A1 ups supermini ante

THE A1 may be the baby of the Audi pack but it’s grown up considerably with the arrival of the second generation model. It’s more than two inches longer, has more aggressive looks and comes with the latest iteration of Audi’s turbo-charged petrol engines.

Diesels have been dropped and the new A1 is five-door only with boot space increased to 335 litres – more than a suitcase larger than before. Maximum capacity is now 1,090 litres.

As such it is much more familyfocused and can be fitted with plenty of equipment from Audi’s bigger vehicles.

At the moment the new A1 is available with a 1.0-litre three cylinder engine developing 116ps and badged 30 TFSI in line with Audi’s new naming regime.

Prices start from £18,540 for an SE grade manual and rise to £23,180 for an S line version with a seven-speed S tronic dual clutch automatic gearbox – a transmission available on all trim levels.

To come are entry level 25 TFSI models with a 95ps version of the 1.0-litre engine, a 35 TFSI which uses a 1.5-litre 150ps four cylinder unit and a 2.0-litre performanceoriented A1 with 200ps on tap and badged 40 TFSI.

Prices for those are still to be announced and we have just tried out the new A1 30 TFSI in top specification S line trim with the S tronic box – a set up said to be good for 58.9mpg with emissions of 110g/km and slightly more economical than manual models which are rated at 57.6 to the gallon (111g/km).

With options – and those included a technology pack at £1,650 which added a 10.1inch touchscreen navigation system and Audi’s virtual cockpit instrument panel – the car tipped the scales at £29,930 and that’s top dollar for a supermini.

However, this is an Audi and the S line version of the A1 comes with stiffer sports suspension as standard.

It is sharp, responsive and very precise and with multi-mode drive settings and longer sports changes on the transmission engaged the A1 handles in impressive fashion – akin to any ST model