Audi A3 Saloon review

The A3 Saloon starts at £28,435. That’s for the manual though. And you want the automatic. Which begins at near enough £30k.

From there the step up to the more capable 35 TFSI petrol is about a grand and a half, costing £31,550. This is the powertrain and gearbox combo we’d encourage you to go for.

The diesel is £33,450, and unless you spend your life on the motorway schlepping between sales meetings, this isn’t of interest. Moving on.

Talk me through the trims.

There are three. Sport is your starting point and it includes (deep breath) 17in alloys, four driving modes (Comfort, Auto, Dynamic and Efficiency), LED headlights, sport seats finished in cloth (the fronts are heated), three-zone climate control, multifunction steering wheel, the 10.1/12.3in screen setup running Audi’s latest infotainment software and the Audi App Store (yep, where you can ‘book’ adaptive cruise control), Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, plus Audi’s native 3D map and nav system. And exhale.

All A3s get all manner of active safety gear too. Lane departure warning (it’ll nudge you back into your lane if you start to drift out of it), a ‘collision avoidance assistant’ that helps you steer around an obstacle the car thinks you might be about to hit, and a system called ‘pre sense front’ that can warn you of and, ultimately, help avoid accidents by slamming on the anchors. Oh, and lots of airbags, naturally.

S line is the mid-spec trim, adding 18s, 15mm lower sports suspension with damper adjustment, upgraded LED lights, styling tweaks (think more black and more chrome), privacy glass leather seats, 40:20:40 split-folding rear seat, aluminium interior inlays and ambient lighting. That’s roughly a £2,300 uptick on the base car.

Last up is Black Edition, which is another £3.3k again. Here you get 19s, countless black exterior accents, LED puddle lights, woven interior inlays and… not a lot else. Hey, it’s your money.

Stuff like a head-up display, reversing camera and Sonos 3D sound system can be added by means of a Technology Pack for £1,495. Bit cheeky.