The 2013 CES show has come and gone, and there was very little for the automotive enthusiast to get excited about this year. But there was THIS. As you well know, what you see above is Audi’s Le Mans conquering R18 e-tron quattro. This is the car that won last year’s race and it was on display at the futuristic Audi booth. Not much needs to be said about how cool this diesel bruiser is, so I’ll just leave the pictures right here…

Webster’s dictionary defines the worst way to start any piece of writing as quoting Webster’s dictionary. What’s the best way? Science has yet to tell us. Just one more thing those pompous scientists have failed us on. Others include decent pop music, microwave meals that don’t suck, and a way to get great gas mileage without having to be inside a Prius.

The lab coats at the Volkswagen Group are actually coming along on that last one. The TDI engine has owned the diesel passenger car market here in the states for years now, mostly being led by the TDI Jetta – which has been killing the sales charts. But what if the lovely VW is not enough for your bourgeoisie tastes? How will you know if Audi’s entry into diesel locomotion can satisfy you? That’s why I’m here friend.

The A3 TDI takes all that diesel goodness – great fuel economy, buckets of torque – and wraps it in the svelte A3 silhouette. The A3 has always been a handsome car, and having an oil burner upfront does nothing to change that. The long hood and short rump hint at a sporting character that is not altogether absent. The large chrome grill is well suited for mowing down bugs and the proletariat alike. The LED running lights may no longer be unique, but I still think Audi has some of the best executed.

Inside the cabin you’re greeted by a sea of black leather. I hope monochrome and drab are two of your style points, because the A3 interior is not what anyone would call adventuresome. Despite it’s one-note appearance, because it’s an Audi you know everything is screwed and bolted together with a ruthless efficiency. Don’t expect any squeaks or rattles out of this cabin for sometime to come.

The gauges are bright and modern; I especially enjoyed watching the thin needles sweeping across the digits when illuminated at night. The HVAC controls are logically laid out, and the stereo had no problem destroying my eardrums. Despite the car’s small exterior footprint, it capably handled large and oddly shaped loads (there’s a porn joke in there somewhere everywhere), including  my bicycle. I’m glad it’s good at hauling cargo, because it is less well suited for handling passengers. The rear seats offer only enough room to accommodate short trips or gawky teenagers. Despite the four doors, I used this car as more of a two-door wagon.

And what of driving the A3 TDI you ask? Well that depends on how well socially adjusted you are. If you vote, pay your taxes, and don’t have homicidal thoughts at grocery checkout lines, then the A3 TDI will probably do you just fine. If none of those things are true – and thus you are like me – you will find the turbo lag utterly infuriating. Not just infuriating, but also dangerous. 0 – 2500 RPM produces nothing – I mean nothing  – in terms of forward progress. This makes jetting from light to light an awkward process, and jumping out into oncoming traffic a treacherous one. You might get used to the lag and be able to time your maneuvers out correctly, but over my week with the car I was never able to get used to it.

Drive the A3 like a spinster librarian and it is quite good. Get the TDI up and moving and it is quite good. It is just from 0 to 30 mph when the trouble lies. Is it enough to ruin his car? Maybe, maybe not. Look at your driving style now and ask yourself how often you got your right foot planted into the carpet when the lights turn green.

In the end this is a compromise car. Luxury inside and out, huge cargo capacity, and a pretty decent canyon carver. Day-to-day driving is a little worse off. Depending on how you drive, you’ll either feel ensconced in luxury and smugness from your MPG numbers, or trapped inside a post modern German prison. For your sake, I hope you drive more rationally than me.

- Adam Kaslikowski

The original premise of this review was to see who did the VW family 2.0 diesel better, the Jetta or the A3. Fail. This engine, in either application, is a thing of beauty. It can also be a terrible piece of junk. Let me explain.

This 2.0 liter diesel engine is great. It is utterly clear why the TDI Jetta is cleaning up the sales charts and moving diesels engines back into the mainstream of the American car buying consciousness. The engine is smooth, dynamic, fast, full of effortless torque, and quiet – although it is quieter in the VW for some reason. It pulls really well at freeway speed – where horsepower is more important than a diesel’s tsunami of torque – and is punchy whenever you need it to be.

Like I said, the engine itself is great, but as I learned over the week with both of these cars, it’s the transmission that makes all difference. You see, turbo lag is still a very real and unshakeable part of this modern TDI engine. In the automatic A3, it feels like 1975 all over again when turbochargers just began to hit the market in the form of the 930 Porsche 911. Until that snail-shell breathed its fire on the engine it felt like the accelerator pedal wasn’t connected to anything. You’d mash your right foot into the shag carpet and have enough time to think that maybe a linkage was broken or maybe you’re out of gas or BAAAAMM an explosion of thrust and wheel spin and oh god why am I pointed that direction now? Those bad old days are back with this engine when paired with Audi’s S-Tronic automatic gear box.

Now given modern technologies and the fact that both cars are front wheel drive means only slight wheel spin (chirps if you will) and some mild torque steer instead of face and roadside hedge rearranging amount of chaos. No, the danger lies when you want to merge with oncoming traffic. I repeatedly punished the accelerator only to creep into some barn-storming Merc’s path rather than charging ahead of it. The moment always passed and torque pulled me out of danger, but I never quite got used to the change of timing this engine requires of the driver.

That said, If you drive like less of a maniac than an auto journalist does you’d probably never even notice. When I stopped trying to go 0-60 in 3.0 from every stop sign or set of lights the A3 was extremely capable. Calmly merge into traffic, gently accelerate like a well-adjusted human, always pay our taxes, and you wouldn’t want for more than the A3 TDI. Great looks – the Monza Silver is understated and classy, great gas mileage – 30/42, plenty of cargo room – 38.85 cu ft, and more luxury than you can shake a peeled mink at.

If for some reason you wanted to actively choose to drive like a sociopath, then you need the manual transmission only offered in the far cheaper Jetta TDI to do away with the lag-monster’s effects. In truth, the Jetta is far better a car than it has any right to be given its price range. Stacked up against the A3, it comes out the clear winner. The VW is roomier, just as luxurious feeling, smooth, and fast – more Autobahn cruiser to the A3′s athletic canyon carver.

Yet for all the greatness of the VW, when I had keys to both I consistently kept choosing to drive the A3. It’s the badge snob in me. Blame my weak self-esteem, the fact that I’m a young aspiring yuppie, or my upscale Santa Monica neighborhood. I wanted to be behind the wheel of the Audi more than I wanted to have a faultless driving experience. You are now thinking what every girlfriend I’ve ever had thinks – I am sufficiently and completely broken. I know.

The Jetta is objectively the better car when judged on interior space, comfort, drive train, and especially price. When the VW arrived at my doorstep, I thought it was sexy and especially catching in its Toffee Brown candy coating. The yuppie in me was very happy, excited even. But then the Audi arrived the next day. That deep grey little hatch with two-toned alloy rims had me hook-line-sinker. Once I had the option of which one to drive every day, I didn’t really have an option anymore.

But that’s me. You’re more mature and intelligent than me, right? Of course you are. If you are in the market for a Teutonic diesel sled you’ll choose the logical option and go with the Jetta. And you’ll be very pleased.

Either way you’re going to get excellent gas mileage, be coddled in leather and serenaded by great stereos. Either way you’ll be able to smugly look down on Prius and Volt owners for choosing such compromised rides when they should have gotten a diesel instead. Either way you’ll be quite happy.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Would you rather drive like a maniac and wring pleasure out of every last mile in the Jetta, or would you prefer to lord above the peasant folk and drive in a mobile announcement that you’ve arrived into the upper class. Choose wisely.

- Adam Kaslikowski

Audi has been running a full-court assault on the luxury market for more than a decade now. The German marquee has gone from junior member to full-fledged player in that time mostly on the backs of their mass-market cars. What Audi calls their B-segment we would know as the A4, A5, and their many variants. Audi recently brought the DrivingScene team out to the only unburned Colorado mountains left to test the full line-up of 2013 B-Segment models and they brought an old friend with them – the widely missed American allroad. Keep reading to find out how Audi’s 2013 model line-up is taking shape, and how we scared an editor from another magazine into closing his eyes as we four-wheel drifted up a mountain pass…

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In other news water is still wet, sky still blue.

What we have here is the best car in the world. Don’t be skeptical, follow me here – the car you see above ticks all the boxes for the enthusiast searching for their next ride. There are 7 simple reasons why you should lust after this car. 1st of all, it’s a wagon. Wagons pack all the cargo capacity of a truck/van but still have the road hugging manners of a sedan. The perfect marriage of form and function. Secondly, it’s a tuned Audi which is one of english’s most perfect sentences ever. The stock 2.0 turbo has a chipped ECU and an upgraded intake and exhaust system. I can tell you from firsthand experience that the exhaust note is aggressive without becoming overbearing at speed.

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