2015 Audi A3 TDI - Car and Driver (blog)

The A3 TDI’s performance stats are obliterated not only by those of the gasoline model, but also by BMW’s entry-level diesel, the 328d, which is the most comparable diesel in our market, even if it does have a base price $6455 steeper than that... In our testing, the 328d —also two-wheel drive (the rears versus this Audi’s front-drive setup), and also propelled by a 2. 0-liter turbo-diesel four—turned in superior times of 6. 8 seconds to 60 and 15. 3 in the quarter-mile. Plus, the A3 TDI is quite good to drive, with tightly controlled body motions and very good steering accuracy and feel. In that respect, the A3 TDI fared extremely well, averaging 38 mpg over 965 miles in our care (excluding, as is our policy, the partial tank consumed during performance testing). (For our first drive of the 2015 A3 TDI , Audi officials challenged us to drive 845 miles from Albuquerque to San Diego on a single tank. We measured 72 decibels at 70 mph, two louder than the 328d and five noisier than the A3 2. 0T. At idle, the diesel A3 was four decibels louder. Source: www.caranddriver.com