Audi A3 pricing worth the wait

THAT was worth waiting for! Audi finally revealed pricing for the second generation A3 range late last week, with a starting price $2000 below what was originally in-place.

The entry price for an A3 three-door 1.6-litre manual has been officially set at $34,900 after extensive negotiations between the local distributor, Audi Australia, and the global board in Germany.

Originally, pricing for the new A3 was set at a starting point of $36,900, which would have been $1500 above the $35,400 base price of the outgoing entry-level model, the A3 1.6 five-door.

Audi Australia campaigned to have the price reduced because it was concerned the rise would be rejected by potential buyers in the ultra-competitive Australian market, particularly with the new BMW 1 Series arriving later this year and a new Mercedes-Benz A-class on-sale from mid-2005.

The negotiations went on so long that the car was launched and the first examples delivered to dealerships without official pricing. Two deadlines to deliver the pricing were passed before it was finally issued last Friday.

In the end, all models dropped in price apart from the $75,300 V6 quattro, which goes on sale in August.

The new pricing will give the five-door Sportback A3 more room to move when it arrives here in next February. It will line up squarely against the 2.0-litre 1 Series as the BMW is only available as a five-door as yet. The new A-class is offering three-door as well as five-door derivatives.

“While we found ourselves in the unusual position of having a vehicle ready for launch without final pricing to announce, we felt that the resulting price benefits would positively affect customers for the whole lifecycle of the vehicle, and were therefore well worth the slight delay in obtaining them,” Audi Australia managing director Graham Hardy said.

“As Audi AG’s newest 100 per cent-owned daughter company, Audi Australia is determined that this key volume model will be a sales success in this market. Despite some short-term uncertainty regarding A3 prices, we firmly believe that we have now been able to deliver a meaningful result for customers that will have long-term benefits for the three-door Audi A3 and subsequent derivatives as they are introduced.” PRICING
Audi A3 1.6 (m) Attraction $34,900
Audi A3 1.6 (a) Attraction $37,400
Audi A3 2.0 FSI (m) Attraction $39,000
Audi A3 2.0 FSI (a) Attraction $41,500
Audi A3 2.0 FSI (m) Ambition $40,400
Audi A3 2.0 FSI (a) Ambition $42,900
Audi A3 2.0 TDI DSG (m) Ambition $47,800
Audi A3 3.2 V6 quattro DSG (m) Ambition $75,300