A2 owner since yesterday

Intercept

Intercept

A2OC Donor
Hi All

The A2 search is over, we finally secured the right one yesterday - a silver 2005 1.4TDi (75) SE with open sky :)

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to these forums, which have been a great source of info to aid the search. Hopefully I'll be able to repay the compliment in the future by assisting others. Meanwhile, I'm off to buy it a new wiper blade. Hopefully GSF in Ipswich will have stock...

Bye for now

John
 
Congratulations and welcome :)

Be aware that it is probably a 'special edition', not an SE ('special equipment'), since it is part of the 2005 production run.
 
Intercept said:
Thanks. What are the dead-cert features to confirm that its one or the other? The V5 says SE...
Click to expand...

The one which comes first to mind are the front fog lights (other things were the 16" alloys, illuminated vanity mirrors, ... probably others).
 
Thanks - its got the front fogs and I suspect the alloys are 16", but will have to check later. I've not yet played with the sun visors to find out whether the mirrors are illuminated!
 
It's got the front fog lights, the 16" alloys, the illuminated vanity mirrors and the little visor flap in the middle. So does this make it an SE?
 
Intercept said:
It's got the front fog lights, the 16" alloys, the illuminated vanity mirrors and the little visor flap in the middle. So does this make it an SE?
Click to expand...

Its an SE. I'm 99% sure. To make it 100% confirm it has leather trimmed steering wheel and gear knob with chrome rings round the gear stick gaitor and the instrument dials.

The previous post is correct in that most 05 and 55 plate registrations are the 'special edition' model but there are exceptions. I'm not sure if other spec's became unavailable completely towards the latter end of 2005; nor can I recall when the last A2 rolled off the production line - but there are members on here with 55 plate TDi90 Sport models.
 
Yep, got the leather trimmed steering wheel and the chrome rings. The reg date is March 2005 so I guess this is one of the last SEs.
 
Sounds like an excellent example - what's the mileage like?
Would it be a 90PS model given the year? Do you have rear disc brakes?
 
dan_b said:
Sounds like an excellent example - what's the mileage like?
Would it be a 90PS model given the year? Do you have rear disc brakes?
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It's done 91k so fairly typical for a 7 year old car. Its got drums on the rear so I'm suspecting that it's a 75PS. It doesn't feel as lively as the 75PS 1.4TDi Polo it replaced though, but thats probably due to different gearing. The Polo had serious boost from 2000rpm, whereas the A2 is far more linear. The higher gearing on the A2 is better for relaxed motorway driving, whereas the Polo was a bit frantic for longer trips, but great fun.

One more question: how linear is the fuel gauge on these? The Polo (with a 45 litre tank) would do 200 miles before the needle left the full position, before becoming empty at ~550 miles, but the A2 has done 135 mostly motorway miles from full and the needle is just below 3/4. I'm hoping the A2 mpg will be better...
 
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Not particularly linear, the second 'half' is probably about 40%.

On my 34 litre tank, I think this is approximately the volume of each segment (from memory, so might be wrong).

brimmed + vented -> off-full 5.5 litres
off-full -> 3/4 7 litres
3/4 -> 1/2 7.5 litres
1/2 -> 1/4 7 litres
1/4 -> reserve 3.5 litres
reserve -> empty 4 litres

The cars from 2003 onwards had a bigger 42 litre tank.
 
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"the A2 has done 135 mostly motorway miles from full and the needle is just below 3/4"

I've just bought a tdi90 SE, also an 05 car (54 reg) and was hoping for stellar mpg. Yesterday I drove from Somerset to Edinburgh, brimmed and vented before leaving and drove at 65-70mph for the entire run - 416 miles. At around the same point on the fuel gauge my car was showing about 180miles on the odometer and I arrived with just under a quarter of a tank left so will be lucky to get to 500 miles I reckon.

Also worth noting that the weather conditions were truly appalling for the whole drive, torrential rain and massive amounts of surface water increasing rolling resistance and fuel consumption.

I would guess for the trip I have achieved about 55-56mpg, although fuelly will confirm this for me when I next fill up. Not as good as I have been hoping for admittedly, but early days yet.

Congratulations on your car it sounds like a beaut and hopefully will give you many years of enjoyment.
 
MPG in the A2 seems to be very sensitive to a couple of factors:
1. efficacy of the thermostat and temperature senders - they're notoriously unreliable and kill MPG when they go off
2. speed - it's clear that even though the A2 is a very aerodynamically efficient car, MPG tails off quickly above 55mph when the relatively old design of engine has to do more work to keep you up there which is where modern diesels are so impressive.

Also, to a lesser extent, tyre pressure - increasing pressures really does lift MPG.
 
MikeMarsUK said:
...
brimmed + vented -> off-full 5.5 litres
off-full -> 3/4 7 litres
3/4 -> 1/2 7.5 litres
1/2 -> 1/4 7 litres
1/4 -> reserve 3.5 litres
reserve -> empty 4 litres
.
Click to expand...


More accurate figures from my spreadsheet:

5.2
6.6
7.6
7.3
3.4
4.5

So the halfway mark on the dial means '44% remaining'
 
And finally... some photos!

A2a_1024.jpgA2b_1024.jpg
 
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