This car was a replacment to a 2010/10 BMW 118D and so far it does have a premium feel and it does not feel much smaller on the inside apart from the boot which is still useably big. As a new purchase there is scope for customising and adding options, although why you would spend £30k on one of these is beyond me.

Mine has Sport trim which gets you to a level of creature comfort including sports seats but if you want useful things like parking sensors etc you have to add options, I have the comfort pack (auto lights / mirrors, cruise, dimming rear-view & parking sensors). I also specified the optional SE 'dynamic' suspension which are longer springs at a lower spring rate, body roll and damping is still firm but you do get that extra bit of compliance on undulating road surfaces.

Unlike the other platform sharing VAG models (Polo, Fabia, Ibiza) in the A1 the 1.6TDI comes in unbeaten at 105PS and 99 g/km with 0-62 clamed at 10.7 sec. The 5-speed manual is occasionally a little lumpy but not really a distraction, the ratios are quite long which means making good progress is limited to first second & third. Looking about on the net it does get criticised for sounding a little gruff at times, but you can easily live with this to get both reasonable perfromance and economy if you know how to drive the engine right.

After 2000 miles on Shell V-power diesel the engine is beginning to loosen up and if my journey is more than 15 miles then 60 mpg is achievable. The tank is only 9 gallons which will give a range of 450-550 miles.

I am happy to have changed from the 1-series to this car, over 90% of the miles I travel are alone and it's a nice place to be, the rear seats are ok for short to medium jouneys and the spilt level boot is good for storing items out of sight and you can buy a 18" space saver wheel to store above the battery.

The car is leased through work for 2 years so I cannot judge servicing and maintenance costs but as the A1 is not much more expensive than the Polo it will be in the same ballpark.

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