Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Small family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Audi and front in the case of the Ford). The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 5-cylinder, 20-valves 400hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 182hp engine designed by Ford.

Both vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the same number of safety stars gained in the process. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the German car offers a considerable difference of 14% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Ford as a brand displays somewhat better results, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Audi with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Ford badge with 4.4 out of 5. Independent research findings rank A3 as average reliability-wise, and Focus is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the German car rank it on average as 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Audi is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 4.6 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 280 kilometers per hour, 58km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the American car, averaging around 5.6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (50 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 52% difference compared to the German car!

Ford appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the German car offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Audi outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Audi. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.