2015 Audi A3 to star in Super Bowl XLVIII ad

The 2015 Audi A3 will be the star of Audi's 2014 Super Bowl ad, the seventh consecutive year that the automaker will be airing a commercial spot during the sporting event. You might have seen last year's "Prom" campaign by Audi (the video above) or the even more memorable "Vampire Party" from 2012, featuring the Audi S7.

Another recent Audi Super Bowl ad that the Internet seemed to like was 2011's "Release the Hounds" spot for the Audi A8, mocking old luxury...at Mercedes-Benz's expense, we might add.

The A3 sedan is expected to be one of the most important debuts for Audi in 2014, and the sedan will head to dealerships early in the spring. The 1.8-liter TFSI gas engine will be the base powerplant, with an A3 so-equipped starting at $30,795. A 2.0-liter TFSI and a 2.0-liter TDI diesel engine will join the lineup shortly thereafter. The Mercedes-Benz's CLA-class is clearly in the A3's crosshairs.

Super Bowl car commercials have made a lot of waves in the last few years, with the most memorable of the decade perhaps being Chrysler's Imported from Detroit ad campaign, despite it featuring the unremarkable midsize Chrysler 200, rather than the Chrysler 300, which happens to be imported from Canada.

The cost of the ads themselves, estimated at $4 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, hasn't kept automakers away, and Audi's is expected to cost much more than that. No details have been revealed about the one-minute spot for the A3 set to air during Super Bowl XLVIII, other than we'll see it during the third-quarter kickoff, right after the halftime show.

By Jay Ramey