The Audi A2 is quite an individual beastie. It can’t be mistaken for anything else once you realise what it is. And it is first and foremost a brave move by a marque which has not been in this (Fiesta/Polo) segment up to now.
The A2 is innovative in that it is the first car in the class to have an all-aluminium body on a spaceframe platform, a combination pioneered by the brand’s super-expensive A8 luxury car.
It also has a number of other clever-boots bits and pieces, as well as - in the review diesel-powered car anyway - pretty impressive fuel consumption.
It points to the future in many ways. And yet it doesn’t quite make it there in some of them. Which is a pity, because buyers will pay rather richly for the experience.
First, though, lets put MY preferences into perspective.
If I go back through my favourite cars since I was a youngster, the ones which stand out include the Vauxhall Wyvern, the Ford Consul I learned to drive in, the Ford Corsair I wished my father would buy, the ‘winged’ Ford Zephyrs and Zodiacs which featured in the first ‘Z Cars’ police series, the Mark I Triumph 2000 that my uncle let me drive, Opel’s Rekord B estate (I owned two when I was a heating contractor), Vauxhall’s HB and HC Viva estates (again, I owned one of each as a publican when the collecting discount from Irish Distillers effectively paid for the running of the cars), Opel’s pre-current Astra (owned one) and a few others which I could never afford.
In between those I absolutely loved the ‘egg-shaped’ Mazda 121 (had one), enjoyed the Daihatsu Charade diesel van (before it was rolled, thankfully without injury to the roller and the car didn’t matter a whit), and there’s a current family 1997 Nissan Primera 2-litre auto which I don’t get enough chances to drive.
So, I’m not averse to odd-looking cars, but I suppose the list also shows I like them to look like what they’re supposed to be.
The A2 does look like a car. Maybe not my type of car, huh? (But don’t forget that Mazda 121.) Truth to tell, I could get fond of its tall style and sawn-off butt. I admire the idea that there’s no need to lift the bonnet, because a small panel in front allows access to oil and water and wiper fluids (the bonnet can be lifted off entirely by whoever is giving the car its long-distance services). And I’m impressed by the interior packaging which will carry four people easily and five without much unwanted intimacy.
I like also the quality of the fit and finish, and the view in front of the driver is pretty and even sporty as far as instrumentation is concerned. I found the driver’s seat particularly comfortable, and the suspension was adequate in performance given the tall body and short wheelbase. It did tend to hiccup on surfaces with sudden dips and bumps. I put that down to the height of the car above the springs, which - even if it IS lightweight - has to have some inertial effect.
(There’s bound to be an Audi engineer who can show figures to prove me incorrect. Well, at least it will generate the truth if my layman speculation is wrong.)
I was also impressed by the boot space, maybe short but certainly tall. And the storage area under the boot floor is usefully deep and quite commodious because of the peculiar-looking skinny ‘get you home’ spare wheel, which has to be inflated by an aerosol of some kind before use.
I found the 1.4-litre turbodiesel engine a highly-accelerative power unit with its td-typical low end urge. But here also is my first negative. It sounds like a Ferguson tractor under pressure. Once you get it into a cruising mode in top gear, it is comfortable enough. But anyone listening to it from the outside around town would be wondering what on earth is wrong with a car wearing an Audi quad of circles. Actually, the fact that it is a 3-pot unit is one reason for the racket. But I’m not sure that they couldn’t have softened the sound some way.
Let’s clear the other downsides. Inside, there’s unused potential stowage space in the doors, space badly needed because the between-seats area in the front is also not used to its potentiality for storing stuff. A grab-handle on the dash for the passenger is ergonomically unsound, and - given the way this car is likely to be driven - unnecessary. It would be much better to make it part of a bin area in the dash to hold things.
And because the car as reviewed is costing in excess of £19,000, the fact that there’s no airconditioning is close to ridiculous. A compounding insult, there is an ‘Econ’ button which lights up when pressed even though it does nothing. I’m longtime on record that Audi basic ventilation is poor, and the A2 is not excepted from this. Come on, guys - it’s not as if you’re not making a premium profit from the name. Give us the goodies to back it up.
(Even Fiestas give us aircon, ja?)
And, finally and to the rear, that stuck-on spoiler on the back window doesn’t do much for rearward visibility. And if you get caught in serious rain, the near-roofline angle of glass above it becomes absolutely a non-view-through part of the car.
There have been a number of prestige marque forays into the smaller segment car battlegrounds. And I wonder if they should be there at all.
The A-Class Mercedes-Benz is not yet making that marque a euro in profit, thanks to a serious suspension re-engineering requirement after the infamous ‘Elk Test’ debacle. DaimlerChrysler is also spending unreturnable money to try and make its SmartCar acceptable.
I was surprised that M-B continued the A-Class, and even extended it with the longer version, because it has been a financial failure so far. I’m also astonished that the same DaimlerChrysler company has continued to spend on the Smart, if profit for shareholders is what comes first. Because that will be a long time coming from this particular brand.
BMW is not going to make any profit from its new Mini until it goes to its next generation, and maybe it will then require further major investment just to technologically keep pace with the offerings from ‘cheaper’ brands.
So should Audi have bothered with the A2 at all? Hmm, probably ‘yes’. But not to make a direct profit for the brand. The marque’s position within the VW-Audi Group means that the platform could pay its way across the group as a whole because it can possibly be used in sibling brands. Or maybe it won’t, because the A2 package is by its build nature somewhat on the expensive side to produce.
But that’s the bottom line in the motor business, isn’t it? You have to keep pushing out the envelope. Sometimes when it doesn’t seem profitable at the time. It’s a little like the investment in Formula One racing by the major car companies. They gain in exposure. They gain in testing systems to extremes. And they gain in knowledge and technological advances. But it costs them unrecoverable money in balance sheet terms.
Maybe those who pay £19,000-plus for an A2 1.4td will feel it’s worth all that for licking this particular envelope.
And maybe we’ll all be reflecting back to Audi in the future for having pointed a way to making small cars with big attributes. We need carmakers prepared to be brave, today more than ever. And I salute Audi for doing more than the bean-counters would probably have wanted.
July 2001
by Brian Byrne