Designed specifically as a sedan and sharing no body panels with its Sportback siblings, the Audi A3 Sedan becomes the third instalment to the range launched in November 2012 with the three-door A3.
Audi South Africa followed this with the Audi A3 Sportback in April 2013, the S3 3-door in October with the Audi S3 Sportback following closely behind. The range will grow again with the launch of the new Audi A3 Cabriolet in the first half of 2014.
Ryan Searle, head of Audi South Africa, says: “Audi is on track globally to sell 1,5-million vehicles by the end of 2013, a full two ahead of its initial plan to achieve the target by 2015. Its biggest market is China but South African plays an increasingly important role in 12th place on the list behind Canada. “Locally sales are up 18% year on year and monthly figures have not dropped below 1 500 units, with May our best month at 1 790 units sold.”
The Audi A3 Sedan is positioned as a premium product in the A-segment and is longer, wide and lower than the Sportback with a number of design differences. Its design is a cross between the classic three-box concept and the coupé philosophy. The ‘tornado line’ design element forms a distinct light-refracting edge that runs over the entire side. The four-door has a 2,64 metre long wheelbase and an overall length of 4,46 metres.
Above the side sills, the dynamic line rises more sharply than on the other two A3 models. The side surfaces are more intensively curved, and the wheel arches are slightly more flared. With a width of 1,80 metres the A3 Sedan is eleven millimetres wider than the A3 Sportback and its height of 1,42 metres is nine millimetres lower than that of the Sportback.
The engine line-up will consist of two petrol engines (1.4T FSI and 1.8T FSI) and one diesel engine (2.0 TDI), all in SE specification.
The 1.4T FSI engine produces 92 kW and 200 Nm of torque (90 kW for the S tronic), while the more powerful 1.8T FSI engine produces 132 kW and 250 Nm. The diesel engine offers 110 kW of power with 350 Nm of torque. All three engines will be offered in a choice of manual or S tronic.
The cargo capacity measures 425-litres, which can be increased to 880-litres by folding down the rear seats. Folding rear seats are available as standard across the range.
Like its siblings in the model series, the Audi A3 Sedan makes use of the new modular infotainment system (MIB). The top system is MMI Navigation plus with an SSD hard drive offering 64 GB of storage, a DVD drive and whole-word voice control.
A high-resolution 7-inch-screen shows the map image in detailed 3D graphics. The MMI Navigation plus system interfaces to cell phones and mobile players via Bluetooth. The user terminal has a turn/push control designed as a ‘touchwheel’ with MMI touch – the touchwheel’s top surface is a touch-sensitive pad for inputting letters, symbols and numbers.
The Audi S3 Sedan is due for local introduction in mid-2014.
| Pricing | (incl. VAT) |
| Audi A3 Sedan 1.4T FSI SE | R323 500 |
| Audi A3 Sedan 1.4T FSI SE S tronic | R340 500 |
| Audi A3 Sedan 1.8T FSI SE | R341 500 |
| Audi A3 Sedan 1.8T FSI SE S tronic | R358 500 |
| Audi A3 Sedan 2.0 TDI SE | R355 500 |
| Audi A3 Sedan 2.0 TDI SE S tronic | R372 500 |
Pricing includes a 5-year/100 000 km maintenance plan.
