<h1>2015 Audi A3 Sedan</h1>

Audi has crafted its 2015 A3 to comepte directly with the Mercedes-Benz CLA 250.

In the automotive world, there are three perennially entertaining triangular industrial grudge matches: In Japan, mass market sedans from Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. In America, the pick up truck war of Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford. In Germany, the contest between luxury cars made by Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.

It is this last battle that has been heating up of late, but uncharacteristically not at the top, where the respective standard bearers fight without regard to sticker shock, but at the entry level, where the global economy and the price of gasoline in North America dictate the battlefield.

The scouts have been in the dealerships to test the market forces and the reports are in to headquarters—four cylinder sedans from Audi and Mercedes will be on sale here next model year, while BMW will soldier on with 1 Series coupes while in a waiting mode on smaller sedans.

Mercedes is introducing their front wheel driven CLA250 later this summer. In response, Audi is introducing its new front wheel drive A3 sedan as a 2015 model. The year choice means the car will not go on sale until next year, but so many details have been released about it, as well as a corporate declaration of intent to meet the challenge of the new "Baby Benz," that discussing this car is not inappropriate. After all, Audi has been testing this market niche with the current generation A3 "Sportback."

Inside, the 2015 A3 features a futuristic cabin including a pop-up navigation and control display panel.

The next generation A3, sedan features all new sheet metal, to be evocative of its larger A4 and A6 siblings. At least three engines, a 2.0L TDI diesel, as well as a 1.8L and 2.0L turbocharged four cylinder gasoline engines are on tap. Horsepower figures are slated to be 150, 170, and 200 respectively. A more powerful S version is going to follow sometime after the introduction of the new A3 in America, in the first quarter of 2014. A Quattro version of the next A3 will be available at launch.

Its not likely that the corporate cold feet on a Quattro announcement is a confession of any engineering challenge. It is more likely the case that an A3 Quattro could bite into A4 sales. Alternately, a non-Quattro A3 may be a calculated gamble to hold the line on the window sticker's MSRP, sparing a $2-3,000 surcharge for the all wheel drive system.

In any case, the sales battle between the next A3 and the Mercedes CLA250 promises to be interesting. Mercedes has plowed this ground before with great success with the 190 series cars, but they haven't been able to recapture the magic of that car at the entry level since. Audi's A4 was their entry level car before it became too sophisticated and expensive to comfortably fill the role.

Audi enjoys a certain cachet among younger buyers that Mercedes would like to capture. The A3's mission is to hold the line.