Another bundle of joy from Audi

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo , Alfa Romeo and Audi are among the marques with quality, small cars.

Audi offers its A3 in an extensive range: $33,950 for an A3 1.6-litre manual to $65,900 for the S3 turbocharged hot rod. It's the latter car at the top of the Audi small-car range in Australia that soon will have an almost identical twin.

Audi says the extra weight of the rear doors adds just 0.1 seconds to the 0-100km/h sprint time (5.8 seconds) and its official fuel use rating is 8.5 litres per 100km.

The S3 three-door is listed at $65,900 and the price for the five-door will be released closer to its on-sale date. The five-door will also have a six-speed manual transmission and Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system and 18-inch wheels. The S3 gets more sports and performance components over the A3 on which it is based.

Its suspension brings a 25mm-lower ride height and includes aluminium components. The brake discs are larger.

The S3 will come with aluminium-look exterior mirrors, leather-clad sports seats, xenon-plus headlights with LED daytime-running lights and aluminium pedals.

Meanwhile, Audi has unveiled a show-car version of the Audi TT two-seat sports car called the Clubsport quattro.

The Clubsport has a low, raked, small windscreen. That means the A-pillars are short, so there is a pair of generous rollover hoops behind the seats, aft of which are aero humps.