Written by Murray Scullion Published: 23 December 2020 Updated: 27 April 2023

Parkers’ senior staff writer Ted Welford is living with an Audi A3 Saloon to see if the German firm’s most popular model makes as much sense as a four-door as it does the more popular hatchback

Update one: The introduction

Introducing the Audi A3 Saloon Black Edition 35 TFSI S tronic

I’ve never hidden my appreciation of Audis. Out of the six cars I’ve ever owned, four have been from the German firm. So I won’t pretend that I wasn’t anything but delighted when I found out I was getting the keys to a new Audi A3 Saloon for the next six months. 

Now the A3 might not be Audi’s smallest model, but it is the most popular – and by some margin. In fact, in the first six months of 2024, the A3 is the fifth best-selling car overall in the UK, even outperforming the Volkswagen Golf it shares many components with. 

The current-generation A3 will also always be memorable for me because it was the last new car launch I did before the Covid pandemic took hold in March 2020, and now four years later the A3 is getting its first facelift.

In typical Audi fashion, this is a fairly small update. A new front bumper and wider grille give the A3 a more aggressive stance, while there’s a revised bumper at the back and different badging. New colours and alloy wheels round off the visual differences, but you’d really have to see an old and new A3 side-by-side to tell the difference, and I still struggle to tell them apart, even a few weeks in.  

Elsewhere there are new materials in the interior, as well as a new centre console and improved standard kit, though underneath the surface little has changed. 

The majority of A3s sold are of the more conventional five-door Sportback, but I’ll be testing the rarer four-door saloon to see if it’s worth considering for around £600 more than the hatchback. Whether it’s the illusion that a saloon car is more premium, or that it’s around 15cm longer than the standard Sportback (hatch), but it somehow feels more of an upmarket car than the more common hatch.

Engine

‘My car’ is the highest-spec ‘regular’ A3 saloon you can buy, excluding the more powerful S3. Badged as the ‘35 TFSI’, it uses the Volkswagen Group’s tried-and-tested 1.5-litre petrol engine used in everything from superminis to seven-seat SUVs. Paired to a seven-speed S tronic automatic gearbox, it aims to deliver a decent balance of fuel economy and performance. 

Audi claims 0-62mph in 8.1 seconds and a claimed fuel economy figure of around 50mpg. It’s also in the top-spec Black Edition trim, which is a bit of a talking point because it essentially makes this A3 look exactly like an S3, minus the latter car’s four exhausts. It’s very much the ‘all show, no go’ spec, which is fine by me. 

The specs

The standard spec on an A3 Black Edition is generous, including sports suspension, large 19-inch alloy wheels, full LED lighting including Audi’s infamous ‘dynamic’ scrolling indicators. You also get heated front seats, leather upholstery, a 10.1-inch touchscreen and large digital instrument cluster. 

The only options fitted are the excellent Ascari Blue colour, derived from Audi’s RS performance models, as well as the must-have Technology Pack, which bundles together a head-up display, reversing camera, adaptive cruise control and an upgraded Sonos sound system. 

Over the next six months I’ve got lots planned with the A3, including a big European road trip. Keep returning to this page to see how I get on…

Update 2: Holiday time!

Time to throw the Audi A3 into the deep end… Not literally.

What do you normally do five days after getting a new car? Treat it to a first wash, buy some new mats, perhaps? Or in my case, decide to drive my ‘new’ Audi A3 to Croatia. 

Even as someone used to jumping in and out of different cars, it’s quite a daunting prospect getting into a vehicle you hardly know and set about driving it halfway across a continent. 

Each summer I endeavour to do a slightly bizarre road trip. Busman’s holiday and all that. Last year I set myself a challenge of many countries I could drive to in three weeks in my 2013 Audi A4 diesel, purchased especially for the job. As it turned out, 21 countries. It’s more tiring than it sounds, I promise you!

For 2024’s summer holiday, I decided it wouldn’t be challenge-based but would be a magical mystery tour. I knew I wanted to escape the UK for as long as possible, and when I was setting off and had to be back, but the rest would be made up as I went along. 

Onboard the Channel Tunnel, the A3 is just the right size for a normal carriage. If you’ve ever been on the train-under-the-sea, you’ll know if you have anything wide with low-profile tyres, it can be a recipe for some horrifically kerbed wheels. Thankfully, I’m not speaking from experience. But it’s no problem in the A3 as it’s narrow enough to not worry about scuffing those precious 19-inch wheels, which it must be said are VERY low-profile. 

The trip would take me into France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria… and breathe. My own personal A4 last year was utterly fabulous on the road trip, and thankfully the A3 was no different. Exceeding even my own high expectations. 

I’ve always been adamant for a long trip you want a diesel for its fuel economy and long range, but the A3’s mild-hybrid 1.5-litre petrol proved otherwise. Courtesy of cylinder deactivation and a coasting function that turns the engine on when it’s not needed (slowing down or going down a hill, for example). It’s more than happy sitting at high motorway speeds, too, and for hours on end. 

When I wasn’t in such a rush to get to the next destination, it comfortably returned more than 50mpg, and overall across the 2,600-mile trip, the A3 averaged 48.6mpg. That includes some particularly speedy runs on Germany’s unrestricted autobahns and driving in heavily congested cities, so it’s really quite impressive. With around 500 miles achievable from a tank, it’s ideal for cross-country or cross-continent jaunts. 

While the road noise from those 19-inch alloy wheels is quite pronounced and the ride quite firm thanks to a mix of sports suspension and low-profile tyres, I can confidently say I never once got out of the A3 even after hours behind the wheel in any discomfort. The extended seat base is also great if you’ve got longer legs like me, offering greater support that really matters on a trip like this one.

I was also particularly grateful for the A3 having the £1,495 Technology Pack added to its options list, with the Sonos 3D sound system proving a godsend for helping the miles pass by while catching up on months of missed podcasts. The adaptive cruise control is also one of the best I’ve encountered, not being overly keen to get on the brakes or to keep you dead centre in a lane like many systems. In many ways, it drives the car like a human would, which is high praise in my book. 

I was also grateful that ‘my’ A3 was the saloon bodystyle, rather than the Sportback hatch. Though the latter accounts for significantly more sales, I’m not confident all the luggage would have fit in the hatchback’s boot at least under the parcel shelf. I’m always mindful of never leaving items on show, valuable or otherwise, and being able to cram everything into the hidden boot of the saloon (and with relative ease) helped ease my mind when leaving the A3 parked up overnight. 

Any downsides? Well, very few. I did have a few gremlins with Apple CarPlay, usually after I’d stop at the side of the road to take a photo but with the car running. When I’d get back in with my phone it would have disconnected itself, and then wouldn’t reconnect without turning the car on and off. It’s one of those things you’d only notice on holiday when stopping for photos, and now back in the UK, it hasn’t done it again. 

It’s one of the best adventures I’ve been on, and the weather was absolutely glorious… with the exception of a Saharan storm that left the car covered in fine orange dust (see photo above). The A3 played a key role in the adventure and proved more than up to the task. So good I’m keen to get out abroad again with it before it returns to Audi…