We enter our first submission into the Automotive Declassified Encyclopedia for June with a new manufacturer, Audi. Audi is a true American success story. Audi has systematically pulled themselves back from the brink and has earned back buyers ,not with incentives or discounts, but with a truly good product line, what a concept! Audi entered our country along with many other niche imports in the late '60's. The Audi offered a straightforward stylish package that was very intriguing ,when compared against the bloated domestic offerings of the time. Audi was among the first to offer the widespread use of four wheel drive in their products. Quattro became a name synonymous with rally racing and mountain carving transportation for the civilians lucky enough to pilot these steads. But just when it seemed Audi was on the road to stardom news broke that many Audi's suffered from sudden acceleration problems. The car would launch itself at full throttle when no one had a foot on the accelerator. Very quickly Audi suffered from negative press and unlike Ford, who owned a large share of the American road when the Explorer debacle broke, Audi was still a niche player and their status in our country landed on thin ice. Audi tried to make a come back by changing model names ,to put the past behind them, but Audi's new models suffered from horrible build quality, high prices, and poor reliability. Now at this point Audi could have gone the way of the Peugeot or Alfa Romeo, but instead they fought back. Over the next several years Audi recreated it's image, not a mere reflection of their former success, but an entirely new image that captured the mid ground between luxury and sport. Audi today now exhibits some of the highest standards possible in regard to fit, Finnish and quality, and although reliability has remained lower than Asian rivals, Audi under the supervision of VW A.G. has steadily improved reliability to it's average rating of today. To understand Audi better just think of it as the German version of our Buick's or Mercury's and you will be on the right track. Audi shares much of it's platform and running gear with it's lesser brother VW much in the way Chevy shares with Buick or Ford, Mercury. The Audi A3 shares it's platform with the VW Rabbit/GTI, while the A4 shares gear with the VW Passat, an so on up the line. This sharing of technology and features really works for VW and Audi as their collective "parts bin" currently holds a top position for aesthetic quality. Today's feature car the A3 illustrates the dictionary definition of how to share platforms while creating uniqueness. Although the A3 shares it's basic platform with the Rabbit it does so without anyone noticing. The A3 stands on it's own, not as a leather wrapped VW, but a sports tuned four door mini wagon that can blast the doors off many "so called" sports cars. The A3 uses either a 2.0 4 turbo with 200H.P. or a V6 with 250 H.P. and this power is mated to either a six speed manual or a fabulous 6 speed sequential shifter that gives you 9/10Th's the ability of a true manual with the ease of an automatic when caught in rush hour traffic. The A3 looks small on paper, at only 169 inches long, but in reality it features nearly the same room as Audi's larger A4 Avant, fancy speak for wagon. Pricing can climb quickly from it's base price of $25,340 into the mid $30 range ,putting it outside the price range of other entry level models. In all fairness Audi advertises this as it's entry model to get fresh blood into the dealers but in reality this is far from entry level. In fact it's nimble size and great power to weight ratio create a vehicle that can be bought for it's inherit qualities not merely it's lower price. All in all Audi has created a player that proves that product saves an auto company not spin. Audi in true German fashion has quietly disciplined itself to rebuild it's image by building world class cars. If you are in the market for a near luxury sports car that also has the room of a BMW X3 and has the all weather usefulness of AWD, then this A3 is 4u. The only real competition comes from across the showroom floor as VW's own 4 door GTI makes a compelling fight for compact sports car supremacy. To sum it all up the A3 offers mox with lux, a true wolf in sheep's clothing. The A3 therefore is awarded our coveted Golden Steering Wheel Award!
