Shed of the Week: Audi A2

The Audi that will get you from Stuttgart to Milan on one tank

"Always buy on condition", they say. Trouble is, if you pay any attention to what they say, you run the risk of missing the odd gem. Like, potentially, this Audi A2.

These wee beasties rarely drop into sub-£1K territory, especially not when they're fitted with the desirable 1.4 diesel motor. This particular car's descent into three-figure territory must be down to its smutty Shedly appearance. It is, in every sense, a used car.

But 'used' doesn't have to be a dealbreaker. Indeed, in the world of pre-owned cars, 'used' is often better than 'unused'. If you're in the market for a cheap A2 - and plenty are - the only call you have to make is whether it's been abused.

The signs are reasonable with this one. It's been owned by the same family for the last six years. The vendor is refreshingly concise and honest about its pros and cons. If you don't mind a few scratches and an afternoon's work with the bucket, chamois and selection of primping products, you could quite quickly end up with a smart, cheap and usable example of a car that made its own little piece of history.

Most know the A2 story. Aluminium body (well, a mix of aluminium and aluminium alloy anyway), multiple design award winner, ahead of its time etc etc. The official brief was for a car that would take four people from Stuttgart to Milan on a single tank of petrol. Not a massive challenge to be honest, as that's only 322 miles, but then the A2's tank was pretty small.

An Audi spokesperson described the A2 as a project to 'create a small Audi, but not a cheap Audi'. Unfortunately, they hit that target rather too well. The A2 proved too expensive for the market it was aimed at, with the cheaper but far less accomplished Mercedes A-Class outselling it by more than five to one.

Still, seventeen years after its launch, the A2 still looks fresh and contemporary. In use, it makes the best of its limitations. You only get 75hp from the thrummy little diesel, but you'll be surprised how far that goes in an aluminium car weighing less than 1000kg that's been designed with at least half an eye on aerodynamic efficiency.

The diesel you put in it goes a long way too, for the same reason. Shed ran around in a very early A2 1.4 TDI for the best part of a year. He doesn't recall ever achieving the 65mpg mentioned in the ad, but then again he often had the odd large weighty item to move around. Not to mention other things apart from Mrs Shed.

The ride was a bit plywood for the time, a relic of well-founded manufacturer paranoia about too much suspension travel in a high car, but if you're more accustomed to more modern cars, many of which ride like penny-farthings, you won't even notice a problem.

The wheel-at-each-corner layout and high seating position make the A2 a great town tool, but the stubby wheelbase brings another issue for ganglier types. Shed's abiding memory of his car (apart from the relentless thud of the single windscreen wiper) was the need for frequent stops to unbend his right leg. Still, he never had any trouble transporting the Newton Badgerley five-a-side team to an away fixture. The cabin is actually decently spacious in a vertical sort of way. Same goes for the tiny-looking boot. If your luggage is mainly tall and thin you'll be fine.

The cloth Audi put into the A2 is a cut above the norm and the seats provide good support. Shame the original radio has been replaced, and an even bigger shame this car doesn't have the stonking factory Bose setup, but at least the replacement is a Blaupunkt and (unless Shed's old eyes deceive him) it's a DAB unit too.

Things do go wrong. Early cars suffered from a litany of breakages. Dipstick tips routinely snap off and drop into the sump, not disastrously so fortunately. Balljoints, sensors and coil packs all give out and the electric window problem mentioned in the ad is very common. It's usually the switch. Water ingress (here affecting the headlamp unit) can also soak the boot. Brake light bulbs seem to pop a lot. The wheels are very vulnerable to kerbing. Audi servicing is very expensive, as are replacement air mass sensors. Sunroofs can jam.

Despite all that this is an intelligent little car and, even now, if you're lucky, an intelligent buy.

Here's the ad.

The Good
A car body made entirely out of Aluminium and therefore will never rust, does 65 miles to the gallon and costs £30 a year to tax has got to be a good thing. I've owned this car since 2010 and my wife has used it pretty much every day. Its reliability is legendary and I have ensured its continued reliability through a regular maintenance schedule.
The Bad
As with any car of this age it is bound to pick up a few issues on the journey and I'm not going to hide any from you. The battery is probably not going to last another winter, the passenger side electric window does not close completely to the top although I can hear the mechanism working, this needs attention, water has got into the nearside headlight and the bushes on the sub-frame could do with replacing soon, although this wouldn't be an MOT failure. MOT by the way is due in September.
The Ugly
It has picked up a few scratches and scuffs over the years, I think most, if not all of these could be polished out, I've noted them in the attached photos, but if you need more detail let me know or come and have a look for yourself.