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Audi A1: Small car with big aspirations
It’s being called the Next Big Audi by the marketing gurus, and for the German luxury brand, the arrival of the A1 is certainly a big event. But that doesn’t make the Polo-sized three-door hatchback a big car. Instead, its relying on the cute factor, its premium positioning – and the increasing trend favouring smaller cars – for sales success. Fortunately, that’s not all the A1 has to offer. By DEON SCHOEMAN.
South Africans may not realise it, but Audi is no stranger to the premium small car market. Some years back, it launched an ungainly, eclectic hatchback badged the A2. It featured an aluminium space frame, just like the flagship A8, and was meant to offer small car buyers a sophisticated, premium package – at a price.
And it was that price tag, together with a shape that didn’t age particularly gracefully, that eventually spelled the death knell for the A2. It also meant a that the next small car from the Ingolstadt brand was always going to be more conventional, less complex and cheaper to build.
The A2 may have been ahead of its time, because it pre-empted the market’s appetite for small, advanced and eco-friendlier cars by at least a decade. But with hindsight, the cost of its eventual failure could be considered as school fees for Audi’s second small car attempt. And this time, the new small Audi does appear to be destined for success.
For starters, let’s confirm that the A1 feels every inch an Audi – and nothing like the Volkswagen Polo it shares some underpinnings with. But that’s not really a surprise, after all an A3 doesn’t feel like a Golf either.
Driving the A1 is to be presented with that typically solid, engaging dynamic experience that’s dictated by the Four Rings’ hatchback DNA. Which means it feels like a scaled-down A3 and not like a Polo clone. And of course, the design is unmistakably Audi.
That the A1 attracts a lot of attention is a good sign. And it certainly turns heads, although the novelty factor also plays a role, for now. Besides, this smallest Audi is not pretty in the conventional sense of the word.
To my mind, the best perspective is from the front, where the big, single-frame grille and LED daytime running lights emphatically confirm the hatchback’s Audi identity. But at the rear, the execution is a little more avant garde – even controversial – thanks to a tailgate with an unusual overbite, and tail light clusters that stand proud from the metalwork.The TFSI engine is one of the new-generation, small-displacement turbocharged units employed across the Volkswagen/Audi family. It offers the dual benefits of good low-down shove and extended output, thanks to its turbocharger, but retains decent fuel consumption because of its high-efficiency design and small capacity.
The dual-clutch S-tronic gearbox helps matters along even further in efficiency terms, although the shift action felt unusually hesitant in this application, compared to its usually snappy changes in other Audis. Our personal preference would be the standard (and cheaper) six-speed manual box.
Just like the styling, there’s good news and bad news inside the A1’s cabin. The good news is the high standard of execution as far as quality, comfort and ergonomics are concerned. The bad news is all at the back with the arc-shaped C-pillar severely compromises headroom. And the boot isn’t that generous either.
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