In 1996, Audi inaugurated the premium compact sedan formula with the very first of the A3 which, to make its task easier, could count on the technical base of the Volkswagen Golf IV. At the time, the competition was not head-on, far from it. BMW is still tinkering with its 3 Series Compact while at Mercedes, the future entry-level, which will arrive in 1997, will be entrusted to the small A-Class minivan.
It was only in 2004 that the propeller firm pitted its “real” compact against the Audi A3, the BMW 1 Series. And in 2012, only on the side of the star firm, the Third generation Mercedes A Class, known internally under the type code 176, will in turn adopt the silhouette of a hatchback.
In 2010, still at the forefront and this time using the practical technical base of the Volkswagen Polo, Audi once again moved downmarket with the first version of its A1, it was codenamed 8X.
A star-studded Clio
At the start of the 2010s, Mercedes took advantage of its partnership with Renault, whose Kango it cloned to make its first Citan. In return, the Stuttgart brand deploys its premium expertise in terms of finishing and manufacturing quality to the teams then in charge of the Renault Espace V, the future flagship of the French brand. While dCi and TCe engines from the diamond firm power the A Class. In the pipeline, still on the basis of this partnership with Renault, Mercedes then imagines responding to the Audi A1 by using the technical base of the Clio. The project, which was well put together and would not have lacked any assets, never saw the light of day.
A variant combining the qualities of a Renault Clio RS with an engine passed into the hands of AMG specialists would not have had to be ashamed of the Audi S1 or even the Audi A1 Quattro. Role that the Brabus Smart Forfour, the first of its name with 177 hp, tried to play before its heir with at best 90 hp slipped away. Today things have changed a lot, at Mercedes the doctrine is now to focus on large models which offer more margin. With this in mind, the A Class will not survive, too small and not profitable enough. So a “sub” Class A is completely out of the spectrum!
The BMW Mini
Here again in the 2010s, at BMW, a “Series 0” project taking advantage of the technical base of the Mini but bodied in a more virile style is very present in the product plan. A vehicle that perfectly complements the British city car intended to reach a more masculine audience. A clever way to duplicate the offer without stepping on toes. A city car shorter than a BMW 1 Series will indeed see the light of day but in a completely different form. This will be the brand’s very first electric model, the BMW i3 which arrived in the range in 2013 and which is also offered in a plug-in hybrid version using a range extender.
Apart from fairly similar sizes, 3.99 m long for the BMW i3 and 3.95 m for the Audi A1, and a common nationality, the two city sedans have absolutely nothing comparable. Everyone chose their side. In 2026, the BWM i3 will return to the range, but it will no longer be a city sedan at all, it will be a family sedan with a format comparable to that of a BMW 3 Series designed on the Neue Klasse technical platform .
The “mini” of Mini
Still at the same time and with this frenzy to shorten sizes, in 2011 at the Geneva Motor Show, the Mini Rocket prototype went straight to the point. The English brand is seriously considering returning to the small format of its beginnings. The concept car is extremely compact, 3.42 m long, which is certainly 37 cm more than the original Mini, the one launched in 1959, due to safety constraints. But it is above all 20 cm less than the Mini Hatch of modern times, the R50 generation which appeared in 2001.
Confident, Mini then assures that it will produce the machine from 2014, ten years after this announced date we are still waiting for it and it is not ready to arrive. The third generation of the Audi will not see the light of day, burying with it any desire for a small size for premium brands, a page is turning.
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