AudimanVA

Its cheaper than a new BMW 3 series
Its cheaper than a new A4
Its cheaper probably then the new Lexus IS

And it will be quick, quattro(eventually), stylish, and affordable. Advantage audi. Although I may have to wait for quattro. Once it comes it sounds like a great new car. I want a car that will thrill me with acceleration just like my 1.8T chipped which creates quite a rush. Plus A3 is a new style and just looks cooler then your standard A4 sedan. I hope to see one soon. Maybe they will have one at the NYC auto show. Who knows? Anyway I hope SAL is wrong and the 2.0 comes with quattro in the fall. I am getting close to my timing belt change and I would rather sell then have to spend the 1k.

The Chef.

You need it in your weather. I know you want the car....buy you should wait...its the better choice for you. I appreciate and can understand your excitement though!

For you and other enthuiests case, I hope what I am hearing is wrong to about Quattro, but it just isnt I dont think. AoA directly said the 3.2 with Quattro will be here 1/06. So they know the plans that far out...if Quattro was here this fall, they would have told them. AoA only wants to keep things quite so long. At that meeting in Calif. I firmly believe if it was comming they would have said that...not to mention, its not like they didnt answer or ducked the question...they said straight up NO. So take it for what its worth.

As far as the A3 goes, no doubt, great car and you will def. see one at the NYC Show. I agree with you on design and all the great no things that come with a new Audi product....DSG, Skyview (for some) the Nav+/MMI with SD Card slots...FSI, etc...Audi really is doing what it can (Quattro) to make this a car geared toward the 10% enthuiest make up for any car brand and I can appreciate that. Gotta crawl before you can walk!

I like the A3 becuase of the hatch design, 5 doors...not giving up any interior size over the A4...the tranny option...the 2.0T FSI. The kind of power this thing will make with a chip/exhaust. The design, the INTERIOR.

All around. I could get the A4 or 3 series...I just flat out like this car more...it excites me more to have. The only thing that makes me lean to this car is the fact that I do not have the extra money laying around right now for a B7 S4 Avant. Otherwise, I would be there. (Still a hard decision though)


Bottom line, this car will be a great one...I think its going to make major waves...and I expect it to be in the Top 3 in the car of the year poles comming out end of this year...

The Turtle

and have had FWD in snow for almost 4 years, German FWD is better than most AWD of other cars, so I won't lose much, and I've never had quattro, so I'm not missing anything

A4ia

...but that doesn't mean they won't develop those plans over the next 6 months. The A3 is a risky car to bring over for Audi, which is why it's never been to the US before. It may or may not succeed along with the BMW 1 series. Although I would love to have one, hatchback cars that cost $25k-$30k may be a tough sell and Audi is limiting the transmision/engine choices because they don't know how many they'll be able to get rid of. There is no doubt that they will be reworking the numbers every 6 months or so and if the car is a success, I have no doubt that we will see more engine/transmision/drivetrain combos coming our way.

Plus, two more thoughts:
1. The person that said "NO" is not the person who's decision it is. They aren't lying, but they are also not in charge of that decision. Audi has changed direction many times before and I think it's silly to think that before the A3 even hits dealerships that they know what they entire 3 or 4-year plan for it is!

2. I work in marketing. Lets assume Audi knew they were probably going to bring over the A3 Quattro 2.0t in a year or two (if things went well) but had also determined through market research that a decent percentage of potential buyers would buy a FWD A3 if it was the only thing available. Do you think you'd tell them you were going to bring over the car in a few years (if it wasn't absolutely certain) and have them not buy an Audi in the near future, or do you think you'd tell them you had no plans to bring it over and have them buy one now?

I'm not saying that's what's happening, but the fact that they said "NO" now doesn't mean anything outside of the next 8-10 months. This is an almost new segment for Audi and for everyone (the luxury hatch-back) in the US and they are waiting to see how it goes. If it was a technical problem, it would be much less likely, but if it's just a marketing/cost decision (which it seems to be), anything can happen.

qfrog@work

it sounds a lot like something that can be had at mazda for a lot less... it also sounds a lot like what VW does with their golf.

Now a turbo AWD 5 door hatchback sounds a lot more like leading doesnt it or at the very least not following right? Or does that sound too much like subaru's wrx wagon/outback.

while it might be one approach to bring in the pathetic version first... I think it would be more intelligent to lead with the model that defines the brand technologies... AWD and DSG and the 3.2 VR6. But no... lets wait for vw to introduce their cars first so we dont steal all of their sales with a superior product.

A4ia

in the boardrooms at Audi. It costs more money to outfit more rather than fewer models and so my take is that for the short-term, they plan on essentially a basic model and a luxury model. Once they figure out what the specific demand is, they'll be able to cater more to that. They need to make sure there is a model that's as cheap as possible (hence the 2.0 without quattro) and a brand-enforcing high-end model, hence the 3.2 one. Everything else will be determined (in my opinion) by buyer response this year. I agree that you can get a lot of this quantifiable stuff (like HP, interior room, etc) with other cars, but personally it's the fit, finish, and design aesthetic that Audi offers that makes their cars so much more valuable. But the US has long viewed small cars as cheap and big cars as expensive so this is mainly uncharted (except for the mini) territory. You can bet Audi has run the numbers on this already and has a good reason for this being the lineup at US model launch.