So, what do you think? Does the Audi A1 have a chance to bring Audi back up from the A3 slump? Check out my poll
http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/364...m-the-a3-slump

 

A3 slump? Please elaborate.

 

A3 US sales to date - about 18,000 units in 2 1/2 years. Not quite the 10,000 per year they hoped for, but not really disappointing considering the total lack of marketing. People here in the Midwest still don't know that Audi makesa small performance hatch.
Sales are falling off recently - about 450 units last month. Audi isn't much distressed cause they sell all they can crank out in Europe. I'm sure they'll be finetuning US packages and marketing for the future, based on what's been learned about American acceptance of small luxury cars.

 

I'm sure they didn't release the A3 in the US with the intent to make it the 'end-all-be-all' little Audi. And since there's less margin for them with the A3, they're much more concerned with marketing the A4 or A6.

Also, Audi as a brand has two things against them in the US: 1) They are more widely recognized as a premium brand in other geos, and 2) The stigma of being a reliability nightmare 15-20 years ago is still lingering.

 

I will agree that the A3 sales have been less than stellar (like hesaputz pointed out, no marketing), but like drumdork said the A3 ain't exactly Audi's bread and butter. It is their least profitable model and they are easily outsold by the A4. I wouldn't say the A3 has hurt Audi overall (it is much more popular - and profitable - in Europe) and as a whole Audi's sales have been on the rise. Nothing against the A1, I just take issue with the way jeffh's original post was worded.

 

Numbers would look a lot better if there was a 2 door quattro model that had power (from the factory) to rival the WRX STi and Evo X. Hopefully introduction of the 135i to the US will change their thinking.

 

The A1 might be for sale. Sometime in 2010. Right now, it's a concept car.

 

2 dealers here keep indicating that the A3 is selling the fastest lately off the lots in the last several months, more than all other models. Without any marketing for them, this isn't that bad at all. But is it the same across the country? Doubtful. Since I live in the Bay Area (San Francisco to be exact), it's all about catering to environmentalist tree-huggers here and the fuel economy on the A3 is great for our general population. But I'm surprised to see that it's not doing as well number-wise across the nation as a whole. The price point might be the issue here but it's an Audi, not a Mazda 3.[:-]