sgt_cr

I was actually in the same boat as you with the A3 and A4, and yes I do agree, no one will tell a difference between the new A3 sedan vs the old A4, and Im guessing thats good from the point of view of the person that is buying an A3, ppl will just think wow a nice audi sedan, nice!

I drove and test drive both cars, I end up going with the A3 bc its lighter and faster, and its soo much fun to drive compared to the A4, the A4 is kinda like a BMW series 316 or 320 (at most), the car felt heavier and the interior is clustered in stuff happening in the dash, if thats what you like, then there is nothing to talk about, go with that design, go with the A4, but the A3 interior simplistic and modern, it has a clean design which I myself really like (add the digital AC and it will really make a difference).

Another point that made me think about getting the A3 was bc it was just recently relaunch as Sedan, so we know its not going to be another A3 redesign in about 5-6 years at least, maybe just a few facelifts, but the A4 is going to be relaunch this year with probably a new body, new engine and better interior, and that will make all the old A4s lose market value, which it means that in few years you want to sell them you are going to lose even more money, so resell value goes also to the A3 in the future.

In the only thing that the A4 wins vs A3 is in the space, the interior is bigger than the A3 or at least thats how it feels, there is more leg and head room for the passenger in the back.

Overall the A3 wins in almost every single topic for me, it was no-brainer which to pick, A3 hands down, obviously which interior, lights, design, is better is really subjective.

I would advice you to go and do a test drive, thats the best way to know which car is BETTER for YOU, at the end of the day it will be you or your kid the one that drives it, so he should test drive them as well, just remember if you are going to buy an A4.... why not waiting a few more months? you can see the new A4 or get the old A4 which is going to be cheaper as well

2cents.

jagtoes

Thanks for the summary and your decision process for making your selection. As far as my opinion is concerned it is just based on my observations as I will not own or drive the car. My kid lives 2 hours away and will be the one to make the final decision. She took a test drive last week and called me on her impression. The word "cute" came to me and it was mentioned it was a snappy little car similar to the 2007 A4 she owned. She was not impressed with the interior layout and mentioned it felt like a cheap version of the A4. Also the pop up nav screen looked out of place and was a distraction which I assume you don't see after you are used to the car. Another interesting comment was the steering felt funny and more "twitchy" then the 2009 A4 presently owned. There was also a feeling that the old A4 felt more solid then the A3 and the extra room was noticeable but not a show stopper. The only thing I thought was interesting was the switch to the modular engine/transmission combination . After reading about this Audi strategy to go more with this modular concept it makes me wonder if the new A4 will use this engine/trans. combo. Looking at their history with the 2.0L motor it will be interesting to see how this new combo works out. So the net is here we will be looking for a late model (2014) fully loaded A4 and hopefully in the next few months the prices will go down as the redesigned body comes out. We are not in a rush and the present 2009 has 64K miles on it and has never seen the inside of a dealer/indy garage. Some one will get a good 09 that's oil consumption is at 2800 miles per quart with oil changes every 5000 miles.
Good luck with your A3 and enjoy it.

hilld

We are going test driving today. A3 base quattro, A3 cab and S3. My wife currently has a '09 A4 that has gone over 80k miles and we are looking to replace it. I drive an SQ5, so we do like the power of the S's over the base engines.

I drove an A3 TDI FWD last week when my SQ5 was in the shop for the scheduled service and was pleasantly surprised how great it is on the inside space wise and how it drives, etc. The only turnoff is the NAV screen being motorized, not a fan, but it is what it is.

We will order a '16 when the order books open and pick it up in Germany for European delivery and teach the car good Autobahn driving behavior. The only confirmation we are waiting for is if the S3 cab will be available for the US, that would be the ideal car. AOA has not confirmed that they will bring that car into the US.

19hole

The pop-up NAV screen is not a big deal. Just look at the new S7/RS7 it is used there also.

joxer

I'll likely stow the screen after the first while of playing with everything in the car. I'm waiting on my base A3, hopefully in the next week or two. No nav. I guess without connect even the nav doesn't have traffic info, and that's about the only thing I generally need to know to choose routes for my commute.

hilld

use Waze for navigation, much better than the traffic info you get via XM. Waze is crowd sourced and usually more up to date. Now if something like that was available as a factory Nav, that would be awesome.

DennisMitchell

Traffic information comes from SiriusXM. So if you get base Navigation, you have traffic info.

Spoonie G

The A4's on the road looks dated to me. The same design since 2007. The A4's don't look like the A3's to me. One car looks like an older generation car and the other looks like a new generation car. Guess I'm different.

hilld

Actually the first year of the B8 is the 2009 model year, not 2007, at least here in the US. I agree fully with you, we are looking to replace our 09 A4 and since the new A4 won't be in the US until the '17 model year (according to our dealer), we wanted something newer looking.

joxer

The B8 really doesn't look much different than my B7 from 2005 for that matter. Although my Avant has more usable space in the cargo area than say a B8 Allroad - they needlessly swooped off some of that for 'style'.

I think both the B7 and B8 still look good though ;-).

I do use waze from time to time, but its usually my passenger scoping out the routes. I haven't even determined if the auto routing would generally make the same choice I would given the traffic info.