My A2 Journey So Far

J3FVW

Member
The story of my A2 starts back in the Summer of 2015 long before I actually owned my car. We were away on holiday in the Lake District discussing what car we could get to add to our fleet when my wife passed her driving test. Our current daily driver was a low mileage (12k on the clock when I bought it in January 2014) Fresco Green 2002 Lupo SE that I had promised to my wife when she obtained her licence. Purely by chance a silver A2 was on the forecourt of Keswick's Fiat dealer and from then we had our hearts set on owning one. The plan being Summer 2016.
I immediately started researching the model and started saving to buy one the following year. Nothing much happened other than I decided that I wanted a petrol variant and then disaster struck on 23rd December last year while doing the Christmas card run:

This small "mishap" forced my hand as I knew the insurers would write the car off so I had to get some new wheels quickly. Fortunately I was on two weeks annual leave from work which gave me chance to start the search for a suitable A2. In the meantime our family was relegated to using public transport over the festive period. Some members may already know that our family also has a 2015 VW T5 Kombi that the guys at NWCC have worked their magic on. However my OCD wouldn't allow me to use it for daily duties in the Winter.

Fortunately a silver 1.4SE A2 was for sale at a garage less than ten miles from home but there was a slight problem. It was away having it's wheels refurbished and the powder coater had downed tools for the entire Christmas period. I couldn't even view it until the beginning of January at the earliest. After speaking to the seller the car sounded perfect - one owner from new (it actually turned out it had been owned by Audi for three months from being registered and then sold to it's previous owner who had it from Sept '02 until Nov '15), full service history, and I was told it was "immaculate". I decided this was worth waiting for so basically made do until the New Year in the hope this would be the right car. Thankfully it was.

I think calling it immaculate was not quite true but it certainly was in great condition and came with both keys, full documentation, and a stack of service bills. It also only had 55,000 genuine miles on the clock. Sadly there was no documented history of ever having had a cam belt change so this was quite a concern. After test driving it a deal was struck and I drove it away on 9th January. Now the journey had really begun.

I viewed the car as a ticking time bomb so in the first week of ownership a local garage performed a full service along with cambelt and water pump change. The last thing I wanted was something going pop! Then I set about giving the car a good clean inside and out. It had been valeted prior to me viewing it but it certainly wasn't done to anything like a decent standard so I worked my way through the car bringing it up to scratch.

The cleaning process made me notice many things that I had missed when viewing the car. I hadn't realised the onset of wear to the soft touch climate buttons, Concert CD player, and headlight switch. Also one of the rear window winders was missing it's front cover and the centre console rear cubby had a chunk out of it. When I viewed the car one of the jacking point covers was immediately noticeable.

The small jobs were sorted within a few days but tracking down a donor Concert unit to give up its fascia, hard touch climate buttons and headlight switch, and replacement front cup holders (the originals had some wear) took a little longer. However within a couple of months these were sourced and fitted along with a new handbrake button and refinished front door handles restored the interior to its former glory. I also had bespoke front and rear (plus boot) mats made by D M Middleton of Cleckheaton in Superlux carpet with fixings to match the Audi mounting points.

I was over the moon with progress but had a slight problem - I daren't touch the buttons on the Concert for fear of them wearing again so I started thinking about having MFSW fitted to reduce the number of times I would need to press stereo buttons. After a while I thought I might as well go all the way and have DIS and cruise retro fitted at the same time. PM's were exchanged between Timmus and myself and in May the retro fitting was carried out.

In the background while A2 stuff was going on I was also negotiating with my insurance company to buy the Lupo back from them at reasonable money. I have a friend who owns a bodyshop and he had told me he could get it up and running again for minimal cost as the damage is only light. It's a very long story but in the end I managed to buy the Lupo back for a net £50 - not bad for a 30,000 mile example!

Future plans for my A2 are a rear cup holder, dimming rear view mirror, front stowage console, new centre caps for the wheels, and replacing small parts here and there to bring it up to scratch. The main area of attention though is the paintwork. While the car is overall in really good condition it has got the inevitable defects that come from 14 years of use. I'm an absolute stickler for paintwork so I am currently saving to get it booked into my bodyshop of choice for every defect rectifying. Once that has been done the A2 will be garaged and get used less often than it does now so my focus has shifted to the Lupo. I'm hoping to have that back on the road in the next month or so and that will again be the daily driver.

As I reflect back on almost six months of A2 ownership I have to say that I am totally smitten with the car and can see me lavishing lots of money on it in years to come. After I sold my previous pride and joy (an absolutely mint Renaultsport Clio 197) I always vowed to have another garaged project car to pamper - I just never thought the A2 would be that car!

It hasn't all been smiles along the way though. It's had it's fair share of niggles. Namely a faulty coolant temperature sensor, disintegrating door check strap and a broken dipstick to name a few but I have actually found pleasure in addressing each one of these as they have arisen. It currently has a few defective micro switches that Timmus will be curing in the future and the EGR valve and/or Lambda probes are showing related faults but these will be resolved soon once my mechanic mate is free to start the ball rolling with removing and cleaning the EGR valve and taking things from there.

I truly do think the A2 is a great car and in the words of (I think it was Darren C) I have now got my forever keeper. I have put 3k on the clock since owning it (the current mileage is almost 59k) but once the Lupo is back in use it will be used far more selectively.

Another plus is the great social side to A2 ownership. Special Edition doesn't live too far away and he has been a great help along the way and our family recently attended the Saltaire meet which was a great day out. I will definitely be attending more of those.

What a great journey so far! :)

Jeff
 
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A thoroughly enjoyable read Jeff. Great to see that you also have your forever keeper. The very best of luck with your pride and joy for many years ahead.

These little gems have certainly snared some owners along the way and stolen many a heart. Those less informed who see these cars as bog standard small family hatchbacks or sneer at the fact they dare to wear the four rings, really are missing the bigger picture.
 
Great write up Jeff. Sounds a little like my story. A change of event caused me to buy an A2 too. It took a few years to get things how I wanted too. Seems a common story.

james

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk
 
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As its currently throwing it down it God's country which has scuppered my evening of cycling its time for a quick update.

It's been two and a half months since Tom (Timmus) did some retro fitting including DIS. I haven't reset the onboard computer since then and the only long runs the car has had were the journey back from Lancaster and to Saltaire for the Yorkshire meet. All my other journeys have almost all been short commutes to work. Here are the stats that I am over the moon with considering the car is now 14 years old:

I'm more in love with the car now than I was at my last report but unfortunately holidays, my Lupo project and putting our house on the market have prevented me doing anything else to it recently. I'm hoping to get the rear cupholder and stowage addition to the centre console in the next month or so. Hopefully my top of the wish list job, going to the bodyshop, will happen over the Winter.

Oh, and my pesky EGR valve issue still needs sorting although the car is running perfectly albeit with a warning light.

Jeff :)
 
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