Living with an Audi A1 for a WEEK! | FULL REVIEW

Now the car that I have here is an Audi A1. It's your entry into the world of Audi and also known of course as a supermini or a city car but I have a question. Should you spend thousands of pounds more for a car like this or is it just a posh badge on a budget car? Let's find out in this week's review. Now for regular viewers of the channel you'll know that I recently reviewed an Audi A3 and even pitted it against my Mercedes A-Class which is my daily car so I was very very keen to check out the A1 to see kind of what Audi have cut back on because the starting price actually starts with a two which we'll get on to in a minute but I wanted to see what they cut back on on the inside and see if it impacts your experience. We'll get to that don't worry but let's check out the front design first. Now no matter what angle you look at this car it is still distinctly an Audi which I think is a really really good thing and considering of course this is just basically a baby version of an Audi A3 a lot of the styling has been basically just mirrored down to this car so you've got things like the grille here for example and even these slits which I quite like along the front just beneath the bonnet and LED lights are standard which is great and even the angular sporty lines going down the side of the car here I just really really like it looks great. Move to the rear and it even has things like a spoiler it's a small one little spoiler lip here and then even these 3D styled rear lights they didn't have to have those things especially on like an A1 but it just adds that sort of sportier look to it it doesn't look too dissimilar from the rest of Audi's lineup which of course I think is a good thing. Now I will add the one I have here is of course S-Line there are different trims which I'll get into in just a second so this one isn't like a standard one there are a few sportier elements on this one because of the S-Line. Now I've reviewed a few cars on YouTube now but I don't think I've had a green one before this might be the first I could be wrong but in case you're wondering this is district green metallic of course this isn't the only color that Audi have they have a variety of different colors on their website I don't think I would personally go for this I don't dislike it I just don't think it's me I think unfortunately I'll go a bit boring and go for something like this but of course this review would not be complete without some dimensions and I think this is quite important because obviously this is meant to be quite a small car so length 4029 millimeters width 1740 and if you include the mirrors 1940 and height 1433 so definitely not a big car although I will point out that for tall people like myself with long legs you might not have the best experience on the rear seats but there again it is a small car I completely get that. Now the starting price of an A1 is £24,605 and of course that's on the road correct at the time of recording however as I mentioned I don't have the base one here so what I have on test is a 35 TFSI S-Line this is one of the faster engine variants and I'll go through that later when we're on the drive this also does have a couple of extras on it as well such as a technology package so it just pushes the price up to just over £30,000. The technology pack adds a few things like an upgraded sound system wireless charging reversing camera and heated seats also do keep an eye out as well that the reversing camera is not standard the rear parking sensors are standard though so there is that. Now let's get on to practicality now I'll be honest when you look at the rear of the car here it doesn't look like the boot is well anything because it's so small but actually you can fit more in here than you might initially think so in here 335 litres as you see right here right now and you can also fold the seats down and it'll go to over 1000 litres so I think the reason for that is because Audi also include this bit under here and you can actually adjust the floor as well just put him down there do a bit of wiggling around and then suddenly you've got about that much more space which I think is quite good considering the car size it doesn't look like there's much of a boot but looks can be deceiving now rear seats I know that is going to be a problem because that is set up for my driving position and of course this being a really really small car I'm not going to fit in there yeah there's there's there's no way I'm going to fit well I didn't think I'd actually fit but yeah surprisingly I think it does help the fact that these seats are very soft on the back my knees are basically in the seat so guys for context that is set up my driving position I'm six foot two with very long legs and a slightly shorter body headroom is good although I will add this bit here is quite big so it does make it feel like a little bit claustrophobic in the back here so worth noting and of course there are no vents in the back and there's no usb ports or usb-c ports or a center armrest or anything like that so adults will not want to do a long journey in the back here but I get it it's an entry-level car you're not going to find these things in the back really in terms of build quality I think every every part of the door is plastic which is sort of to be expected on an entry-level car but at least the doors do have a nice solid closing sound which is really nice except there's just lots of plastic here kind of to be expected though seats are relatively comfortable it's just that yeah there's not much room for me I'd have to move that forward anyway should we take a look at the front because up front is actually quite modern okay now up front I'm pleased to say there is a lot more space than certainly in the rear behind me but yeah me being as I mentioned six foot two that's my driving position kind of there one thing I should add as well is that um it's got one of these a lot of cars I've been reviewing well I think this is maybe one of the first cars new cars I reviewed that still has the the key what is this ancient technology I'm joking I know it's the entry-level car so that they obviously have to cut back on a few things but um yeah there is another thing I've cut back on as well which I'll touch on in a second but yeah I mean look handbrake it's an actual handbrake that you use and gear stick in the middle as well so uh the Audi A3 I had before had the little toggle in the middle but yeah this actually has the actual gear stick in the middle which some people might prefer you know certainly if you've been driving manuals all your life and you're just doing a little upgrade to this then it might be quite welcome but yes I'll just turn it off just for now for safekeeping now I mentioned one thing I wanted to touch on was build quality now Audis are renowned for their interiors they always receive good write-ups and even when I had the Audi A3 on test brilliant on however in this it looks amazing however it is unfortunate that when you look really closely this is all plastic unfortunately now I get it this is an entry-level budget car in the Audi world of things so they are going to cut back in some places it wouldn't bother me from the point apart from that sometimes when I drive my elbow goes up here and it is rock solid for your elbow so there's no giving at all because it is just literally hard plastic same goes for down here and I mean this is a little bit squidgier there but yeah there's plastics everywhere I get it it's an entry-level car but it has an Audi badge on it so I was hoping it was going to be similar build quality materials to the A3 but I get it the starting price does reflect that and it does start with a 2 so it can be forgiven and I've got to say the design in here looks brilliant I do love this it's very much just like the A3 the one thing that I do miss though there's no center armrest I yeah I need one I haven't driven the car for a long time without a center armrest in fact I just want to think if maybe my first car didn't have a center armrest Peugeot 206 yeah yeah it's not until you jump into a car that has a lower specification of the things you've been testing recently and then you realize oh yeah so yeah one thing to note there is no center armrest however let's do a quick tour then we'll go through the multimedia system so there's a little bit of storage here with very very very small cup holders in fact this middle one almost looks like it should be for an espresso shot or something it's so small but yeah I mean technically there are cup holders here also got the handbrake there gear stick volume uh previous and next track buttons there 12 volt socket two usb c ports and wireless phone charging there as well which I should point out is on one of the technology packages but then you'll be pleased to know from an ergonomics point of view there are buttons and switches and dials everywhere there's no well there's touchscreen which we'll go through in a second but for the climate control nice switchy dials buttons down here buttons on the steering wheel so yeah all of that is brilliant although one thing I will add as well because obviously this is an entry car there's no dual zone climate control so you have to do the fan speed manually and adjust where you want the air manually so just things to factor in you can get dual zone climate control I did note it was on one of the packages storage on the doors is also very good as well so it's got my sunglasses and a cloth in there for cleaning the screen and then glovebox I mean yeah that's that's nice and big so plenty of storage there there's just no center compartment here which um quite a lot of cars do normally have I'd imagine that's what are you thinking about it probably because of the um the handbrake so that's all good uh let's take a look at the multimedia system now just like the Audi A3 you'll find the actual dashboard itself is curved slightly toward the driver so the screen actually is directly looking at me which just improves readability and that sort of thing but yes this is Audi's MMI multimedia system for those wondering it's a 10 inch screen or 10.1 inches if we're going to be completely precise and having reviewed it and even pitted it against my Mercedes A-Class in that comparison video it's a good multimedia system you have quick access things over here on the right hand side from radio and music and phone and sat-nav and all of it was pretty easy to use uh there weren't really any but when it comes to the sat-nav it does use google maps uh it sort of has like an Audi overlay of the whole thing please drive to the route shown yeah very robotic voice let's mute her so settings voice guidance and voice guidance off there we go so no more voice so yeah sat-nav very clear easy to use and of course on the top here is how you can cancel it so yeah nice easy uh inbuilt multimedia system if you don't want to use Audi's version of course there is CarPlay and Android Auto as well so yeah you can choose between which one you can see but what is a nice surprise to see is that even on media if you go on here you can actually look at some streaming services so you can actually connect up Apple Music and various other music streaming services like Amazon through the multimedia system now obviously I'd imagine there's a data charge or something like that so if you have one of those two you probably just can use CarPlay or Android Auto anyway but it's nice to have that functionality as you can see you can even connect up Amazon Alexa as well and of course there's an abundance of settings to go through on here if you want to change anything from the screen brightness to announcements and sounds and notifications and even adjusting the EQ for the sonos sound system in here which is very good I will add that if I was choosing this car I would definitely opt for the sonos sound system because I've heard Audi's on their standard sound system it's okay I just like music so yes the sonos one in here is good you can actually adjust quite a few things in here from the treble the bass and even the subwoofer as well so you can tweak it to your liking now just before we go out on the road and explain about the engines and what this car actually like to drive steering wheel I did mention it a minute ago that this actually has buttons on it which is wonderful there's so many cars out there these days which have touch steering wheels and I don't know it's just nice to have buttons because yeah you can do muscle memory and remember where the buttons are this actually being almost like sort of semi-digital but then also having a few analog components so the analog components here are all the warning lights at the top of the screen here hopefully you don't obviously see any of those fuel over here on the right and then engine temperature on the left the rest in the middle is all digital which is very nice because you'll actually see this on the road in a second when I get the camera here and we go out for a drive you can adjust this and view all sorts of different things from your mpg to putting the sat-nav up here and adjusting track information and the voice assistant so yeah loads of things you can do on there which is really really nice to see and for those wondering currently got 46 mpg on the way here and I wasn't even driving economically so I think that's pretty much on par with what Audi quoted so that's pretty good anyway enough yapping let's get this out on the road and let you know exactly what it's like to drive and of course what engines are available okay haven't put the key in for a long time I can't even find it oh there it is into drive handbrake down and away we go now guys I've been living with this car for the past week so I'll let you know my thoughts on what it's like to drive and live with and that sort of thing first up the engines now Audi have quite a few but they don't have any diesel and I kind of understand that because I think diesel is basically dead according to smmt figures there aren't many car manufacturers that have diesel engines now but yeah they're all petrol here they all are so there's a 25 tfsi 5 speed which produces about 95 ps so I don't know how that would perform I feel like that's actually quite underpowered uh but there again I will add that this car doesn't weigh much because obviously the shell and chassis is a lot lighter it's quite a nimble little car but I don't I don't know it's under 100 horsepower for a car that's like 20,000 pounds I'd have to try that I feel like that might be a little too slow but it could be useful for just you know poodling around town and whatnot now this is available in the 5-speed or s-tronic s-tronic could be their automatic version there's also a 6-speed and s-tronic available on that one this one goes up to 116 ps then there's this car so this one is a 35 tfsi this one is 150 ps and from the looks of it only available in automatic probably because of the increased power and you'll see in a second that uh pulling away that there is a slight delay until the turbo's kind of kicking and then this car really does actually sound quite good you know for the size of the car and the price it's actually quite a nimble quite a fun car but yes there are different drive modes uh Audi actually do have an auto mode which is nice but we want dynamic for this one so uh for those regular viewers of the channel you'll know that this bit here is not the best for pulling out because um the traffic van actually speak of the devil it's all clear let's go and 70 there we go we'll try overtaking so 50 up to 70 let's see it's got some pull it's a little nifty engine this one which is why i'm i'm worried when i read the stats on there because the 0-60 of that entry-level engine does look a little bit on the slower side so i would definitely test drive that and check that out before committing to the entry engine but this engine no i like this engine it's got plenty of go uh admittedly as i mentioned as you go to pull away it it feels like a little bit hesitant at times but it's got plenty of torque on this so yeah there's a lot of pulling power because of course it is front-wheel drive and of course there are different drive modes there's efficiency and auto and dynamic for choosing what drive mode you want using audi's drive select and of course at motorway speeds it's actually really really quiet in here again i think because it's such a small car that it cuts through the air quite well so even at motorway speeds just back there it's fine you could easily do a cruise in this despite its size again and the other thing because it's so small it's very very nimble when you want to throw it around in the corners and have some fun so here's the thing i was talking about when you're at a roundabout and you need to pull out really really quickly i'm just gonna i'm not gonna floor it i'm gonna do like 70 percent power and put to the floor now there's the power it kind of kicks in when you're like 15 20 miles an hour so yeah it's not completely nimble from like pulling away from the start but when that turbo kicks in it's got some pull so yeah i really enjoyed living with this car it's been great fun very very nimble the only thing it's just the size i just feel i mean i i pretty much drive most of the time with me in the driving seat i don't really have any passengers most of the time but of course on the odd occasion that you do you might need that extra space in the back but as a city car it's great i love the steering wheel as well it's great uh nice and thin very sporty up here uh whereas for example in the bmw one series it's really really thick i quite like audi's steering wheels but as well there are rumors that audi are getting rid of this model i've read online from multiple places that they're discontinuing the a1 and i don't know how i feel about that because it's not the only manufacturer that are doing this was it for fiesta is gone there's i swear there's a few others as well i mean i haven't covered many brands on my channel but all the small cars are going there was even rumors of the mercedes a class going as well but that does seem to be sticking around for the next couple of years at least i feel like it's a place for these small cars there's a mini going by minis are great fun they're a very dynamic drive in fact if you want to see the review of the new mini cooper i'll link that up above good little plug there but i guess this is what this whole car's aimed at small city cars affordable i appreciate twenty thousand pound plus to thirty thousand pound is a lot of money but have you seen some of the car's prices oh and i should also add as well god jeez it's very dark in here one second there we go just put stuff a bit more light so yeah one thing i will add as well if you want a manual but also want the automatic on the automatics you can actually change gear manually believe it or not i'm sure many many audi owners know this already but just in case you don't you can push this to the left then you can actually adjust the gears manually so gear four three two then you can have a lot of fun changing gears up and down and then when you're ready to put it back to automatic to the right so yeah it's it's good fun i would definitely recommend to go automatic for sure however this review would not be complete without looking at the pros and cons so let's find a safe place to pull over and talk about those pros and cons about whether or not you should consider an a1 for your next purchase so guys final thoughts with pros and cons so being such a small car definitely a great fun car to drive especially this engine although as i mentioned i don't know what the entry-level engines would be like definitely check them out beforehand then you've got the premium badge now this is the cheapest way of owning an audi for sure so yeah i think that's a good thing i just hope audi reversed their decision to get rid of the a1 because we do need these affordable cars for sure then of course we have the very very premium interior although i will add a slight little asterisk to that that there are a lot of plastics in there looks wise it looks stunning very very premium interior it's just that there are a lot of plastics in some areas but as i mentioned earlier the price tag does start with a two on most variants so can be forgiven slightly then we get on to the cons now of course the cons definitely with the car this size is the rear passenger experience it's not great for kids it'd be absolutely fine but for full-size adults it will definitely be a bit of a squeeze then of course just looking at the competition there are cheaper alternatives to buy for sure it just depends if you want the audi brand and the badge and then the other thing as well of course that there is no diesel or hybrid options for this uh i'm sure audi have probably looked at doing a plug hybrid for this but if they did well there wouldn't be a boot because the boot's small enough as it is so yeah just something to factor in there's no diesel or hybrid it's only petrol but yes guys there we go that concludes this week's video let me know down below your thoughts on this car do you think audi should keep it in their lineup or do you think they should uh well let it go but yes comments are always welcome thank you so much for watching until next time guys see you then