If someone asks you to give one word to name a vehicle that combines luxury, speed, performance, balance and craftsmanship, what comes to our mind is Audi. The 2018 Audi A3 compact sedan we found at the San Joaquin Audi dealer left us speechless and gasping for breath and still its just one of the more simplistic offerings from the German carmaker. Its sleek yet modest styling, sports capability and yet refined contemporary saloon design with its aggressively crafted body and sculpted dual exhaust outlets implores sensibility and purposefulness in every accent.
The A3 comes in three luxurious trims starting with the Premium, that features the Singleframe Grille with Xenon plus headlights and LED Daytime Running lights, the Premium Plus that has all this and added S-line exterior appearance and fender badges for that enhanced look and finally the Prestige which gets Full LED headlights and LED tail lights as standard offering. All trims come in FWD and AWD versions with a turbocharged 2.0L TFSI 16-valve 4-cylinder engine on the FWD drivetrain that’s coupled with a seven-speed dual clutch auto transmission. The AWD version comes with a 2.0L TFSI quattro engine that transmits power through a six-speed auto transmission. Its quite powerful as a sport car with the 186-220 HP range. What remains to be seen of the powerful and stylish A3 is how luxurious is the interior.
Plush Interiors
The luxurious interiors of the A3 feature Dual-zone automatic climate control, a leather wrapped gear selector, a three-spoke multifunction steering wheel with tilt and a telescopic manually adjustable steering column, folding front center armrests and dual extendible front sun visors with vanity mirrors. The available Aluminum Interior Package enhances the look of the climate control vents, the door handle surrounds, mirror and window control trims. The Prestige takes luxury to a new level with its Ambient LED interior lighting.
Seating
Uncompromising in its upholstery and to go with its aluminum mistral inlays the A3 comes with luxurious leather seating in all trim levels. Nothing gets better that the 12-way power adjustable front seats with 4-way power lumbar support. You also have heated front seats and split folding rear seats. The front seats have safety belt reminder alerts and there are lower anchor for child seats in the rear row.
Infotainment System
The 2018 Audi A3 features one of the most advanced Driver Information Systems in its range featuring the available Audi Virtual Cockpit that’s a 12-inch digital information display that allows the driver to customize audio and navigation if present and even use with Google Earth as long as it’s available. Connectivity is achieved with the Audi Connect system with available Audi Connect Plus that helps you use 4G technology for in-car wifi which can be used by the passengers as well. The Prestige displayed at the San Joaquin Valley Audi dealer had a state of the art MMI Navigation Plus system with MMI touch and handwriting recognition system – which leaves us quite bewildered. The feature rich entertainment system comes with Audi concert radio with a 9-speaker system that has both CD and MP3 Playback facility.