The 2010 Audi A1 could take its cue from the Mini Cooper, which has been a solid success in its first five years. Mini is an arm of BMW, and it's only natural that other upscale brands are looking at premium minicars of their own. Among them is Audi, the premium division of Volkswagen, where a recent management shuffle has strengthened the odds for a baby Audi smaller than today's compact-sized Audi A3 hatchback.
The Audi A1 could be on U.S. soil as early as model-year 2010, say industry sources. It'll be somewhat smaller than the A3, but longer, wider, and taller than the popular Mini Cooper. In fact, the A1 is likely to be sized close to the BMW 1-Series.
The 2010 Audi A1's basic design will doubtless borrow heavily from parent VW's European-market Polo, but will likely not be a retrimmed version of that small hatchback. VW/Audi says it's moved beyond sharing complete platforms to devising component "modules" that can be mixed and matched to create unique products for each nameplate. A current example is the VW Eos retractable hardtop convertible, which blends structural elements of the compact Rabbit/Jetta and midsize Passat, but has no Audi counterpart.
If the A3 is any guide, the 2010 Audi A1 should be offered in two models. Some sources indicate a 4-door hatch is in the offing, but it may be joined by a 2-door hatchback. In any event, the entry-level model will have front-wheel drive and a high-power version will get Audi's quattro all-wheel drive. Both will use 4-cylinder engines.
The 2010 Audi A1 base model could come with around 130 horsepower. The AWD A1 would probably sport VW's unique "Twincharger" 1.4-liter engine already available in Europe with up to 168 horsepower; it compares nicely with the supercharged Mini Cooper S. The "Twincharger" is so named because it uses both a supercharger, to maximize low-end torque, and a turbocharger, for maximum high-rpm power.
Both 2010 Audi A1 models should offer a choice of 6-speed transmissions: A regular manual and optional Audi S-Tronic, a computer-operated sequential manual transmission that can be set to shift like an automatic, styling and appointments should borrow liberally from the A3 and A4 models, though standard and optional features will be carefully chosen to achieve target prices that won't cannibalize sales from the larger A3s.
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