New for 2022 Audi A3 sedan is the most accessible vehicle in the brand’s lineup. Starting at $35,895 (including $1,095 arrival fee), it offers an affordable luxury entry with a compact footprint and nimble handling in a stylish package. We told you how it works. Here, we take a close look inside 2022 A3 Quattro.
The first thing to look out for is the digital display. There is one located directly in front of the driver, which serves as the gauge cluster. This full-color 12.3-inch “Virtual Cockpit Plus” is available in the $2,250 Technology package, which this tester comes equipped with, and includes navigation, road sign recognition, and a system Bang & Olufsen audio. Virtual Cockpit is also part of the flagship Prestige Package, which also adds a head-up display and matrix LED headlights.
The infotainment system stands out with a 10.1-inch screen, which is slightly tilted towards the driver. It’s easy to access and use, fortunately, Audi no longer use a separate user interface on the center console. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard, if you want to bring that familiar phone user experience to the A3’s infotainment screen.
Audi tends to use minimalism in very elegant and architectural ways. It is a design aesthetic at worst that is unobtrusive and unobtrusive, but a potential subject of deep appreciation for fans of modernism. The small, monolithic gear lever is surrounded by piano black plastic and flanked by the ignition and audio controls, um, the circular shape is a prime example. Black pianos can start to feel almost played out equal carbon fiberbut it’s implemented nicely here.
Speaking of those audio controls, this circle thing is weird (below). Press up to turn on/off, down to mute, left or right to select tracks or stations, and rotate your finger in a circle to adjust the volume. All of this was once done with a more traditional knob in Audis. We love its tight packaging with the aforementioned controls, which reinforce the cabin’s clean look, but we really didn’t enjoy using it – unlike the old crown. Instead, we mostly just use the redundant audio controls on the steering wheel.
Also on the steering wheel are a pair of gearshift paddles, which help make this nimble, nimble sedan even more appealing, allowing you to flick through the seven gears of the S-Tronic transmission in manual mode without No need to take your hands off the steering wheel. .
The A3 has hard buttons and a compact digital display for the climate control system, as opposed to dials that spin or, God forbid, touch sensitivity slider. If you look closely, you can see some small flaws in the clothes. The fact that the metal ridges at the bottom of the buttons aren’t perfectly aligned is not something we noticed while maneuvering the car, but only became apparent when photographing it. We thought we’d point it out, but we’ll still give this one a pass.
Aside from the modest center console and cup holders – which, depending on how many drinks you tend to carry or the size of your water bottle, can be used to hold drinks or not – there’s a A small compartment below the center stack houses a wireless phone charger, along with a pair of USB-C ports. As more and more of our devices use this port standard, we are happy to use them and don’t have to guess if we are trying to reverse plug it, even though a standard USB port is available. standard somewhere that will be useful for repeatedly charging the cables we still have lying around.
There’s also a meager storage space in the front door pockets.
Taking a closer look at that door panel, we see some interesting, sculptural designs that Audi loves to include in its cars. Here, however, we also see Audi stepping out of its minimalist comfort zone for a more energetic aesthetic. There are corners and there are corners. This is possibly the busiest part of the A3’s interior, stylistically speaking. Visually, it’s no frills when you’re in the driver’s seat with the doors closed, but when the doors are closed, it’s like having a statue in front of a modern art museum, inviting you inside to see discover more. Just look at the door handle inside. It’s almost like a Tony Smith Piece.
That said, there’s a lot of hard plastic there, and it doesn’t feel great to the touch. This is a trend with Audis recently, including Q5, Q3 and A4, all with lower quality materials than the medium they replace. So does the A3. Thankfully, we don’t spend a lot of time worrying about things like door trim and dashboards. The A3 also gets faux-leather door armrests as part of the $3,300 Premium Plus Package (which also adds things like wireless phone charging, driver’s seat memory, alarm system, auto-dimming mirrors) dimming and folding, along with a number of driving aids, safety and convenience technologies).
The Premium Plus package also adds adaptive cruise control, but it retains the stock and cheap feel on the steering column to steer it. This is another function we would like to see added to the controls on the steering wheel, for ease of use.
Audi is a luxury brand, the leather seats feel like home, and the Santos brown is a nice, warm contrast to the black plastic and metal found elsewhere. The suede trim and light stitching also look good. The seats are comfortable and can be easily adjusted using the controls on the outside of the seat. There’s an adjustable lumbar support, too.
While there’s a bit of grayish-black plastic, it can be easily broken in this small car by using other materials, like the stitching on the dashboard and the “Platinum Gray” inlay. “Onyx gray” fine-grain birch wood and LED ambient lighting are part of the $550 Interior Style package.
The rear seats are surprisingly spacious – a boon of the A3’s 2022 redesign. We wouldn’t want to sit directly in front of a rear-facing child seat, but a child in a high-back forward-facing child seat has plenty of leg room. Even long-legged adults can take the A3’s back seat.
Speaking of car seats, the lower LATCH anchor is easy to find and use. They’re behind a plastic cover that flips up and out, which is a much easier solution than digging around between the seat back and the cushion. We also appreciate not having to find a place to store the covers (and eventually lose them).
Rear passengers don’t have much to say about the climate control system. They can only adjust the direction and flow of the vents at the rear of the center console. However, they do have a pair of USB-C ports to charge their devices.
There’s not much room to put everything back there. The door pockets are small, and the mesh pockets on the back of the seat don’t hold much. They also do not help to put items out of sight.
The trunk isn’t huge, but the large opening makes it easy to make the most of its 10.9 cubic feet of capacity. There’s also a removable cargo net to keep loose items from slipping or rolling as you move the A3 through roundabouts on your way home from the grocery store. If you need to store more than the trunk can hold, you can also take advantage of the 40/20/40 folding rear seats, as long as the passengers don’t use them. Beneath that load deck is a compact spare tire.
Overall, the interior of the Audi A3 is comfortable. The disappointing widespread use of plastics is compounded by a truly interesting and aesthetically pleasing design, with geometric shapes and a clever placement of accents and decorative details to disrupt what would otherwise be. is a monotonous cabin. Sure, there are a few things to look out for (which is especially unavoidable in such a targeted review), but overall, this interior feels like it’s right for the brand’s memory. Audi’s brand and the luxury entry-level price of the A3.
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