Audi A1 1.6 TDI Sport review
by David Finlay (26 May 2011)
Rachel, unlike myself, is 17 years old, blonde, glamorous and very knowledgeable about fashion. She is therefore better qualified to review the Audi A1 than I am, and the only reason I'm involved here at all is that her entire appraisal consisted of just two words. You are, of course, a tolerant and fair-minded reader, but I'm pretty sure you'd feel shortchanged if you were presented with a two-word road test.
"Cool car," she said as she climbed into the passenger seat. It didn't matter that she had no idea what it was. It didn't matter that she had no idea what an Audi was. She just thought it was cool, and if Rachel thinks something is cool, then it's cool, and that's all there is to it.
There would have been no point in insisting - as I've done in the past - that the A1 is little more than a Volkswagen Polo with a different body, an interior handed down from larger Audis and more than £1000 added to the list price. If you're concerned about that sort of thing, you'll buy a Polo. If you want a supermini but are picky about what brands you associate yourself with, it's going to be the A1 every time.
In any case, I wouldn't want my own splutterings to detract from the undoubted good points of the car. It is beautifully built, and even the 1.6 turbo diesel engined version reviewed here is amazingly quiet. The petrol models are even more so. If you're cruising gently in one of those it's quite possible that, like a hungover golfer in a P G Wodehouse story, you will be distracted by "the uproar of butterflies in an adjoining meadow".
It's also a lovely car to drive, as long as it's not fitted with the 17" wheels and low-profile 45-section tyres which utterly destroy the ride quality. Fortunately, our test car was a Sport, which has 16" wheels and more sensible tyres - hurrah! Unfortunately, it had the 17s and 45s fitted as an optional extra - boo. This would cost you nearly £600, and a better way of using that money would be to withdraw thirty £20 notes from your bank and set fire to them.
If you'll excuse a brief digression into practicality, the A1 is acceptably roomy up front (I'm six foot three and had plenty of space) but it's a bit tight in the back, and although the luggage volume - 270 litres seats up, 920 litres seats down - is reasonable, it's less than is offered by other superminis.
On the plus side, the rear window design is entirely sensible, making this one of the very few cars in its class that you can reverse without fear of flattening an unseen pedestrian.
In that respect, the A1 is noticeably better than the Volkswagen Polo on which it's based. More generally, the Polo is every bit as good, to say nothing of being better-looking (to me, at least) and somewhat less expensive. I would have the Polo myself, but then I'm not as cool as Rachel is.
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