Start with what the Chery A3 is: a 4-door sedan / 5-door hatchback with Petrol engine, built from 2008 to 2015, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Goran Popović at Pininfarina.
Where it came from
The Chery A3 is a compact car built by the Chinese manufacturer Chery between 2008–2015, offered as a 4-door sedan and as a 5-door hatchback. It was revealed for the first time as a concept car at the 2006 Beijing Motor Show and production car two years later which went on sale in September 2008.
The car was designed by the Italian studio Pininfarina. In South America, Eastern Europe and Oceania it is marketed numerous different names, including: Chery M11 (in Ukraine and Russia), Chery Tengo (in Serbia and nearby countries), Chery Chance/Niche (in Turkey), Chery Cielo (in Brazil), Chery Skin/Skin Sport (in Chile), Chery Orinoco (in Venezuela), Chery Cruise (in Indonesia) and Chery J3 (in Australia and New Zealand).
Under the skin
The engine is Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1355 kg. Drive goes through a 5-speed manual / 4-speed automatic. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2550 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the Chery line-up the Chery A3 has a clear place: it handed the line to the Chery Arrizo 7; the factory was Wuhu, Anhui, China. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Tesla Roadster, the Nissan 370Z, the Hyundai i30. Nearby in the Chery catalogue sit the Chery Arrizo 5 GT and the Chery A1.