Long time owner here! bought mine in the summer of 2006, so 6 years now!
Bought at 19, insurance was £1600, ran for 2 years as my daily driver. Sold it to buy an E36 M3 at 21, decided that wasn't for me and was able to buy my A3 back again and ran it until 2009 as a daily driver. Then bought another 1.8T A3 as a daily and turned the first one into a track car.
Daily is now sold and I'm back to just the one 1.8T as the track car 6 years down the line and ive driven over 100k miles in it. it's now well over 200k, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love it.