The Audi A3 Sportback was awarded Car of the Year for 2013 by What Car. And it's a "worthy" winner, says the magazine. It might look like a subtle evolution of what's gone before, but in fact it "brings new brilliance to a whole host of areas". It offers a mix of "refinement and an accomplished driving experience with easily the finest cabin quality ever seen in a small family hatchback".
The fact that it can win out over some pretty "stunning" rivals not least the Seat Leon and Volkswagen Golf makes its achievement all the more impressive. This Audi sets a new benchmark for the sensible family hatchback, and is also "pretty keenly priced".
The A3 is a grown-up, practical hatch, agreed Andrew English in The Daily Telegraph when he reviewed the car a year ago. Some might say the car's just a "gussied-up Golf" and in many ways it is, he said, but it also "brings a welcome dose of luxury to the all-plastic cabins of its non-premium rivals".
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It's also fast and "confidence-inspiring if not exactly joyful" to drive, and the ride is highly impressive: it handles "badly cambered roads and poor surfaces with aplomb". Sure, you can have a Golf for less and a Seat Leon for even less, but they're not quite as nice and not quite as practical. The A3 "would be a thoroughly enjoyable thing to own".
Price: £19,825 (for the 1.4 TFSI 122 SE model)Top speed: 126mph0-60mph: 9.3 secondsFuel economy: 53.3mpgCarbon dioxide emissions: 123g/km
