Audi A3: Canadian test drive

"If you love to drive, take Audi A3 for spin", what a nice start to write about the Audi A3.
Best thing is, they are absolutely right!

The A3 may be the smallest of the Audi line in Canada, but it does not take a back seat to anything on the road. Tucked up in the front of this little screamer is a 2.0-litre turbo four that puts out 200 horsepower. Backing it up is a six-speed Direct Shift Gearbox -- or DSG for short. Power then goes down to the front wheels and off you go, leaving two tracks of black on the pavement.

At this juncture, you have two choices. You can leave the shifter in drive and let the computer do your shifting for you (not a whole lot of fun), or you can slip the shifter over into the manual shift gate and get yourself down the road. Again, you have two choices. You can push the shifter forwards and backwards for up shifts and downshifts, or you can use the steering wheel mounted paddles to shift gears (More fun than you can imagine, once you are used to them).

Unlike many of the paddle- or button- shifted cars of today, Audi draws from its endurance racing experience and makes one paddle shift up and the other one down. If you forget to downshift coming to a stop, the gearbox will drop to fi rst gear for you. Coming off that start, you better remember to pull the paddle because the motor will scream to redline very quickly and the transmission doesn't shift until you hit the "up" paddle.

If you do happen to hit the down paddle and are a bit slow getting on the gas, the computer will actually blip the throttle to match rpm required to make a smooth shift to the lower gear. After the gear has come down, you had best be on the gas a bit or the car will lurch just as if you made a lousy downshift with a manual gear box.

Getting the shifting, the throttle and the steering right will let you rocket around corners, change lanes at will and zip down the on-ramps putting a BIG grin on your face. I always get a great deal of satisfaction out of taking a corner properly and the A3 makes it easy.

For those who aren't as aggressive as I am, the A3 can meet your needs as well. Ride quality is much better than you would expect from a car of this size. The suspension is compliant enough that road irregularities do not upset the balance of the car or that of the occupants. The A3 makes cornering at normal speeds so easy that many drivers will be surprised at their actual cornering speeds.

Related news: GermanCarBlog, P4MR, Audi A3

Source: The Star Phoenix via AudiWorld, picture by Audi

Audi A3: Canadian test drive

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