Audi A3: First drive with the 2006 2.0T

Fourtitude's George Achorn got his hands on an 2006 Audi A3 2.0T. Here is his report about his driving experience with it.

It’s the kind of occurrence a PR team dreams about. Here we are, two journalists driving Audi’s new A3. It’s not yet on the market at the time of driving, and my co-driver and I are headed to the end of our driving route: the Mondrian Hotel in the hills near Hollywood, CA. In these parts, image is king. Bentleys and Rollers seem as ubiquitous as yellow Ford Crown Vics in New York City. I stop at a traffic light just turned red in our new-to-market A3 and a BMW M3 pulls alongside. Our windows are down, and so are the M3's. The owner looks over admiringly and I knod. “Nice car,” he comments with a lustful look, then asks, “Where’d you get it?”

I recounted this experience to the Audi staff over cocktails later that night and soon found myself surrounded by a slew of seemingly interconnected smiles.

All things considered, the new A3 is sweet and very livable package. It’s frugality is welcome in today’s age of skyrocketing fuel prices, while its drivability and performance won’t leave you especially wanting - oodles of torque are on hand and the A3 has a light and dexterous chassis. The only thing it really needs, in our opinion, is all-wheel drive availability with this super efficient 2.0T that so appeals to the tech weenie and driving enthusiast in all of us.

GermanCarBlog, Audi A3

Source: Fourtitude

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