The infamous German auto maker Audi launched its small family car Audi A3 for the first time in the year 1996. A3 has been released in two generations, and these cars are closely related to the Touran, Skoda Octavia, Audi TT, Caddy, Seat Toledo and Volkswagen Golf, Seat Leon and the likes of them, as they all share the Volkswagen's A Platform. The first generation model named A3 was launched in the European automobile market in 1966. It looked like a sporty car because of its three door hatch back body. The engine of this car was configured as Inline Four Cylinder. At the beginning of 1999, Audi launched two other models that consisted of better quality than the previous ones. One of them was 1.9 TDI Diesel Engine with variable Geometry Turbocharger and Unit Injector PD Technology. The other one was 1.8 with a power transmission of 177 bhp.
In the year 1999, for the first time Audi was forced to fulfill the demands according to market. For this reason, company made some quality and had to look out for other possibilities to make appropriate changes to its previous versions of cars. This new version included a variation of six speed manual gear-boxes with 177 bhp in 1.8L turbo engine and 129 bhp in 1.9 TDI. Some of the other facilities incorporated in the A3 series include Brake Force Distribution Computer, Transaction Control and Electronic Stability Program. The marketing of Audi A3 was stopped in Europe at the beginning of 2003, but it continued it's selling in some of the developing countries.