2004 Audi A3 three-door

[NFS4]

http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?port_code=autoweek&cat_code=reviews&loc_code=index&content_code=09339417

 

[Spooner]

yuck

 

[iwearnosox]

I like it.

 

[Ryan]

Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines Overall, the exterior/interior definitly gets a 10, but engine performance drops to a low 7.

Honestly, the only real thing holding me back from buying an Audi/VW is reliability

 

[FuZoR]

i don't like hatchbacks

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines

0-60-figures aren't that important in the end. You are not drag-racing with those cars.

 

[loup garou]

Wow, I really like it! Performance is pretty sad though...and I bet it'll be priced too high for what it is. :|

Gets great mileage though!

 

[CChaos]

Yum.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines

0-60-figures aren't that important in the end. You are not drag-racing with those cars.

Well, for a 148hp engine, 0-60 in 9 seconds is horrible. Even my 109hp 200SX beats that! If I'm going to be dropping 24k on a nice car, I'd expect the engine to perform a little better.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: werk
Wow, I really like it! Performance is pretty sad though...and I bet it'll be priced too high for what it is. :|

The article says $23,500, maybe thats the US equilivant of the german price.

On a totally unrelated note, I saw a riced out A4 two weeks ago. Big old park bench spoiler and Type R badging.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Originally posted by: werk
Wow, I really like it! Performance is pretty sad though...and I bet it'll be priced too high for what it is. :|

The article says $23,500, maybe thats the US equilivant of the german price.

On a totally unrelated note, I saw a riced out A4 two weeks ago. Big old park bench spoiler and Type R badging.

Yeah, they aren't too clear on what the actual price will be. I believe the $23.5K price is the US equivalent for the 3 door already on sale in Germany. As stated in the article, the US version will be a 5 door, so the pricing may be different.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines

0-60-figures aren't that important in the end. You are not drag-racing with those cars.

Well, for a 148hp engine, 0-60 in 9 seconds is horrible. Even my 109hp 200SX beats that! If I'm going to be dropping 24k on a nice car, I'd expect the engine to perform a little better.

Why would you need that "better performance"? So you could accelerate faster from traffic-lights than the ricer next to you? How often do you really accelerate the car so strongly that 0-60-figures become meaningful?

I just don't understand why people are so fixated on how fast their car can accelerate from 0 to 60mph, when in fact you will be doing that pretty rarely.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines

0-60-figures aren't that important in the end. You are not drag-racing with those cars.

Well, for a 148hp engine, 0-60 in 9 seconds is horrible. Even my 109hp 200SX beats that! If I'm going to be dropping 24k on a nice car, I'd expect the engine to perform a little better.

Why would you need that "better performance"? So you could accelerate faster from traffic-lights than the ricer next to you? How often do you really accelerate the car so strongly that 0-60-figures become meaningful?

I just don't understand why people are so fixated on how fast their car can accelerate from 0 to 60mph, when in fact you will be doing that pretty rarely.

Because there are certain things expected from a twenty four thousand freaking dollar car, and anemic performance is not one of them!

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: werk
Because there are certain things expected from a twenty four thousand freaking dollar car, and anemic performance is not one of them!

I wouldn't call it "anemic". Average perhaps, but not anemic. 12-14s would be anemic.

What to expect from 24k car? Luxury? Build-quality? Prestige? Audi has all of those. Good performance? Maybe but not necessarily. The performance of A3 is OK. Not earth-shattering, but more than enough for normal driving.

People who insist on having insanely fast cars are just compensating for their lack of manhood IMO.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: rbloedow Drool I love the A3, but I'm dissapointed by it's weak 0-60 numbers from those nice engines

0-60-figures aren't that important in the end. You are not drag-racing with those cars.

Well, for a 148hp engine, 0-60 in 9 seconds is horrible. Even my 109hp 200SX beats that! If I'm going to be dropping 24k on a nice car, I'd expect the engine to perform a little better.

Why would you need that "better performance"? So you could accelerate faster from traffic-lights than the ricer next to you? How often do you really accelerate the car so strongly that 0-60-figures become meaningful? I just don't understand why people are so fixated on how fast their car can accelerate from 0 to 60mph, when in fact you will be doing that pretty rarely.

Like it or not, the 0-60 time is an indicator of engine performance. I'm not going to rcing this car at ever stop light, but I would like to have a little power every once in a while, and it just doesn't have it.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
Like it or not, the 0-60 time is an indicator of engine performance. I'm not going to rcing this car at ever stop light, but I would like to have a little power every once in a while, and it just doesn't have it.

There are other indicators as well. How about fuel-mileage? 40-80 figures?

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: Nemesis77

Originally posted by: werk
Because there are certain things expected from a twenty four thousand freaking dollar car, and anemic performance is not one of them!

I wouldn't call it "anemic". Average perhaps, but not anemic. 12-14s would be anemic.

What to expect from 24k car? Luxury? Build-quality? Prestige? Audi has all of those. Good performance? Maybe but not necessarily. The performance of A3 is OK. Not earth-shattering, but more than enough for normal driving.

People who insist on having insanely fast cars are just compensating for their lack of manhood IMO.

Hehe...I agree with you on the last comment. But I wouldn't call cars that the A3 competes with "insanely fast."

I just think that in its price range, other vehicles have the edge in performance. Of course, the Audi beats them in the luxury and prestige, but wouldn't it be nice for it to trump them by offering similar performance? The GTI offers better performance in a similar vehicle for less. For about the same price, a WRX wagon offers much better performance at the cost of some luxury and prestige...but the same could be said about luxury and prestige as you said about performance, why does anyone need it???

I guess I'm just disappointed because I really like this car, but can't get past this one flaw.

 

[BigSmooth]

Looks nice for a hatch, but a base price of $33K for the V6 version of that car is way too much IMO.

We'll see what the US pricing is, but I don't imagine many people would go for the A3 if similarly equipped A4s were only a few thousand dollars more.

And a 9 second 0-60 is pretty darn slow. Speed isn't everything (see the Miata), but that's squarely in econobox territory. A $24K Audi hatch should be a little quicker than that.

 

[UNCjigga]

Also known as "Volkswagen Golf, for men"

 

[rootaxs]

Why would you need that "better performance"? So you could accelerate faster from traffic-lights than the ricer next to you? How often do you really accelerate the car so strongly that 0-60-figures become meaningful?

I just don't understand why people are so fixated on how fast their car can accelerate from 0 to 60mph, when in fact you will be doing that pretty rarely.

It's not so much so you can accelerate faster, but so you can keep up with traffic - especially from a stop.

A slower car would mean you'd have to go higher up in the rpm range to get the car moving. On a high-hp/tq vehicle, you don't have to do so.

Lower hp/tq wouldn't probably matter much when you're cruising. But from a stop and when passing is needed - every bit of power helps.