SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drive the Audi A3 1.4 TFSI Sportback manual

Pics by Audi@Motorpress

We can’t believe it’s not bigger

Published in Witness Wheels on Thursday August 15, 2013

Remember that ad with the tagline, “I can’t believe it’s not butter?”  There were similar campaigns, including one for products coyly called “shapewear,” but the theme was the same. Anyway, that’s pretty much how we felt on first driving the little 1400cc, 90-kW, Audi A3 Sportback with six-speed manual box, recently.
 
It’s so willing and tractable that it’s difficult to accept that there is such a small mill up front and that its modest power could whisk you up hills and from point to point, so effortlessly. With maximum torque kicking in at 1400 rpm, it was practically a case of “get it into top gear and keep going forever.”

The range was updated a few months ago and, as almost always happens, the product grew a little bigger and lost some weight. For people, that is a contradiction of the most distressing kind, but with cars it’s becoming normal (sigh). The wheelbase grew by 58 mm, although length is up by only 25 mm and the other measurements between 5 and 10 mm. Most significant was 90 kg of load shedding brought about by using different materials; including aluminium for bonnet, fenders, the profile behind the front bumper and the front axle subframe.

As anyone who has survived Sales Management 1 will know, features on their own are meaningless. It’s the benefit that sells the product and the benefit arising from the added 58 mm in wheelbase is increased legroom and greater ease of access. We found plenty of head, knee and footroom for fully grown adults in the back seat and rated ease of entry and exit better than its natural competitor, the A-class Mercedes.

The boot, at 280 dm3 with the seatbacks up and 928 with them folded, is smaller than that of the Benz but it does have an emergency wheel, albeit a spacesaver. Those folding, charcoal coloured cloth seats with patterned inserts are fitted with four ISOFix anchors and a pair of top tethers as well as three belts and head restraints.

Driver and front passenger chairs adjust mechanically for height, reach and recline and the parking brake follows current fashion by being electrically operated. Sound, navigation (if fitted), trip information and phone buttons are on the fully adjustable steering wheel while cruise, lights and wipers can be found on three stalks behind it. The gearbox ratios are nicely spaced and its action is light and positive. Pedals are easy to get at and there is sufficient room to get past the clutch to find the footrest.

Our test car had just on R45 000-worth of extras fitted, including 17” alloy wheels to replace the original 16-inchers, the Audi music interface consisting of a pair of adaptor cables to couple your iPod and USB devices to the sound system, cruise control, xenon headlights, and satnav with 60 GB hard drive and upgraded sound kit. Standard equipment includes a multimedia interface (MMI) with retractable colour monitor, LED interior lighting, light and rain sensors, onboard computer, Bluetooth with voice control and audio streaming, and manual air conditioning.

Audi knows it has a hero here. With over three million A3s sold,  the model line, and especially the Sportbacks, contribute hugely to the brand’s success by winning important first time customers and in-brand range-climbers. We can see why.

Test car from Audi SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R290 500 basic or R335 300 as tested
Engine: 1395 cc, DOHC, 16-valve four-cylinder, turbocharged
Power: 90 kW between 5000 and 6000 rpm
Torque: 200 Nm between 1400 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9,5 seconds
Maximum speed: 203 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6,2 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Warranty: 1 year/unlimited mileage
Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km




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What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.

Comments?
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