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If it was the original BMW 3-Series that invented the compact luxury car market segment all those years ago, then it’s probably fair to claim it was Audi’s A3 franchise that gave rise to the luxury small-hatch category.
On that basis, any new Audi A3 is news but, in the face of the SUV onslaught (including its own stablemate the Q3) the new small Audi has its work cut out for it.
With this update, there’s refreshed styling, a new interior layout and, for the launch of the new cars, two body styles, a conventionally styled sedan and what Audi calls the Sportback; fundamentally a five-door hatchback but with the German brand’s own flair plastered all over it.
As well as new connectivity and safety tech, the big news is the availability of a mild-hybrid driveline as well as a second powertrain option with more performance from a more conventional layout.
Interestingly, it’s that (mild) hybrid version of the A3 that represents the entry-level variant of the A3. A sign of the times? Perhaps.
As well as the two powertrains, there are two distinct chassis layouts, starting with a front-drive set-up and extending to the option of Audi’s Quattro all-wheel drive (AWD) system.
Remember mid-size sedans? Once pretty popular with smaller families, they’ve largely gone the way of dial-up internet, thanks in no small part to our insatiable appetite for SUVs in Australia, which shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.
According to the most recent vehicle sales data release, there are just seven choices left in a once-crowded segment, one of which is this, the Skoda Octavia, which is also available as a wagon – another body style that's been left by the wayside in the SUV crush.
So are we right to rush to SUVs instead of vehicles just like this one? Or should you be cross-shopping the Skoda Octavia before you commit to a high-rider?
Let’s find out, shall we?
Producing a car that takes the end result beyond appliance status is no given in a world car-park dominated by SUVs. But Audi has, over the last few decades, shown it is very good at doing just that and the latest incarnation of its A3 stalwart backs that up.
While it might take a bit of mental gymnastics to understand why the base model gets the hybrid driveline, or why the more expensive variant costs more to option with adaptive cruise-control, the fact remains these are driver’s cars from a company that understands that concept.
Yes, the A3 is a relatively expensive way to arrive at a compact hatch or sedan, but if you value the journey as much as the destination, it will all make sense.
While the technical aspects of the 35 TFSI are interesting, the extra power and all-weather grip of the AWD 40 TFSI seem to be worth the additional dollars to us. The A3 has always been a sporty alternative, meaning the sportiest version is the one for us.
CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.
This is motoring at its easiest. Powerful but not too powerful, firm but not too firm, and loaded with all the cabin technology 2021 calls for, and more.
We'd like to see more of the safety kit arrive as standard, and to tone down the engine noise in the cabin under heavy acceleration, but if your shopping for a mid-size SUV, then the Octavia Style sedan has earned its place on your consideration list before you sign those papers.
It’s actually refreshing in 2022 to see a carmaker putting such an effort into something that isn’t an SUV.
That Audi has bothered with two distinct bodies and two equally distinct drivelines is also one for the books, really.
Technically, the mild-hybrid driveline as seen in larger Audis in recent years is probably the highlight of the new A3, and even though it doesn’t compare with a conventional petrol-electric hybrid, it demonstrates Audi’s attention to detail.
The same goes for the digital instruments which allows the driver to tailor the information displayed at any given time. Need a city map more than you need a tachometer at a particular point in you journey? That’s where this technology comes into its own.
This is always a controversial segment. Eye of the beholder and all that. Still, let's dive in.
For mine, the Skoda looks sharp and handsome, with clean, crisp lines and a definite premium feel to the overall design language.
But... whether it's simply the white shade of our test car or the fact that mid-size sedans are a little out of favour, it manages to look a little bland from outside, and like the kind of vehicle that could be sold in bulk for fleets.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, by the way. Plenty of cars are over-designed and as such, age terribly. The Skoda's design, while not pulse-quickening, does feel timeless.
Outside, there's a kind of power-dome 'V' running through the centre of the bonnet, that leads to the thin headlights – made up of individual clusters – that are framed by slick-looking LEDs.
The Skoda grille is a series of 3D slats that jut out from the front end, while the bottom is all black plastic mesh, giving this Octavia a vaguely sporty vibe.
The vehicle's flanks are embellished with two sharp creases, one at the shoulder line and one at the belt line, which run the length of the Octavia, too, and step to the rear and you'll find a fairly simple boot area, with sharply angled brake lights and clean lettering across the boot.
Inside, some of the cabin materials might leave a little to be desired, but it is a really modern, clean-feeling, tech-savvy space.
The steering wheel is thick and chunky and feels great to hold, the cabin dials make a satisfying and tactile click when you turn them, and there's a kind of textured, layered effect to the dash with a nice mix of materials, including a metallic-look dash panel that runs from the passenger side to driver side.
There's an attention to detail here that you notice – even the black plastic panelling used has been perforated to elevate it slightly above the standard cabin fare.
Although it’s a compact car externally, clever packaging means there’s ample space inside. Even a tall-ish rear-seat passenger can sit behind a tall-ish driver, and the sculpted rear seat-backs help make that possible.
The only complaint would be that the dark headlining material makes the interior a bit of a cave at times.
Paying more for the 40 TFSI gets you extra cargo nets on the front seat backrests and luggage area, 12-volt sockets in the rear seat and boot. Both versions get floor mats and a centre arm-rest front and rear.
The rear seat in either is split 40/20/40 for a range of possibilities, with the Sportback offering 325 litres (VDA) for the Sportback quattro models, and 380L (VDA) for the 2WD models and its boot capacity is increased to 1145L (VDA) with the rear seat folded flat. The luggage space in the sedan is 390L (VDA) for the quattro AWD version, and a more capacious 425L (VDA) for the FWD model.
It's clever, the Skoda Octavia, and that story begins in the boot, which opens to reveal a seriously large and seriously usable 600 litre space. While not that deep, it's wide and long, and with out test car fitted with a spider's web of netting, there was tons of space and storage options for everything we needed to carry.
Short answer? For me, it's all the space and storage I need. SUVs be damned.
Up front, the centre screen is clear and simple to use, as is the secondary digital screen behind the driver's steering wheel. And there's just a few little surprise and delight features, too, like the bar that controls volume via touch, or the Smart AC settings which offer to "warm your feet" or deliver "fresh air".
Your comfort features are on point, too, with two USB ports up front, two cup holders, and plenty of headroom, and plenty of shoulder space between you and the passenger next to you.
The backseat is impressive, too, although the swept-back nature of the roof line does start to impede headroom ever so slightly, but knee room, toe room and shoulder room are really good, and I suspect you could even fit a third person across this middle row of seats without too much drama.
Skoda Simply Clever features abound, like the mobile phone storage pocket in the seatbacks, which are part of the larger seat pocket so you don't lose your device. There are two child ISOFIX attachment points and two cup holders in the rear, too.
These are not bargain basement cars, and with a kick-off price of $46,900 for the A3 35 TFSI Sportback (the hatch version) and $49,400 for the sedan in the same specification, that much is obvious.
The fact is, both the new A3 variants represent a fair mark-up on the previous model. But if you look at the post-Covid car market in a macro sense, you can see the same trend across a lot of brands and a lot of previously entry-level models.
Ante up to the 40 TFSI, and the news is no different with an asking price of $53,500 (Sportback) and $56,000 (sedan).
If the price sounds steep on a per-kilo basis, you need to remember this is an Audi we’re talking about and that price premium is part and parcel of a prestige badge. Don’t like it? Go and buy a VW Golf. That’d be Audi’s advice, anyway.
To justify that viewpoint, the A3 is loaded with some impressive standard kit. The 35 TFSI starts things off with Audi’s vaunted 'Virtual Cockpit', wireless phone charging, voice recognition, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, remote central locking, paddle shifters, park-assist, sat-nav, a 10.1-inch touchscreen, LED headlights, a multi-function steering wheel, automatic lights and wipers, digital radio, cruise-control and dual-zone climate control.
The 40 TFSI adds a range of aluminium trim pieces and garnishes, Audi’s 'Drive Select' system which allows the driver to choose the characteristic of the dampers, steering response, exhaust sound, throttle response and transmission shift points.
The 40 TFSI also adds sportier front seats, a rear spoiler, body kit, extra courtesy lights around the car and details such as a 12-volt socket in the luggage area.
Options on the base model include a 'Comfort Pack' consisting of adaptive cruise-control, electric front seats, heated front seats, auto dimming headlights, heated and folding mirrors, four-way electric lumbar control and 'Adaptive Drive Assist', including 'Emergency Assist.'
That will set you back $2600, while the 40 TFSI can be enhanced with Audi’s 'Premium Package' which adds those same items as well as aluminium-look trim pieces, a better sound system, head-up instrument display and a memory function for the driver’s seat. That adds $4500 to either the 40 TFSI Sportback or sedan.
The Skoda Octavia Style 110TSI sedan starts at from $37,790 drive away, and is pretty comprehensively equipped for that money. It also has a wagon sibling, which is yours for $39,260 drive away, or for more thrills, the fire-breathing RS version is $51,490 drive away ($52,990 wagon).
Let’s stay with the Style for a moment. Outside, it rides on 18-inch alloy wheels and gets LED headlights, satellite navigation, keyless locking, LED DRLs and heated mirrors, while inside, there’s fabric seats, dual-zone climate, an air-conditioned glove box, push-button start, a slick gear selector and ambient interior lighting.
But where the Skoda truly shines is in the tech department, which is seriously impressive. It starts with a 10.0-inch touchscreen, equipped with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, leaving you free to stick your phone on the wireless charging pad. All of that kit is joined by Skoda’s very good Virtual Cockpit, which digitises the driver’s binnacle, and adds a seriously premium air to the cabin experience.
Safety? There’s lots. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
While both versions of the A3 use a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission (no manual gearbox will be offered) there’s not a lot of commonality beyond that.
So let’s start with the 35 TFSI’s mild-hybrid running gear. To begin with, mild-hybrid in this sense refers to a starter motor/alternator unit that is linked to a 48-volt battery (the car also has a conventional 12-volt electrical system).
When coasting, the engine can shut off and the starter switches to alternator mode and harvests the otherwise lost energy to charge the 48-volt battery. This 48-volt system also powers the car’s functions when the engine is switched off.
When the car needs to restart (when the traffic-light goes green) the starter kicks in, using that harvested voltage. There’s also a regenerative braking function, saving the car’s actual brakes for more severe stops.
Unlike a 'normal' hybrid system, there’s no electric motor to help drive the car, but Audi claims a potential fuel saving of 0.4 litres per 100km from the set-up. Any benefit will be most noticeable in urban running where the car is speeding up and slowing down regularly.
The rest of the 35 TFSI is technically interesting, too, with the 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine featuring cylinder-on-demand where it can shut down individual cylinders during cruise conditions to save fuel.
When firing on all four, however, the engine is good for 110kW of power and 250Nm of torque, figures which have become almost an industry standard in this sized vehicle.
The 40 TFSI, meanwhile, ditches the hybrid gear for a conventional 2.0-litre powerplant with a turbocharger and 140kW of power. Torque is a handy 320Nm and is developed over a wide range of engine speeds (anywhere from 1500 to 4100rpm).
The other big difference is in the driveline. The 35 TFSI is a front-wheel drive platform while the 40 TFSI uses Audi’s Quattro AWD as it applies to Audis with an east-west engine layout.
That means the car behaves as a front-drive vehicle until the electronics decides more power should be sent to the rear wheels. At that point, anything up to 99 per cent of the available torque can be transferred rearwards via an electronically-controlled multi-plate clutch housed at the rear of the car, just in front of the rear axle.
The Skoda Octavia Style is powered by a 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine, producing a 110kW at 6000rpm and 250Nm from 1500rpm.
That's enough grunt, Skoda says, to clip 100km/h in nine seconds, and it will push on to a flying top speed of 223km/h.
That power is fed through an eight-speed torque converter automatic gearbox and sent to the front tyres.
With all its cylinder shut-off, hybrid tricks and small capacity, the 1.5-litre engine boasts a 5.0 litres per 100km combined cycle fuel economy figure.
Combined with its 50-litre tank, that’s a potential for 1000km between service-station visits. It’s also commendably close to the numbers you’d expect from a similarly sized vehicle with a turbo-diesel engine.
The more conventional 2.0-litre A3 variant, meanwhile, boasts a still-credible 6.7 litres per 100km for the same test. To counter its greater thirst, Audi has fitted a slightly bigger, 55-litre fuel tank.
The headline act, of course, is the base-model’s highway figure which, thanks to the small capacity engine and its reduced pumping losses at small throttle-openings, can get right down into the low-fives (5.0 litres per 100km) in the real world at real highway speeds.
With a tail-wind, you might even see a number starting with four. This is why you don’t need a diesel engine any longer.
Expect the 40 TFSI to use roughly a litre more across every 100km travelled. And in either case, you are stuck with paying for 95-RON premium unleaded.
Skoda says its Octavia will sip 5.7L/100km on the combined cycle (5.9L/100km for the wagon), and emit 131g/km of C02.
Our test vehicle was displaying an average 8.8L/100km over our 200-odd-kilometres with the car, but I have been accused of having a heavier than average foot.
It sips 95RON fuel, and its tank will hold some 45 litres of the good stuff.
Let’s start with the less powerful 35 TFSI, if only because - even though we know better in 2022 - there’s a temptation to think a 1.5-litre engine will be underdone. The reality, however, is that you’re not going to drive this car and judge it as anything other than very resolved.
While it’s true the peak power of 110kW isn’t startling, it’s the way it’s delivered (along with the 250Nm of torque) that sets the mood here.
Like many late-model Audis, this one has an engine with a fizzy, zingy feel that makes you want to rev it just to hear and feel it. And when you do, it pays off with plenty of flexibility and a sophisticated, refined feel.
Whether the mild hybrid driveline is adding anything to the formula is debatable, because the technology is so seamless you won’t pick what it’s doing other than the engine stop-start function, which is one of the better ones we’ve sampled.
Move from the 35 into the 40 TFSI and you immediately notice the extra power and torque on tap. And although it’s still not a hot-hatch by modern standards, there’s always enough urge to make the 40 TFSI a convincing driver’s car.
Again, the power delivery is the key to it all, making more of what the engine has to offer by actively encouraging you to use it. The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is your friend here.
The extra driveline functionality of the 40 (namely the AWD system) actually means less than you might imagine in day-to-day life. We didn’t get to drive the car in the wet, but it’s fair to say that those conditions (or a loose, gravel road) are really the only ones likely to make a difference to the way the basic platform feels.
That’s for two reasons; the first being the all-wheel-drive is fundamentally on demand anyway and, secondly, the basic platform is so composed and balanced in the first place, that the Quattro system will spend a lot of its time hiding in the background.
The 40 TFSI also get the selectable drive modes which break with tradition by actually making a difference to the way the car feels.
But the reality is that if you took the best bits of every other setting (Comfort, Dynamic and Efficiency) and loaded them into the Individual button, you’d probably wind up with something very close to what the non-adjustable 35 TFSI offers in the first place.
You have to admire the way Audi has made a front-drive car in the A3 steer, handle and talk to the driver in such a clear, precise way.
Yes, the 40’s selectable modes add another layer to that, but only if you can be bothered. Even more than that, the A3 in either form feels like its ultra-stable and safe, while the levels of feel and feedback give the impression they were decided upon by people who enjoy driving.
Sink into the driver’s seat, push the start button and use the cool-looking, but a little cheap-feeling, shift-by-wire gear selector to choose Drive, and you’re almost immediately reminded why we all loved lower-riding cars so much more than those big and often billowy SUVs of yesteryear.
This Octavia doesn’t pretend to be a sports car - there’s the RS to handle those duties — but the mere fact you’re sitting lower to the ground leaves you feeling closer and more connected to the road surface below you, rather than like you’re towering above it.
You also feel like you’re sitting in the Skoda, not on it, and all of this — combined with a firmer (but not too firm) suspension tune, good steering and the low 1500rpm arrival of peak torque — ensures the Octavia delivers a more engaging drive experience than its exterior design probably suggests.
There are some downsides, however, one of which being that, on take-off, the engine isn’t as smooth or as quiet as it could be, and because the power arrives so quickly, it can also feel a little like it’s surging a little in slow-moving traffic. The flip-side to that, though, is a car that feels responsive, and when you dart around a slow-moving vehicle to overtake the power is there when you need it.
We ventured out on the freeway to see how the little petrol engine performed at the legal speed limit, and I can tell you that long-distance travel is also right in the Octavia’s wheelhouse, too.
It climbs to 110km/h quickly and smoothly, and while the cabin noise increases at speed – mostly from the tyres and wind – it's not overly annoying, and it is well insulated from the sounds of other cars. The ride on the freeway is fantastic, while the steering feels weighted and direct, inspiring more confidence at speed.
There are more powerful cars out there, including in the broader Octavia range, but to be honest, you don't really need more grunt than is on offer here, other than for bragging rights.
It's a comfortable and usually composed offering from Skoda, this Octavia, and will definitely tick plenty of boxes.
Possibly the headline (no pun intended) act here is the inclusion of a centre-front airbag. This is something we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future, particularly in compact cars, where the proximity of the front-seat passengers can lead to head clashes in a side-impact crash.
Beyond that, the Audi has six airbags including side-curtain airbags.
In terms of driver aids, the A3 sets a high bar for its competitors, and with autonomous emergency braking including pedestrian and cyclist recognition, rear-cross-traffic alert, lane-departure assist and a rear-view camera, most bases are covered.
The major omissions are adaptive cruise-control, but that’s available in the 35 TFSI as part of the $2600 Comfort Package, and in the 40 TFSI as part of the $4500 Premium Package.
Yes, the Premium Package also includes heated, memory front seats, a head-up display, improved stereo and the multi-coloured ambient interior lighting (and more) but it does seem strange that it costs more to option up to adaptive cruise in the 40 TFSI than in the base-model.
The A3 scored the full five stars in ANCAP crash testing in 2020.
The Skoda Octavia scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating when crash-tested in 2019, and arrives with plenty of active and passive safety features.
That story starts with eight airbags and the usual braking and traction aids, but then steps up to more advanced stuff, like AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, as well as a reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, and a self-parking function.
If you want the really advanced stuff, like blind spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert, or Lane Assist with lane guidance, you'll need to shell out for the optional Luxury Pack, which arrives with plenty of other goodies, too.
Audi recently improved its factory warranty from three years to five years and unlimited kilometres. Any new Audi (including this one) sold after January 1 this year is the beneficiary of that change.
Audi specifies service intervals of 15,000km or 13 months.
There’s also the option of a fixed-price servicing program for the first five years of A3 ownership, and that will cost you $2250, for an annual average of $450.
Your Octavia is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and you a get a five years of free roadside assistance, provided you service your vehicle at a Skoda dealership.
Speaking of which, services are due every 12 months or 15,000kms, and Skoda's service calculator will tell you what each service will cost. To save you the trouble, you're looking at $301, $398, $447, $634 and $447 for the first five services.