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Virtual Adviser's™ opinion
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 (front for the Audi and 4 x 4 in the case of the Subaru). The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 180hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 150hp engine designed by Subaru.
SafetyA starting point here would be to take a look at the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests which were performed on both of the cars, 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. On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the Japanese car offers a marginal difference of 8% more metal.
ReliabilityManufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Subaru does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Audi, as well as Subaru, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. The same official information place A3 as average reliability-wise, and Impreza 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 4.8 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.
Performance & Fuel economyAudi is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.3 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 232 kilometers per hour, 35km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 5.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (49 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 36% difference compared to the Japanese car!
Verdict
Subaru 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 Japanese car offers slightly better overall protection and takes the lead. From there things take a different direction, with Audi outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but 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. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.