Audi launched its most affordable car yesterday, the A3 sedan, and pleasantly surprised everyone with a mouth-watering entry price of INR 22.95 (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the base variant – and it’s a diesel! Audi has kept it simple by offering just two engines, a diesel and a petrol, and while the diesel has four variants to choose from, the petrol has just one.
Audi has also wisely chosen to bring in the A3 sedan and not the A3 hatchback to compete with low-selling 1-Series and A-Class hatchbacks. A pat on the back for Audi to have understood the psyche of the Indian customer well – the kind of prestige and value we associate with a sedan here, a hatchback in our country will never be able to match that.
And it’s not just the aforementioned cars that would be worried of the A3; every car and SUV in the 20-30 lakh price bracket would now be re-looking at their sales strategies. I suspect heavy discounts this festive season…
Anyway, back to the latest Audi now. The diesel A3 carries a 35 TDI suffix while the petrol version will see ‘A3 40 TFSI’ badging on the boot lid. The diesel engine is a 2.0-litre unit and puts out 141 bhp with the help of a turbocharger and 320 Nm of torque. Power is sent to the front wheels through a dual-clutch six-speed gearbox.
It’s the petrol A3 that gets a seven-speed dual clutch transmission to channelize 178 horses from the 1.8-litre engine to the front wheels. Yes, none of the A3 variants come with the Quattro system. The A3 is built on the same MQB platform that underpins the Skoda Octavia, and a few other VW cars too. This Audi is 4,456 mm long, 1,796 mm wide and 1,416 mm tall. The wheelbase is 2,637 mm and the boot space stands at 425 litres.
The petrol Audi A3 TFSI reaches 100kmph in 8.6 seconds whereas the TDI Diesel A3 does it in lesser 7.3 seconds as claimed by the company. And at a rated fuel efficiency figure of 20.38kmpl, the A3 diesel gives some much lesser sedans a run for their money.
Audi A3 Prices: All Variants
Here is a list of all variants along with their prices…
- Audi A3 35TDI Diesel Attraction: 22.95 Lakhs
- Audi A3 35TDI Diesel Premium: 25.95 Lakhs
- Audi A3 35TDI Diesel Premium+ (Plus): 29.95 Lakhs
- Audi A3 35TDI Diesel Technology: 32.66 Lakhs
- Audi A3 40TFSI Petrol Premium+ (Plus): Rs 28.95 Lakhs
*all prices ex-showroom Delhi
With the Mercedes CLA-Class still four months away and BMW‘s 1-Series sedan nowhere in the offing, the new A3 looks all set to aid majorly in Audi retaining its number one slot in the luxury segment.
