What is it?
One way of making an appealing, compact hatchback more versatile is to extend the wheelbase to give more space for rear seat passengers and more room in the boot for luggage.
That seemingly modest change plants the Audi A3 Sportback firmly in the centre of family car territory – so much so that sister title What Car? named it the best family car in its 2017 annual Car of the Year Awards. It's also firmly rooted in Autocar's ranking of the ten best family hatchbacks.
The 2018 Black Edition tested here is the flagship of the A3 Sportback range and the second car in the Volkswagen Group (after the Volkswagen Golf) to get the new 148bhp, 1.5 TFSI petrol engine. It replaces the 1.4-litre of similar performance, with the slightly larger capacity engine giving better fuel consumption and emissions performance under the new WLTP European test regime.
Join the debate
Add your comment
A little too expensive!!
A Focus RS is only £20 dearer than this A3!
Not that bad, but clearly overpriced...
..this dullest / blandest of all Audis (subjective opinion, of course, but coming from an Audi lover I guess, since I've own 3 of them till now - none with that clutch disease though.)
To put it short: for my eyes, the A3 Sportsback (hum, where IS the Sport?) it's not a hatch, nor a break - something in-between, giving an impression of indecision coming from a depressed designer.
Maybe one captive in chains somewhere in VAG's basements, :-) since the lines of this... hybrid-car (hatch-break, I repeat it) seem drawn under deep narcosis.
some quality control money should be directed at the clutch
along with cheat free mechanicals ,at that pric ethe car is a joke, sells discounted on pcp.