Audi Outsources The Dirty Job Of Buying The A3 Sedan
Various news sources across India are reporting that Audi will make that country the debut market for its A3 Sedan. It will be a good fit for that market. Reliable information on the vehicle is hard to find — Autoblog’s summary of the concept A3 Sedan from its debut earlier this year sounds uncannily like the incoherent moaning of a middle-aged woman perched on an unbalanced washing machine, clutching a picture of Taylor Lautner, and one Indian source can only report the shocking news that the A3 will be “priced to compete with BMW” — but there you go.
Other, secondary comments and information after the jump.
Presumably, this will be a transverse-engined car, perhaps sharing the underpinnings of the Jetta GLI. One Facebook commentator noted that the car was nearly the same size as the B5 generation of Audi A4, and since that car was in many ways responsible for saving the Audi brand in the United States, the prospect of bringing a similarly sized and decent-looking sedan back here certainly has some merit.
On the cautionary side, anyone who has ever priced an A3 hatchback understands that the car basically costs as much as a A4 of similar spec, while possessing the residual value of a Beanie Baby sans tag. If Audi wants to move this particular piece of metal, a three-year residual in the 58% range, along with a fair amount of cash up front, will be required. Otherwise, the American striving class, like the Indian, will continue to prefer the easy prestige of a $399/month 328i*.
* yes, I know the Indians don’t lease cars.
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And it's why I read Autoblog.
As cars like the A4 and 3-Series have grown over the years and have gotten more expensive, I think there's a big gap in their ranges. This new A3, in 4 door sedan form, is a much better car for the US market than the current A3. Other than the placement of the engine, it's very similar to the B5 A4. It may be a bit overstyled, but the proportions are good and the size is in the sweetspot of the old A4. Of course it will cost more than the Focus - it's an Audi - whether it's "better" or not. That shouldn't harm sales. There just needs to be a big enough gap between it and the A4. But as always, and like cars like the Focus, I'm sure you can equip it with everything ever created, and price it to oblivion.
For clarification the next gen A3 will *not* ride on the same platform as the current Jetta. It is the first of the new MQB line that does for transverse engined cars what MLP did for longitunial models such as the A4, A5, Q5, A6, A7, A8. It will, however, share much with the Gen VII Golf, due out late next year. The big difference is that MQB allows Audi to do things like use a lot more aluminum in the subframe, suspension and body panels, similar to the new TT. As for whether or not North America will get the Sportback, while the official party line is sedan only for us, I have it on very good authority that Audi NA has not officially ruled out the Sportback - they're testing the waters. The A3 has turned into a decent filler model for Audi, especially once they fitted it with the 2.0TDI. Packaging grew more simple over the years and Americans have started to warm to "premium compact" cars, which is the experiment the A3 was brought here to test. The next generation should see North America receive the cabriolet drop-top for certain, as Audi wants to plug the pricing hole now that the A5 cab is circa $50k. I have very high hopes for this car and if Audi can bring a wider range of models (wagon, cab, S-model, sedan) I think they'll be able to incrementally grow sales. According to my source, we should see the new A3 sedan stateside within 18 months. Whether that means we'll get the wagon sooner or means we'll have a drought for a bit was not made clear.