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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Consider the current A3—that little hatchback at the back of Audi showrooms—just a toe in the water. A project. An experiment. Audi never expected big sales numbers from its little five-door in the U.S., instead only seeking to attract some young people to the brand while testing the temperature here for premium-badged small cars.
The sedans, though, are where Audi is focusing its efforts. A base model will use a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 170 horsepower and more than 180 lb-ft of torque, a new unit unrelated to the old 1.8T wedged into Audis of the last decade. (It’s part of the EA888 engine family, further details on which can be found here.) A slightly larger 2.0-liter version of the engine, omnipresent in Volkswagen and Audi products, and will serve up about 200 horses in the all-wheel-drive A3 Quattro. Diesel makes a return appearance in the American A3, too, and would you believe that more than half of the A3s sold in the U.S. in the past few years were TDIs? The new 2015 A3 will carry the latest Volkswagen-family 2.0-liter diesel four—TDI geeks, here’s its backstory—delivering about 150 horsepower. Torque from the diesel will probably come in at around 250 lb-ft.
From what Audi has said so far, it appears as if only the 2.0-liter four will be paired with all-wheel drive. That the base 1.8-liter engine and the 2.0-liter diesel will be front-wheel-drive-only isn’t a big deal, really—Benz will be selling a front-drive version of the CLA250—although the diesel’s torque might make hard launches a bit of a handful. Dynamically, we came away mostly impressed from our drive of a Euro-spec three-door hatchback, which bodes well for the sedan. The suspension consists of struts up front and a multilink rear, while steering is of the efficiency-boosting electric type.
Thanks to: Car and Driver
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