MOTORS REVIEW: Audi A1

Where many motorists used to talk about a £10,000 Ford Fiesta or a £14,000 Vauxhall Vectra, now monthly car repayments are regularly compared to a datarich mobile phone tariff and all thoughts of that final balloon payment are forgotten as people expect to simply upgrade to a new vehicle in two or three years’ time.

The effect of this has been that Audi, BMW and Mercedes are battling it out with the volume brands as swathes of society prioritise a premium branded car over a monthly payment into a mortgage.

PCPs have facilitated this shift and an accompanying rise in new vehicle prices.

That’s how I came to test a 116PS onelitre hatchback with a footprint to rival a Fiesta or Corsa, which came in at a whisker under £30,000…

Audi’s new A1 supermini can be bought for £15,600 with the very same three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine in slightly less powerful 95PS guise, but in S line trim with the S tronic automatic gearbox and a smattering of choice options my test car was topped up from its £23,350 basic price to £29,930.

Only the affordability of a low APR finance offer could prompt a potential buyer to be so bold in their choice of compact hatchback.

New for this year, the latest A1 has been redesigned in more aggressive and angular fashion as it looks to justify that broad range of pricing.

Extended by 56mm in length — it is now only available in five-door Sportback guise — the A1 measures in at 4.03 metres.

Its width remains the same and a low, 1.41m height helps to deliver a purposeful stance, something further accentuated by purposeful air vents atop the distinctive Audi grille.

The £575 optional Turbo Blue paintwork of my test car really made this A1 stand out, though — a fine departure from Audi’s old habit of offering a range of metallic grey hues.

Where the A1 quickly establishes itself as the most premium car in this class, however, is on the inside.

Great pains have clearly gone to ensure that there has been no loss of kit or quality in the translation of the Audi formula into this smaller package.

With all key control surfaces cantered towards the driver, the Audi MMI infotainment system’s 10.25 inch HD touchscreen, complete with crisp Google Maps sat nav graphics, is mated to the Audi Virtual Cockpit, replacing traditional instruments, speedometer, rev counter and trip computer functions with an equally high quality display thanks to my test car’s addition of the optional (£1,650) Technology Pack.

This also adds an on-board hard-drive for music storage and a wireless phone charging “plate”.

Among the standard safety technology on all A1s is a lane keeping system, which prevents the car from straying over white lines if an indicator’s not activated, and an autonomous braking system with pedestrian detection.

Part leather, part-Alcantara sports seats, a swathe of scale-like textured metallic dashboard architecture, the kind of sculpted, ergonomic S-line steering wheel you’d expect to find in an RS4 or TT and a precise action to every control all elevate the A1 into territory not previously seen in this part of the market.

That all this is overlayed onto an interior which is designed with more daring than any Audi I can remember driving in the past, makes the A1 a standout offering even within the German brand’s broad stable.

As I mentioned earlier, the A1 has grown a little and there is a genuine ability to travel with four adults on board, if required,while the boot has grown 65 litres to a more useful 335 litres.

That one-litre turbocharged engine is refined and, while its initial perkiness isn’t quite matched by a deeper layer of performance when you push on, it’s not anuncomfortably slow car.

Audi claims fairly conservative 9.4-second acceleration to 62mph and 126mph top speed, along with 58.9mpg fuel economy and 110g/km CO2 emissions from the S tronic dual-clutch gearbox driven here.

For £30,000, many buyers will expect more and a £1,100 step-up to the 150PS 1.5-litre version will look attractive, I suspect.

As ever with the Volkswagen Group’s automated manual gearboxes, the sevenspeed transmission can be a little hesitant, jerky even from a standing start — especially when cold — but remains one of the sharpest shifters in the market once on-the-go.

That Turbo Blue paintwork writes cheques that the A1 can’t really cash in performance terms, in the one-litre guise, but firm S line suspension ensures it handles sharply, if lacking some of the pliancy of the dynamically blessed Ford Fiesta.

Progress is reassuringly precise.

There is a lot to enjoy about the new A1.

It breaks new ground for trim quality and technology in this class and feels every bit the now not-so pocket-sized premium hatchback…

But it is another car that commands a considerable price tag if customers want to access all the range has to offer by delving into its premium-sized options list.

Get merry with the specification and the £229-per-month PCP example offered by Audi for a A1 Sport 30 TFSI (£20,620) — with a £3,209 customer deposit — could quickly turn into a mortgage repayment-rivalling outlay.