel parking the sensors are far too sensitive so I preferred to switch them off rather than have the sensors screeching at me distracting me from parking.
***Technical***
1968 cc
4 cylinders
16 valves
Power- 170 rpm
Max Speed 139 mph
0-60 - 7.6 seconds
Insurance group 14
***Drive***
The Audi A3 was definitely one of the best cars that I have driven and very comfortable for long and short journeys. At the time of writing the review it was my favourite car I had driven but I would say I do prefer my new Seat Leon.
Driving around a city centre the car for a medium car is actually very nippy which surprised me as I went from driving a small nippy Vauxhall Corsa to the heavier diesel A3 therefore I was expecting a car which took longer to pull away but this was not the case. Speeds up to 30mph are very easy in the A3 and the car is quick without the engine noise being excessive or loud when you pull away quickly. The car does feel nippy but if you drive a car of a similar size the A3 does feel more solid and heavy in comparison.
The car has 6 speeds (and reverse- I had to explain this concept to my mother). The car gets to 70mph very easily when you are driving on motorways and even when you drive in gear 6 at 70mph you can speed up very easily in this gear if you need to overtake. I feel that the car in fourth gear probably has the most power and you can get from 50mph to higher speeds (in excess of 90mph if you want to drive that fast) very quickly without excessive noise. I did a fair amount of motorway driving and being honest drive at a speed of around 80mph (probably 85mph) and the car is very quiet and you do not hear much engine noise. Although I can't comment on the top speed as I HAVE NOT driven my A3 at 139mph (or anywhere remotely close to that) I would feel the car is capable of this speed and the car can easily get to speeds of over 100mph without excess noise or the car rumbling in the way some smaller cars do at higher speeds.
Driving on long journeys theA3 is a very comfortable drive. I am not the tallest of people therefore I usually need to adjust the seat however in the A3 I did not feel dwarfed or right up to the steering wheel when I moved the seat forwards.
On the other end of the scale my dad is over 6ft tall and when he drove my A3 he felt he had plenty of leg room and did not feel squashed. It is also possible to adjust the steering wheel height. These are features which make driving more comfortable but should be expected of a car in this price bracket. ***Reliability ***
My A3 had around 24,000 miles on the clock at time of sale and I encountered no problems with the car. For a car I paid nearly £20,000 for I would expect this to be the case.
One of my close friends has had an A3 (two different cars) for over 10 years now and has found that they are very reliable. He did mention that after 40,000 miles it is recommended for the CAM belt to be changed in the TDI models, but apart from that has had no major problems in terms of reliability and found that even in his 6 year old A3 TDI it did not break down on him once or need to have any major repairs during MOT's or servicing. However servicing and repairs are expensive and Audi dealerships are much more expensive than other brands of car are for servicing. This was one of the reasons Mr Lools and I decided to get another brand of car when we were looking for a more family friendly car.
***Costs***
The cost of the Audi A3 2.0TDI Quattro is the biggest disadvantage of the car. To buy new you would expect to pay around £ 21,000 . This is one of the more expensive models in the A3 range as a basic model new costs around £17,000. I personally felt the 2.0 TDI Quattro was worth paying a little extra for due to the performance and the added features both internally and externally. In comparison to it's competitors the A3 2.0 TDI is around £1,000 more expensive than a similar BMW 1 Series model, and around £1,000 less to a similar sized Mercerdes CLC. I did not look at the Mercedes however did consider a BMW 1 Series when purchasing my Audi. The Audi was worth paying £1000 more as it felt it was far superior in terms of performance to the BMW (slightly nippier, more comfortable to drive) and internally looked a lot better quality than the BMW 1 Series as the Audi inside looks more solid and finished off to a high quality.
I bought my car (an 08 reg) from an Audi dealer which was 4 months old and had less than 2,000 miles on the clock and this cost £17,995. Included in this price was a three year warranty (up to 60,000 miles) and a yearly service for two years. I felt although this was a high price to spend on a car I got excellent value for money
Depreciation wise Audi's hold their price more than other makes of car. For a 4 year old Audi A3 2.0 TDI with around 30,000 miles on the clock you would expect to pay around £11,000. Therefore although this is a big investment if you decide to sell your A3 you should feel more confident that you have not lost a lot of money as the car has depreciated greatly in value.
The Audi A3 2.0 TDI Quattro is in insurance group 14 which is an above average insurance group therefore insurance is not cheap. I paid around £550 a year in insurance costs ( I'm probably medium risk to insure due to being under 25 but do have 5 years no claims), which is higher than many cars but I feel is reasonable as I paid the same amount on a 1.
6 Fiesta 2 years ago.
The technical specification on the A3 2.0 TDI Quattro outlines that the car does around 54.3mpg. I mostly drove around the town centre/ on duel carriage ways (and at times quite aggressively after a bad day at work) and I found the car typically runs to around 45.9mpg and to fill up the tank full I find this cost me around £55 which lasts for around 550- 600 miles (bearing in mind these were 2009 prices!). Mr Lools has a Vauxhall Astra CTDI 1.9 SRI and which I find I have to fill up much more regularly and a full tank in the Astra costs £55 but would last for 100 miles less at least.
***Overall***
The Audi A3 2.0 TDI Quattro 3 door is a fantastic car and I really enjoyed owning one It was a sporty looking, reliable fun to drive car which at the time I was very sad about having to swap for a more "family friendly" car with 5 doors! It was quite sporty but also more economical on fuel than other similar sized medium hatchback too. I also found that it was very reliable for the 20,000 miles I drove it for.
The main disadvantage of the A3 is the price; you will pay a premium for the car because of the Audi badge and all the servicing that comes with the car if you are looking for a car for 5 years or more.
A great car that served me well.
~~~~~~Review first published on Dooyoo 2009… updated 2011~~~~~
An outstanding car from Audi 
Cracking review!