Getting into the Audi A1 Sportback is a bit like going down the rabbit-hole with Alice. It's not so much that it takes you into Wonderland, it's more that on some occasions you feel like you've drunk the potion that makes you grow to larger than normal proportions.
In short, it's a bit cosy in there.
The Sportback is the five-door version of the A1, but if you think the extra doors improve anything other than the ease of access to the back seats, it's time to think again. The dimensions are almost identical, to within the few millimetre thickness of a pencil. If some manufacturers can make a small car feel big inside, Audi seems to be making this small car feel even smaller.
I've been driving the car with the latest addition to the diesel engine range. The introduction of the two-litre TDI to the A1 Sportback gives us a bit more power and a bit more performance in exchange for a relatively small sacrifice in on-road economy.
The little five-door had a 1.6-litre turbo diesel right from launch, but this bigger engine boosts the output from 104bhp to 141bhp and shaves 2.4 seconds off the 0-62mph sprint time, bringing it down to a fun-loving 8.3 seconds.
And yet the increase in the official fuel consumption is marginal. The 1.6 will, in theory, give you 74.3mpg while the same test regime carried out on the two-litre returns a figure of 68.9mpg - a fall of 5.4 miles from a gallon of fuel for those of you who are numerically challenged.
The two-litre TDI is a lovely engine. It whirs away smoothly and quietly most of the time, and it responds instantly to the pedal. This car has the six-speed manual gearbox which has a short shift between the gates. The combination of engine and gearbox makes it a very nippy little car which is apparently good for a 135mph top speed.
Being such a small car it fits snugly around you as you sit near the centre point between the front and rear wheels. You can feel where every corner of the car is as it turns around you. Placing it exactly where you want it on the road is as instinctive as thought. The view of the outside world from your shoulder to the rear hatch feels a bit more restricted than in the three-door, but that's no surprise because there is rather more metal in the doors and walls.
I've heard complaints among some of my colleagues about the 17" wheel option on this car, which they say gives it worse handling characteristics than the standard 16s. Their knowledge of tuning is greater than mine but one day I should get them to illustrate their concerns to me because I didn't find anything in the comfort, support or roadholding in this little car to complain about.
What I would complain about, if I were thinking of buying an A1 Sportback, would be the way it car feels so cluttered inside. Fair enough, controls are all within easy reach, and this test car is an S line model with plenty of toys as standard. But it all has to be packed into a small space.
Sitting in the leather and cloth driver's seat, there's not enough room to get my left foot between the transmission tunnel and the clutch. My left calf is always rubbing the tunnel wall too. My right knee is being stroked and poked by the key fob dangling on it from the ignition. These things work together to make it feel cramped and claustrophobic.
With the driver's seat set up for me, the space behind it is very limited for an adult. Knees are squashed in and the only reason my head isn't touching the roof is because the lining has a cutaway arch to accommodate it. Okay, the back doors make it easier to get in and out than a three-door, but they don't open far enough to make it actually easy.
Open the hatch at the back and you'll find there's not much depth to the cargo hold, even though the back seats can split and fold forwards to make it a bit more flexible. The sloping hatch imposes on the available height too. There is only about an inch or two of lip to lift your shopping in over, but with the boot being so small I'd suggest a larger lip could help prevent your potatoes and dog food tumbling out onto your feet when you get home from the supermarket.
So, I suppose the conclusion is that this isn't the car for you if you could in any way describe yourself as taller or more girthy than average. And if you want to regularly carry adults in the back, again I'd suggest you look elsewhere.
However, it truly is one of the best-looking small hatchbacks on the road today. The extra doors detract only slightly from the clean lines of the regular A1, and you might be happy enough with that because they do make it easier to get the baby seats in.
The basic cost of this well-specified model on the road is £20,805 but you can easily spend more than that if you go to the pick-and-mix Audi sweet stand. This test car has enough extras to bring the price up to just shy of £26,000, including the excellent BOSE sound system (£690) and the Technology Pack (£1375) that gives you advanced sat-nav and high-tech audio controls.
Pricey though it is, it does have those kudos-filled rings linked across the gaping grille at the front so it'll give you a bit of status if that sort of thing is important to you. But it is a lot to pay for a small hatchback with no particularly outstanding features.
