What a Car - UK - (2020-04)

Basedonthesameunderpinningsasbefore,thenewA3Sportbackis verysimilarin dimensionsto thecarit replaces

whatcar.com April 2020 11

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3

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1 Instrument binnacle

and air vents look

curiously similar to those

in the Lamborghini Urus

3 Adjusting volume

involves circling your

 nger on a touchpad

by the gearlever

2 Interior quality is

perfectly reasonable,

if a step down from that

of the outgoing A

4 Like all recent Audis,

infotainment is controlled

by a touchscreen rather

than a rotary dial

Now, touchscreens might work well on a

phone or tablet, and they’re a good solution

in cars when you’re parked up. But on the

move, they demand more of your attention

than is ideal, so we actually reckon Audi’s

older solution (which is similar to that in the

1 Series) was less distracting. There’s certainly

more computing power in the new system,

though (around 10 times as much), and as

touchscreens go, the menu structure is well

thought out. There’s also a natural speech

voice control system which, during our brief

test, seemed to work pretty well.

For the  rst time on an A3, you can also

download an app to your phone and

communicate with your car remotely. Do this

and you’ll be able to transfer navigation routes

to the infotainment system to save time, lock

or unlock the doors from the other side of the

world, locate your car if you’ve forgotten

for a sportier posture. There’s also a new front

grille with a honeycomb effect rather than

horizontal slats. The daytime running lights are

housed behind the main headlight lenses, but

in dropdown portions where 15 individual LEDs

create one of three distinct patterns that vary

depending on which trim level you choose.

One of the best things about the old A

was its interior. It was so good that it genuinely

wouldn’t have looked out of place in a car

costing twice as much money and left you

wondering how on earth Audi could offer

such quality in one of its cheapest models.

Perhaps Audi’s bean counters have been

pondering the same question, because there’s

no doubt that the new A3’s interior doesn’t feel

as classy as its predecessor’s. You’ll  nd hard

plastics where previously there were denser,

softer materials, and some of the switches and

buttons feel more in line with the car’s price.

If we’re sounding a little disappointed,

that’s only because of the impeccably high

standards Audi has set itself in the past, and

it’s certainly fair to say that the new A3’s interior

still stacks up reasonably well for overall quality

against many rivals, including the Mercedes-

Benz A-Class. The BMW 1 Series is now the class

benchmark, though, even though it’s the most

conservative looking of the trio.

Audi says the new A3 has been ‘digitised’,

which in essence means that some of the

physical buttons and knobs have been

removed from the interior and housed in a

10.1in touchscreen that sits in the middle

of the dashboard, angled slightly towards

the driver. Note ‘touchscreen’, because the

previous A3 didn’t have one of those; instead,

you controlled the infotainment system by

twisting and pressing a rotary dial and a

selection of buttons between the front seats.