Responsibility or carefreeness? This week’s Volkswagen and Audi give us two similarly priced answers to that question, and they each have style and refinement that’s above and beyond others in their classes.
For responsibility, we look toward the Volkswagen CC R-Line mid-sized sedan; for being carefree, there’s the Audi A3 1.8T Cabriolet. Both had base prices that checked in just under $36K, so let’s take a look at what you’d get, whichever direction you went.
Of course, you don’t have to start your spending in the mid-$30K range to get cars that do what these two do. Decent mid-sized sedans like the Hyundai Sonata start in the low $20K range, and the Mustang V6 convertible costs $5K less than the base A3 Cabriolet—and it packs 130 more horsepower.
So why spend more for this Volkswagen and Audi when more sensible and featured choices exist? It’s a question many in San Francisco are answering in the affirmative. A quick look around our streets shows that we are choked with German cars; Audis, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes are as common here as Mercurys and Plymouths were in my childhood suburb. Not that you need to hear it from me, but we live in a market where the upscale is wholeheartedly embraced.
And so, if you needed a roomy sedan with that kind of presence, you might enjoy the Volkswagen CC. Based on the Passat, the CC is its more stylish sibling, with elegant frameless doors and a slick silhouette. Volkswagen isn’t an upscale brand per se, but the CC’s style and upward-nudging prices root it firmly among those buyers.
The CC shares the Passat’s instrument panel, but feels more cocooned inside, thanks to the swoopy roofline. Per-formance with the tested 2.0-liter turbo was typical in being a little slow off the line, but speed became effortless when the turbo hit its boil. What the CC lacks in sportiness is more than made up for in its general silkiness. On the other hand, being more impractical and buying a convertible would find many re-wards in the Audi A3 Cabriolet. The general silkiness found in the CC is thoroughly im-bued into the A3.
The 2015 A3 Cabri-olet’s $42,225 as-tested price had it equipped with most of the luxury features that buyers want—heated leather seats, aluminum interior trim, the Audi MMI tech interface—but it did not include a backup camera. It has wisely been made standard on the 2016 A3 Cabriolet, because it is needed. When the A3’s top goes up, it feels like a curtain has been drawn across your rear view. The A3 clicks along with good scoot from the 1.8-liter turbo; a 2.0-liter bumps the horsepower from 170 to 220 and adds $3K to the sticker.
Both the CC sedan and A3 Cabriolet are gratifying in their own ways, and they’re a definable step above the quality of many of their competitors. These two show that spending a bit more can have its rewards.
Philip Ruth is a Castro-based automotive photojournalist and consultant at www.gaycarguy.com. Check out his automotive staging service at www.carstaging.com
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