Zetetic

"Which came first - The chicken or the egg?!"

I often joke with people that my new A3 is just a "Stretch GTI". When I brought up the many commonalities between the A3 and the GTI with my Audi sales rep, he strongly assured me that Audi developed the A3 platform FIRST and then VW borrowed the technology for the GTI. I'm not so sure about that.

Does anyone know the real story for the development of the A3?

AutoUnionQ7

According to wikipedia, the MK2 A3 (the one we get in the US) actually came out in Europe in 2003, so it's already on its 6th year of production, but the Mk5 Golf came out in 2005, and it's only in its 3rd year.


edit: turns out, both cars came out in 2003, so they came around the same time. The Mk5 Golf didn't come to the US until MY06, and the Mk2 A3 didn't come in the US until MY06, so they're both from the same period.

divo_2.0T

I usually just lie and say the Lamborghini Gallardo came first.

JimR

I'd bet serious money the engineers and product planners from both were involved from the beginning. That's how it works. This stuff doesn't happen by accident.

divo_2.0T

Looks like the A3 came before the GTI...

Current and expected PQ35 platform cars (Typ numbers in brackets):

* 2003 Audi A3 Mk2 (8P)
* 2003 Volkswagen Touran (1T)
* 2004 Volkswagen Caddy (2K)
* 2004 SEAT Altea (5P)
* 2004 Volkswagen Golf / GTI / R32 / Rabbit Mk5 (1K)
* 2005 Å*koda Octavia Mk2 (1Z)
* 2005 Volkswagen Golf Plus (1K)
* 2005 SEAT Toledo Mk3 (5P)
* 2006 Volkswagen Jetta / Vento / Bora Mk5 (1K)
* 2006 SEAT León Mk2 (1P)

* 2008 Volkswagen Tiguan (5N)
* 2008 Volkswagen Scirocco (13)
* 2009 Audi Q3

PDXA4

^^^Yep this is correct...

JimR

It shows the first year of the 8P A3 2004 as for "Local Market", which is Europe. 2003 is 8L. This does not jive with the Wiki page.

For the MkV Golf, ETKA shows 2005 as the first year (1K); 2004 is 1J. Wiki agrees with this.

I'll take ETKA over Wiki.

JimR

I'm not so sure.

divo_2.0T

I'd take the homeless guy down the street before I'd take wiki. just pointing what I found.

PDXA4

Keep in mind that this is a VAG product, so the chassis/platform was designed to be used on several brands from the beginning.

The A3 was the first release of the new chassis, the Golf followed later...But it may have been 2002 when the A3 came out in Europe...

The other non-US sold cars are pretty much in the right order...