Metro no Mini

AUDI has hit back at criticism that its Metroproject concept – the Volkswagen luxury brand’s next all-new small car that will materialise as the A1 from 2009 – is simply a “Mini Me Too”.

Speaking to GoAuto at the unveiling of the Metroproject at the Tokyo motor show late last month, project exterior designer Jürgen Löffler insisted that the car had a look all its own.

“We never wanted to make a retro car. We wanted to do something new. Maybe it has a little bit of this (retro) feeling, but we wanted to create a new design icon for Audi,” he said.

“The (so-called ‘two-and-a-half box’) design is there to make it a little more unique, because other (modern small) cars have more of a three-door (hatchback) appearance like the Audi A3.

“We wanted to enter an area with something new, something that has a unique feeling, something with a more iconic feeling.

Left: NSU Prinz 4 (1965-73).



“There is nothing else quite like this – not even the Mini has a shape like this.”

While Mr Löffler acknowledged that one of the Metroproject’s aims was to strike at the centre of the BMW Mini’s heartland, the show car also set out to reveal a new design language for the brand.

“As a general theme, the whole car is a new design icon for Audi,” he said. “It has a really clear design: you have the shoulder that wraps around the car that the greenhouse sits on, the aluminium pillars, the floating spoiler, and the front and rear lamp (designs) that are symmetrical and very similar.”

Although the Audi stylist would not be specific about which of these features will find their way onto the production version of the Metroproject, he did admit that the finished article would be very close.

However, he stopped short of revealing if the pillar-less style would translate into the Belgian-built A1 in two years’ time.

“Show cars always have more elements than a production car, but we will try to take over a lot of things from this car for production – but we are not sure about this (pillar treatment),” Mr Löffler said. “The important thing is that we try to keep many of the features for the production car.”

Despite the fact that the Metroproject is not a “retro” design, Mr Löffler did agree that a pre-Volkswagen/Audi-era NSU did provide inspiration for the overall look and feel for the Metroproject’s appearance.

“Nobody knows much about the NSU (Prinz 1200 TT), but it did very well in rallying,” he said. “It was very interesting, with the trunk in the back and the engine inside that.” The NSU 1200 was based on the rear-engined rear-wheel drive Prinz 4 small car produced from 1965 to 1973. It featured boxy styling and, in TT and TTS guises, spirited performance and handling.

The Prinz 4 remains popular today in European rally circles, and was the marque’s best-selling car.

Audi was known as Audi NSU Auto Union AG until 1985.

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