Audi A3 a model of success: two decades, three generations

THE brand with the four rings is celebrating the anniversary of the Audi A3. The successful Audi model had its motor show premiere 20 years ago in Paris. Today the premium compact is available in a choice of four body styles, four drive systems and three trim lines.

Audi presented the Audi A3 at the Paris Motor Show in 1996. The car was developed from the ground up on the basis of the Golf IV platform, which followed in 1997. From the very first generation, the Audi A3 has boasted innovations and quality features from higher classes, making it the founder of the premium compact class. The A3 initially was available exclusively as a three-door hatchback in three trim lines and with four different gasoline and diesel engines. In September 1998, Audi brought quattro permanent all-wheel drive to the compact segment for the first time in the A3. A five-door variant joined the model series in March 1999.

And the brand reached a milestone with the first generation of the particularly sporty Audi S3 in the spring of that same year: the 1.8 liter, inline four-cylinder engine with turbocharging and five valves per cylinder produced 210 hp.

The split grille still used in the second-generation Audi A3 was replaced in 2005 by the Singleframe, which went on to become the brand’s defining design element. Audi also expanded the A3 family to include its first open-topped variant: The A3 Cabriolet launched in 2008 with a classic cloth top.