The Audi A3 TDI carries the updated styling cues seen throughout the entire lineup, and wears them nicely.
Let’s play a word association game; when I say
diesel what words come to mind? If you said: smelly, loud, sluggish, and/or boring you would be correct when referring to old diesels but you would be very wrong when talking about what is currently available. Need further proof of this? The Audi A3 TDI is here and more than happy to oblige.
If you could not tell, this is in fact a diesel-powered Audi A3.
The first thing I noticed when turning the key of this A3 TDI is the 2.0L turbo diesel comes to life not with a sputter and burble, but with a quiet purr. There is no old diesel rumbling, no old diesel exhaust stench and no old diesel noise. This new clean diesel technology in the Audi is run on
common rail direct injection and piezoelectric injectors for smooth and efficient performance at all speeds.
I addressed a few of the many words that spring to mind when thinking of old diesels, but let’s focus on the last one which was
boring. Gone are the days of pushing down the gas pedal, waiting 10 seconds and then the car is off in a manner that is the exact opposite of a hurry. This A3 TDI is good for 140 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque. Those numbers don’t sound like much but all that torque is available at just 1,750 rpm. When I step on the gas - the car goes. Once I am moving, the A3 also handles surprisingly well for a heavy FWD car. It is fitted with multilink independent rear suspension and speed sensitive steering. I can feel the rigidity of the TDI frame when engaging a few twisties on a local back road.
Audi always does stylish, simple, and sporty really well.
This A3 is equipped with Audi’s S-Tronic transmission. It is a dual-clutch system and can be driven as a pure automatic, or I can decide when to shift by using the steering-wheel mounted paddles, or by moving the gear selector over to the right and moving it back and forth for up and down gear shifts. The paddles responded quicker than I expected, but I still would have preferred a manual transmission. In full automatic mode the transmission wanted to shift through the gears a little quicker than I would have liked, but this can be solved by moving the gear selector over to the right and placing the car into
sport mode.
If you drive the A3 TDI, you will not need to also own the other items in the background of this photo.
The real hallmark of this Audi A3 TDI is the fuel economy. Everyone loves to brag about their fuel economy in their hybrid, so I am going to brag about my fuel economy in this diesel. I was
consistently hitting 40+ mpg every day on both the highway and around town. At one point my wife and I were driving back from Temecula, CA and she had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, the air-conditioning was on and I was cruising at a good clip -
and hitting 43 (forty-three) miles per gallon.
See!
The interior has the blend of sporty and luxury that Audi does extremely well. The front seats are nicely bolstered and alcantara/leather blend which looks good. The steering wheel feels great in my hand and the basic audio and phone controls are located here as well. Many folks might gripe at Audi’s MMI (Multi-Media Interface) system, but I find it to be fairly intuitive and I can find my way around it with relative ease. Thankfully in this updated version they have relegated the HVAC controls to an analog setup for easier manipulation.
The car looks great on the outside as well thanks in no small part to those stunning daytime running LED lights. It is a stylish wagon, though Audi calls it a hatchback because the word wagon scares them for some reason. The A3 TDI is a great entry point into the Audi family of cars and wears the overall aesthetic of the four rings quite nicely.
The Audi A3 TDI I reviewed was a 2009 European version. It carried a few goodies that we won’t see when this car comes to the US market as a 2010 model next spring. I was excited to try out the euro-only self parallel-parking system. It worked ok, but when going in reverse the A3 felt the need to do it as fast as possible. This was quite scary and every time I tried it I thought I was going to slam into the car behind me, so I interrupted the process by stepping on the brakes. Once I put the car back into drive, the system completed the parking and everything was good. It doesn’t matter at this point though, since we won’t be seeing this system anytime soon.
The Audi A3 TDI is a great small luxury car that can help change what people think about diesel engines. The car is quiet, comfortable, has plenty of low-end power, and can hit the 40 mpg mark with relative ease. Pricing has not been released, but I expect it to start in the low $30K range since the
2009 Audi A3 starts in the mid-$20K range and moves up from there.
For more information on all
2009 Audi vehicles and the
2010 Audi model lineup, visit
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