Just got back from a driving vacation in Germany and Austria. Drove over 1500 miles of mountain roads, autobahn and narrow cobblestone streets. It will take a while to wipe the smile off my face, I tell ya.

We rented a brand-new black A3 with a sport suspension rolling on Pirelli 17s. Even with a whimpy 1.6L 4-cyl engine this car is a champ. It handled twisty mountain roads and the autobahn with authority. I was amazed just how smooth and assured it felt at 130mph (engine noise at that speed is another story, however.)

The sports seats are very comfy and snug, and hold your a$$ well in place around those nasty countain hairpin turns.

The stock brakes are also excellent, firm with good immediate response and not much noticeable fade, although towards the end of the trip they did start to make an uncomfortable clicking noise.

One feature I especially liked, and which may be already available on the B6 cars, is the one-touch turn signal, which allows you to tap the signal once to activate the turn signal for just a few seconds. This is especially handy when passing at 120mph.

My only complaint on this car is the really loooong travel on the clutch pedal, which caused me to grind the clutch a few times in heavy traffic when I was really tired. And a short-shifter is practically mandatory for anyone looking to push this car in any meaningful way.

This car needs a bigger/turbo-charged engine, and a lot of them come with the 1.9 TDI. The available 3.2 must make this car into a absolute monster, I can only imagine. But even with the 1.6, I would recommend this car to anyone looking at the A3.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/a3_-_front.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/a3_-_back.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/a3---engine-bay.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/a3---front-cabin.jpg">


<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/1805400rpm.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/a3_dash_and_road_view.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1768/sign_to_ingolstadt.jpg">

Make sure you drive the autobahn in an Audi at least once in your life. It's a singular experience.

Glad you enjoyed it :)

What rental company was this out of interest? The car is obviously a Sport derivative, as it has sport seats, three spoke steering wheel and DIS, but I find it a bit odd that a hire company would buy anything other than the base model.

Once you drive a few american cars, so very well hand-picked by US rental firms, you really start to appreciate the work and studies that some of these German cars get.

I was in the US a few weeks ago and got two lousy Pontiac GrandAm from Alamo rentals. Prior to that i drove a 10K miles Alero which was 200% better. The GrandAm sucks, really sucks. My old Renault 5 from 88 had better handling and weight distribution. My A3 has supernatural weight distribution and handling in comparison also. The GrandAm was so crappy that when you drive at 30mph in a relatively nice mountain curve (that youre supposed to take at 40-45), the whole car's weight is shoved on the front wheels, already supporting the heavy "feels dead" V6, then the tyres squeel like mad, youre forced to break while negociating the curb, and then you feel the back of the car have a mind of its own.

Here at home, on a bend marked 40km/h, dry road conditions, my A3 with ESP takes it easy at 45, you can maybe take it rough at 50. At 55 the tires will squeel most likely [ it has happened to me a few times to take some curbs too fast ;) ] but the car NEVER gets out of control like that sh*t GrandAm.

A base model would be very hard to move after its rental life.