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"  Do you curse those 2-seater sports cars when you meet a nice girl and her best friend at the beach? Does your neighbor face having to pick up the kids from school in his supercar? Challenges, indeed, unless you fetch one person at a time. A minivan works well but has all the charisma of a banana slug. An SUV is just a mini-van that can navigate dirt trails, but with ever-increasing gas prices, a very expensive minivan. There is no catchall automobile, but there are some that come close to meeting the ideal of practicality, sportiness and spaciousness.   Welcome to the premium compact car segment where Audi&amp;#039;s new A3 Sportback joins a limited number of competitors, foremost among them the and .   The Audi is not a wagon. It&amp;#039;s a 5-door hatchback; think upscale . They share the same platform and as such there is a , but the model is not coming to our shores (see sidebar). Besides the two extra doors, the Sportback has an extra 2.7 in. of length over the Europe-only A3. The new Golf Mk V coming next year is a close cousin of the A3 obviously, but in the Audi-VW family, Audis have the finer tailoring.   Being the last in the model line to receive the wide-mouth grille, the Sportback has raked headlights, square shoulders and a canted-rearward roof for a purposeful look. Even without the sport package, our A3 had a cat-stalking-a-mouse facade. Its stock 17-in. all-season Pirelli tires on good-looking multi-spoke alloys do an adequate job of filling the wheel wells. The A3 resembles a shrunken .   A very chic and very -esque interior features a matte-black anti-glare rubber-covered dash and instrument pod. It&amp;#039;s soft to the touch and contrasts nicely with the leather and aluminum trim, which includes Audi&amp;#039;s TT-style circular air vents with metal bezels. Interior lighting is the familiar stealth red. Dual-zone climate control and a CD player are standard, and all cars are ready for your choice of XM or Sirius satellite radio. Our car was fitted with a premium package that included heated leather seats as well as brushed aluminum trim. All windows are one-touch up and down with pinch sensitivity, and the car has central locking. Audi is about understatement, and the interior is a good example. The cabin is well assembled and Audi definitely has given the A3 all the accouterments one might expect on a larger premium car.   Important standard features include traction and stability control, which can easily be disabled via a button on the dash labeled ESP, for Electronic Stabilization Program. Airbags are everywhere: front, side and curtain bags for both front and rear. The climate control includes a pollen and dust filter. The optional equipment list includes navigation, Bose premium audio, a glass roof and xenon headlamps. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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