Audi A1: revealed - Introduction

It's the most desirable new car of the year – in your eyes, anyway…

In a whatcar.com poll during the build-up to our 2010 Car of the Year bash, you voted the Audi A1 the must-have newcomer of the next 12 months by a big margin, and it duly walked off with the Reader Award. The idea of a supermini wearing Audi badges clearly resonates with a lot of people.

That will come as some relief to a company that hasn't done this sort of thing for more than 30 years. Audi's previous attempt at a supermini was back in the mid-1970s, when it made the Audi 50 - a rushed-out version of the VW Polo that came out shortly after.

It didn't market the car with any real conviction, however, and never brought it to the UK. The complex and costly-to-make all-aluminium A2 of 2000 is the closest Audi has come to a supermini since.

The A1 is based on a Polo, just like the Audi 50, but this time with much greater distinction. From its big single grille, through its sharply creased belt-line to its curvaceous roof, it has the look of a car that belongs in the Audi stable. The classy interior with its techy options are giveaways, too. It's the expensive-to-develop bits you don't see – powertrains, chassis, crash structures and electrical architecture – that are shared.