The ninja’s over at CAR Magazine seemed to snag a few sketches of the new Audi A1. Looks pretty good. As one commenter said, “VAG is late to the game, again“. This will go up against the Mini Cooper which is far into it’s life, has a driver base etc.
We always knew that CAR’s Georg Kacher is one of the best connected motoring journalists in the world. But even we were surprised when he rang the office with news that he’d ‘obtained’ official design sketches of Audi’s new Mini, the A1. Forget the artist’s impressions you’ll find elsewhere, CAR Online has three sketches smuggled out of Ingolstadt’s design HQ that show exactly how Audi’s baby will look.
It’s been a few years since the A2 ceased production, and Audi is chomping at the bit to join the ranks of the premium superminis. You can’t blame them after jealously eyeing five years of BMW success with the pricey Mini. Audi’s own supermini will be a classy hatchback laced with the brand’s design flourishes – and will form a crucial plank in its strategy to become the world’s biggest premium car maker by the middle of the next decade.
The A1 will also be among the first VW group models built around its new MQB formula (that’s platform boffin-speak for modular transverse matrix). Sounds a bit dull, but the important thing is this: it will also underpin the next A3 in 2010 and other minis elsewhere in the group, and it’s designed to be cheaper to build, easier to assemble and more flexible to drop in different modules to tailor the spec for different brands. Audi reckons it’ll be $1000 cheaper per car than today’s small-car architecture.
Audi A1 – First Official Pictures – Carmagazine.co.uk
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