2006 Audi A3 Road Test

If comfort is your thing, you might want to skip the 2006 Audi A3 and spend your $30,000 on something bigger, because this car has a cramped interior. The leather-clad sport seats inside our test car were comfortable and supportive, and it was easy to find a perfect driving position thanks to a tilt and telescopic steering column, a manual seat height adjuster, and articulating head restraints. However, anyone with an elevated Body Mass Index will despise the hard bottom bolsters and feel pinched around the middle by the seatbacks. Bigger people will be further hampered by an intrusive B-pillar and those seat bolsters when they try to enter or exit with any amount of physical grace.

If you fit the driver’s seat properly, you’ll find the steering wheel an absolute delight to grip and spin, and that the center armrest is height adjustable for optimum comfort. But if you like to rest your elbow on the window sill for highway cruising, you’ll be dismayed by the hard materials and the curved design that puts the edge too far away. Further discomfort comes when diving fast into left-hand turns and you brace your right leg against the hard, unyielding plastic of the dashboard’s center control stack.

If you think conditions are tight up front, try the back seat. Four tall people aboard the 2006 Audi A3 will make for a contentious road trip, even to the corner 7-11. With six-footers sitting in the front chairs, similarly sized rear passengers will enjoy full leg contact with the hard plastic front seatbacks, so the only way they’re coming along for the ride is by splaying their legs wide. Also, the back bottom cushion is quite firm, the rear backrests are set at an uncomfortable angle, and if your trip includes a run through the Starbucks drive-thru, remember that the people in back don’t get cupholders for their venti triple-shot caramel macchiato caffeine and calorie bombs. However, thanks to the manual adjusters for the front seat, space underneath them is generous for those with large feet, so the A3 has that going for it.

Getting in and out of the A3 is restricted by the lack of interior space, but also by stiff door detents that are great for holding them open on a hill but terrible to metering out precise degrees of access or egress in a crowded parking lot. Also, if you opt for the giant Open Sky sunroof, prepare yourself for a greenhouse effect that makes your head feel hot and the rest of your body feel cold. Sure, the sunroof is made with dark tinted glass that can be covered by a rather flimsy screen that we predict won’t last much past the A3’s four-year/50,000-mile standard warranty. But on bright, sunny, summer days, the sunroof creates a greenhouse effect that the automatic climate control has difficulty overcoming. Another problem on bright, sunny days regardless of season is the glare off the aluminum-trimmed interior.

Finally, don’t expect a quiet car along with the premium price you pay for a 2006 Audi A3. The cabin fills with road noise at all speeds, and when traveling over 75 mph, wind roar over the sunroof is irritating, too. There are no squeaks and rattles, but this car is not quiet inside, making an argument for the purchase of the upgraded Bose audio system.