A3 or 1 Series?

[shifty_uk]

In my experience senior leaders in business and industry tend to know the difference between a big and a small engine!

I'm not a senior leader in business, I'm just starting out my career and wanted something for my daily commute and very occasionally visiting clients. Rather than your average Focus for running up and down the motorway I fancied something with a bit more refinement and quality. The A3 seems to offer that but I thought I'd ask opinions of the two for comparison and even look at other car suggestions.

In terms of running costs/servicing/mpg/consumables etc, how would a 2 litre A4 TDI compare with an A3?

 

[Matt82]

So you reccomend a 100k mile 5 series?

To your average joe, someone driving a nice new shape 3 series would look to be professional.

3 series, unless its a hot model, is a sales rep car

 

[rodenal]

I'm not a senior leader in business, I'm just starting out my career and wanted something for my daily commute and very occasionally visiting clients. Rather than your average Focus for running up and down the motorway I fancied something with a bit more refinement and quality. The A3 seems to offer that but I thought I'd ask opinions of the two for comparison and even look at other car suggestions.

In terms of running costs/servicing/mpg/consumables etc, how would a 2 litre A4 TDI compare with an A3?

Pretty much the exact same - very slightly lower mpg, but not enough to notice though poorer residuals - but you'll not be buying at the high end of the market anyway so that's not really a concern for you.