Plan to buy a used A2 - anything to watch out for?
Discussion
What's Good
High-tech aluminium space-frame constructed 12ft 4in hatchback, with low drag coefficient of 0.28, built to take on the MB A-Class. 12' 7" long by 6' 1" wide. 75 bhp 1.4 petrol engine offering a Euromix of 46.31 mpg or a 3-cylinder 1.4 litre 75 bhp, 144 lb ft TDI pump-injector diesel offering a Euromix of 67 mpg and up to 81 mpg touring. Both do 108 mph and 0-60 in 12 seconds, but diesel is more fun to drive. Two-deck rear luggage compartment. Rear seats completely removable. Decent ride quality and steering. High level of grip from tyres. Very comfortable multi-adjustable seats. 1.4 priced from £13,095. TDI arrived January 2001, priced from £14,000. 1.2 litre '3 litre car' which averages 94 mpg, semi-automatic gearbox and 105 bhp 1.4 16v petrol not for UK, but new ultra-economical 100bhp 1.6 FSI petrol engine arrived Spring 2002. Deep sills provide impressive side impact protection. Gained four stars in NCAP crash safety tests. Very trendy among the well heeled. Three year warranty. TDI emits 116g/km CO2 so qualifies for £80pa VED from April 2002. Achieved an excellent four star rating for crash safety in 2002 NCAP tests. Euro IV 1.4 TDI 90PS announced October 2003. 65.7mpg combined, 0-60 in 10.9 and top speed 117. Price from £15,090 OTR.
What's Bad
Looks like a chopped-up A6. High rear door sills and sunken footwells do not help access to the back seats for the elderly. Gearchange quality varies a lot. Pre-production gearboxes were noisy, but production RHD examples seem to be fine. 1.4 petrol engine is rorty, needs to be revved for performance and can feel sluggish on the motorway when the car is laden. Emergency spare wheel is an optional extra. Non opening bonbet foxes some people (front flap opens for checking fluids and revelaing clips which allow bonnet to be lifted off). Up to 2002 MY had terrible MW and LW radio reception. From model year 2002 radios are completely different and reception is OK. Audi had slightly above average warranty repair costs in 2003 Warranty Direct Reliability index (index 110.52 v/s lowest 31.93). Average warranty repair costs in 2003 Warranty Direct Reliability index (index 101.16 v/s lowest 31.93). Link:- www.reliabilityindex.co.uk
What to Watch Out For
Accident damage and parking dings to alloy body and structure will be expensive to repair, but Audi is setting up six special repair centres for A8s and A2s. Seems to be a problem of turbo failures on the 1.4TDI if the car is not used much. Most reported cases are within first few months of the car's life.
Recalls
26/2/2001: Air-conditioned A2s built 1/1/2000 - 31/12/2000 recalled because a/c components may come into contact with starter motor in a collision which could lead to a short circuit and fire. 16-10-02: On cars with 3 spoke steering wheels airbags may not work. Airbag to be replaced, but affects only 79 of 4,400 cars.
Courtesy of honestjohn's site.
HTH, minghis.
>> Edited by minghis on Friday 25th February 14:21
You must get one with aircon. Without it you will need to lower the windows when it gets warmer (no kidding Sherlock!) - the problem being that the car suffers from terrible 'booming' at certain speeds. We used to have one and it almost made our ears bleed when we put the windows down (fortunately we had aircon and learnt our lesson very quickly).
Our car also had headlamp units which steamed up on the inside - a characteristic which someone at the dealership had the nerve to tell us was a "design feature". It also had a water leak in the passenger footwell which took the dealer several attempts to rectify. For these and other reasons we ended up giving the car back to the dealer and getting almost all our money back against an A4 Avant,
Our car also had headlamp units which steamed up on the inside - a characteristic which someone at the dealership had the nerve to tell us was a "design feature". It also had a water leak in the passenger footwell which took the dealer several attempts to rectify. For these and other reasons we ended up giving the car back to the dealer and getting almost all our money back against an A4 Avant,
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