Compare the2022 Audi A3VS 2021 Volkswagen Arteon

The A3’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Arteon doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.

Both the A3 and Arteon have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The A3 has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Arteon’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

Both the A3 and the Arteon have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front-wheel drive, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available all-wheel drive, blind spot warning systems, rear parking sensors and rear cross-path warning.

The A3’s corrosion warranty is 5 years and unlimited miles longer than the Arteon’s (12/unlimited vs. 7/100,000).

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2021 survey of the owners of three-year-old vehicles provides the long-term dependability statistics that show that Audi vehicles are more reliable than Volkswagen vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Audi 20th in reliability. With 36 more problems per 100 vehicles, Volkswagen is ranked 28th.

From surveys of all its subscribers, Consumer Reports’ January 2021 Auto Issue reports that Audi vehicles are more reliable than Volkswagen vehicles. Consumer Reports ranks Audi 10 places higher in reliability than Volkswagen.

On the EPA test cycle the A3 gets better mileage than the Arteon:

Regenerative brakes improve the A3’s fuel efficiency by converting inertia back into energy instead of wasting it. The Arteon doesn’t offer a regenerative braking system.

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Audi A3 uses regular unleaded gasoline (premium recommended for maximum performance). The Arteon requires premium, which can cost 20 to 55 cents more per gallon.

In its Green Vehicle Guide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the Audi A3 higher (7 out of 10) than the Volkswagen Arteon (3). This means the A3 produces up to 24.5 pounds less smog-producing pollutants than the Arteon every 15,000 miles.

The A3 offers a standard sequential manual gearbox (SMG). With no clutch pedal to worry about and a fully automatic mode, an SMG is much more efficient than a conventional automatic but just as easy to drive. The Arteon doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

For better maneuverability, the A3’s turning circle is 2.6 feet tighter than the Arteon’s (36.4 feet vs. 39 feet).

The A3 is 1 foot, 2.6 inches shorter than the Arteon, making the A3 easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

The design of the Audi A3 amounts to more than styling. The A3 has an aerodynamic coefficient of drag of .27 Cd. That is lower than the Arteon (.29) and many sports cars. A more efficient exterior helps keep the interior quieter and helps the A3 get better fuel mileage.

The A3 Prestige has a standard heads-up display that projects speed and navigation instruction readouts in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The Arteon doesn’t offer a heads-up display.

The Audi A3/S3/RS 3 outsold the Volkswagen Arteon by almost three to one during 2020.