Audi A1 Review (2011)
<h3 class="quote"><img src="http://www.audi.co.nz/content/dam/ngw/product/model_navigation/my-2015/a1-sportback-pi.png" alt="" width="550" height="274" /></h3> <h3 class="quote">We achieved 33 mpg on average over a mixed cycle of ‘A’ roads, town driving and enthusiastic ‘B’ road testing.</h3> <p>The A1 is a premium compact 3-door or 5-door hatchback from the German car manufacturer Audi. It has the underpinnings of Volkswagen’s Polo but has been under the wizardry of Audi to turn it into a totally different proposition for a different market with a high-grade finish.</p> <p> </p> <p>We tested the 3-door hatchback A1 1.4 TFSI S line S tronic.</p> <div id="mpu"> <div id="switch_pp_override_0_146580" class="switch_placeholder"> <div id="__switch_placeholder_div_0" class="switch_content_div"> </div> <div class="switch_content_div"><strong>Performance 4 Stars</strong></div> <div class="switch_content_div"> </div> </div> </div> <p>The Audi A1 Hatchback is available with three petrol engines, (1.2 TFSI 86PS – 5-speed manual, 1.4 TFSI 122PS – 6-speed manual, 1.4 TFSI 185PS - 7-speed S tronic) and a 5-speed manual diesel 1.6 TDI 105PS unit. Drive is to the front wheels but there is a limited edition quattro which is four-wheel drive.</p> <p>We drove the top of the range petrol 1.4 TFSI S line 185PS with the dual-clutch 7-speed S tronic gearbox - Audi quote a 0-62mph time of 6.9 seconds and a top speed of 141 mph. We found the engine very responsive, especially with S tronic automatic gearbox – the roar from the engine was a very welcome intrusion.</p> <p>We found the gearbox fairly fluid but it can be caught out especially when pulling out of road junctions and combined with turbo lag. The S tronic gearbox features a sports mode, which we did find ourselves accidentally selecting and you can manually change gear, by knocking the lever forwards or backwards. You do not get paddle shift as you do with the VW Polo GTI but this tends to become a novelty after a while.</p> <p>Official fuel consumption figures are recorded as 37.7 mpg on the urban cycle, 55.4 mpg extra urban and on the combined cycle 47.9 mpg. We achieved 33 mpg on average over a mixed cycle of ‘A’ roads, town driving and enthusiastic ‘B’ road testing. Although we did get over 40 mpg on light footed country drives – this should improve as the engine runs in, our test car had only done 1300 miles.</p> <p>Overall all the setup is excellent and where an automatic gearbox may not be to everyone’s taste, we would suggest you try it – ultimately it is better to drive.</p>
