5 Available upgrades for the Audi A3

By Martin Pretorius 

It's hard to believe that the current Audi A3 is already 6 years old, especially judging by how fresh and contemporary it still appears. It's still very good to drive as well, because the MQB platform on which it is based uses a really well-sorted box of components, while timeous updates have kept the engine range and technology up to the latest standards. 

It's also fair value for money, because even the basic specification is surprisingly generous, with enough extra features to set it apart from the Golf with which it shares its basic engineering. And, as with just about every German car, you can enhance your A3 with a wide array of options, making it even nicer to live with. You'll find things on the options list which were until very recently the preserve of top-level luxury cars, and on top of that, they're not even as expensive as they would be on said luxury cars.

Let's take a closer look at 5 options to achieve a nice configuration for a high-tech yet sensible A3 Sportback – the most practical body style on offer. Please note that some of the options listed here may need other, supporting upgrades before they can be added to a car's specification sheet. Any prices quoted here are current at the time of writing, but are likely to change without notification.

The Engine: rightsizing instead of downsizing

Following a recent model range refresh, the diesel- and 3-door derivatives disappeared, and VW Group's great little 1.0 TFSI turbo petrol 3-cylinder slotted in at the bottom of the range, tuned for 85 kW and 200 Nm. It's an agreeable unit in isolation, but it feels somewhat at odds with the S-Tronic twin-clutch automatic transmission which comes as standard on all A3s.

The smart money will go one step up, to the 1.4 TFSI and its 4-cylinder with 110 kW and 250 Nm, which is an altogether more enticing combination with the automatic gearbox. Only R24 000 separates the 1.4 TFSI from its little sibling, but there's an additional R40 000 to shell out for the cheapest 2.0 TFSI variant. If you can afford it, buy the 2.0, but the 1.4 is honestly more than sufficient to haul the light-ish A3 around with reasonable conviction.

The Wheels

17-inch alloy wheels are standard even on basic A3s in South Africa, and there are four different wheels designs from which to choose, all at no extra cost. They fill the wheel arches nicely enough, and some of those designs are very pretty. This is why we'll be quite happy to stick with the standard rolling stock. 

18-inch wheels are also available at a cost of around R9 000, but their merits are open to debate: sure, they do look nice, but they make for a lumpier ride quality and greater sensitivity to potholes, and they're really not necessary on a car of the A3's size and power level. 

19-inch Audi Sport wheels can also be specified as an optional extra – at a rather serious premium just a hair shy of R24 000. Granted, it will look spectacular, especially with S-line styling pieces, but it will also be absolutely surplus to requirements on a car with only 110 kW on tap. We'll skip those wheels, then – even if the S-line package is selected.

Sport suspension in two flavours

If you'd like your A3 to sit a little closer to the ground (15 mm, to be exact), you can tick the “normal” Sport suspension option box, yours for R3 077. Its stiffer springs and dampers will sharpen the handling a steering a little, but the ride should still be acceptable if you've (cleverly) resisted the temptation to select an 18-inch wheel design. There's also an S-line suspension package (R12 400), which drops the ride height by an extra 10 mm (for a total height reduction of 25 mm), and features even stiffer springs and dampers.

Yet again, it has to be questioned whether the handling benefits will be relevant to a car of the 1.4 TFSI's power level. If you prefer a stiffer setup than the standard car can offer, the first-level Sport suspension will suit you just fine, but we'd probably not even bother with either upgrade – the normal A3 already strikes a great balance between handling and ride.

The road ahead

Audi is quite generous with the A3's standard lighting setup, which features Xenon headlights as the default fitment across the range. They also offer two LED light options: a static-beam arrangement and the brilliant Matrix LED setup. 

Deciding whether either of the LED arrangements are strictly necessary, given the excellent standard Xenons, is probably a matter of some debate, but given our preference for as much safety equipment as possible, we'll happily settle for the mid-range static LED system, priced at R14 576.

Sit down and listen

Audi's cloth seats are really comfortable, but upgrading to a leather-and-Alcantara trim combination (R12 105) also gives you far more-supportive and prettier sports seats as part of the bargain. You can have full leather trim as well, at an added premium of about R5 500.

There are also two technological upgrades we'd deem essential for the A3, and they relate to the driver assistance package and the audio system. The Assistance Package gives you parking assistance (including park distance control), adaptive cruise control (with traffic jam assistant), Active Lane Assist, and high-beam assistance – a bundle which seems like a bargain at R20 175.

As for the audio system, you can at least invest in the mid-level 10-speaker active sound system (R3 591), along with the MMI Navigation system, which also includes a display screen upgrade and better head unit in its R15 131. Yes, the tech upgrades are quite pricey, but they're right up there with the best in this class.

We paid a visit to the configurator on Audi's local website, and specified a Nano Grey Metallic A3 Sportback 1.4 TFSI S-Tronic with 17-inch Audi Sport wheels, LED headlamps, the Assistance Package, Rock Gray Alcantara/Leather seat trim, automatic climate control, and the Audi Sound System audio upgrade. The total cost came to R 544 187, of which the options accounted for R 88 187. That's far less than the price premiums you'd pay with other luxury marques, and is indicative of the A3's sound basic specification level.

For the sake of comparison, an A31.0 TFSI with absolutely no options retails for R432 000, making for a price hike of less than R110 000 to go from a low-powered, poverty-spec example to a luxuriously trimmed and adequately perky mid-ranger. That seems like suspiciously good value, doesn't it?