30/09/08

• Price26,195
• We like...Quality cabin
• We don't...Pricey extras

Handsome small hatchback delivers quality that's second to none - but at a hefty price You can buy a new A3 with five doors and get enough change from £17,000 to pay for a night out. And for the cash it’s a great little car, even if you can’t quite shake the knowledge that underneath it’s a Volkswagen Golf, and an expensive one at that.

But the car you see here, the 2.0 TFSi Quattro S-Line, weighs in at a giddy £32,755. That’s £26,195 for the ‘basic’ car, and the balance made up with extras, from a DVD/sat-nav system (£1650) to a fancy twin sliding roof (£1050), Xenon headlamps (£550) and electrically adjustable lumbar support for the front seats (£250). There’s more: red pearl effect paint ? £500 extra. Roof rails? £225. Extra cabin storage? £90. In all, the extras list runs to 12 items.

Now Audi’s not suggesting that you must spend this much on your car, and I’m sure the motive in loaning us such a lavishly appointed motor is to demonstrate how sophisticated a small-ish car can be. It also demonstrates to us, though, that Audi certainly knows how to charge.

And the very existence of so many extras also hints that there are more than a few customers willing to indulge themselves royally when they go A3 shopping. Meanwhile, everything we know about car-buying suggests that the £16,950 A3 is a snip, while one costing twice as much should be approached with caution.

On to the car. The 2.0 turbo petrol engine is a peach, refined and free spinning, and it links with a beautifully smooth seven-speed auto gearbox. It also powers other Audis, Skodas and, most notably, Volkswagen’s really rather good Golf GTi. Quattro transmission here provides boundless grip, enough to rocket you from standstill to 62mph in 6.8secs, with yet barely a chirp of protest from the tyres. It also makes a heady noise when roused, though it’s quiet otherwise.

Yet, in the teeth of such performance, it retains near 40mpg capability and low CO2 emissions. That’s quite some doing.

You sit low in the cabin, in hugging front chairs that come as part of the S-line package. Four big chrome air vents highlight the dash, which is otherwise black and covered in a matt, grained and squishy plastic. It looks sober. Despite its sporting nature, the car retains full hatchback practicality, serving up a bit boot that can be enlarged by dropping the rear chairs into the floor. The car’s a full five-seater, though leg-room in the rear qualifies as ‘ok’ rather than ‘generous’.

This is the third-generation A3: second-hand ones date from 1996 and so cars are available at all prices. Many older cars are in surprisingly good shape, testifying to Audi’s fabled ability to build cars that are sturdy.

But while A3s with diesel engines or small petrol units command good prices when second-hand, our £32k A3 promises to return little more than a third of its original cost after three years and/or 36,000 miles. So you stand to lose more than £20k over three years. Not only is a base-model A3 half the price to buy – but it will also keep nigh-on half of its value over a similar period.

This A3’s a likeable car. But while your heart says, buy it, your head must contend with the truth that it is very expensive: better cars can be yours for less.

• Engines2.0 TFSi
• Power197bhp
• 0-60 mph6.7sec
• Economy37.2mpg
• CO2g/km180
• Insurance groups18
• EuroNCAP
• Airbags6
• Seats5

Motors.co.uk value verdict: