The new 2014/2015 Audi A3/S3 Sedan debuted this week as part of the New York Auto Show and my Facebook feed is full of people sharing links to this car – the response is overwhelmingly positive by many of my peers, and I couldn’t agree more. Personally, I had been growing more and more concerned that the A4 platform was getting too big, yearning for the B5 platform which is much smaller. While I enjoy the convenience of a sedan, I don’t really need a big back seat yet – but the trend with the A4 was for the back seat to get roomier and roomier to the point where I felt like the B8 platform was just too big. The A3 Sedan solves this problem for me, as the car is both smaller and lighter, which means it should be much more nimble and better performing as well.
The S3 has some impressive numbers behind it as well, including 300 hp with a 0-60 time somewhere in the 4 second range from a 2.0 liter turbo engine. My guess is the aftermarket community will have a ton of tuning options to bump those numbers up much higher with big turbos and test pipes!
As you might expect, the interior is also top notch. The diamond stitched seats are definitely a feature that is getting a lot of buzz, and rightly so. It also has a beautiful flat bottom steering wheel, and I like how Audi continues to invest in every little detail to create such masterful interiors.
From what I’ve gathered the car won’t go on sale until March 2014 in the US, so it looks like we’ve got a while to wait until they start popping up in dealers. I know I’ll at least want to test drive one when they come out and who knows – maybe this will be the next car I buy and mod! The only downside is no manual transmission will be offered…and price is still unknown, so that will be another big consideration. Given the car is smaller than the A4 I would hope it is cheaper than one as well, but that’s not always the case such as the A5/S5 versus A4/S4 pricing…
Either way, I’m super excited about this car and the direction Audi is heading: Smaller, lighter, faster and more beautiful. #ProgressIs Efficiency!
To me this looks like a brand new, redesigned b7 a4/s4. I too thought the new platform was too big, so I started looking at these as my next potential Audi. It’ll be 2-3 years yet before I contemplate buying again, but this is at the top of my list if I can afford it.
Totally agree, Zane!