Fairly new here... so here goes my life story with Ahdeux... or The Tractor as the SO calls it! (and SO stands for Significant Other on another forum I frequent BTW - By The Way)
The first time I saw a real A2 was the orange one at the 2000 Motor Show in Birmingham... thought it very VERY ugly and walked of to sit in the (then new) TT... But slowly and surely the A2 grew on me... and when a replacement was needed for my 2 year old 40000mile Clio I only test drove 2 cars: an Alfa 147 and the A2 petrol. I was not smitten by either truth be told but did start to like the ideas behind the A2 more and more.
About 6 months later I test drove a TDI A2 and handed the keys back after a no-salesman-present test drive on my own with a MASSIVE smile on my face... I absolutely loved the diesel A2. The other car in the family is a V5 Golf so I'm used to instant urge and loads of it (170bhp and 5 cylinders). I also LOVE the off-beat sound the 5 cylinder Golf makes. So the SOUND of the 3 cylinder Audi instantly impressed... it is, I dare say, the closest sound to a Porsche 911 you can get from only 1,4 litres!
So then the decision was either to buy from dealer and pay full wack, order over Internet or buy from a supermarket. Found best price on Internet at that stage, but after further investigation found that both the directors of this Internet company where banned from trading until 2013!!! They operated under a new name from Jersey or somewhere but where based in Nottingham... so no-no to that then... AND there was at least 6 months of wait in there...
Supermarket: yes could save about £2000, but only if I wanted silver and with a dead set spec... no thanks. I am too particular in spec for that...
So went to Gatwick Audi after I got the finance arranged from my bank to ask what was in the system pre-ordered and unallocated in silver (did not want to wait 4 months to order exact)... nothing... nothing... So I said how much I would love a car in that light blue you get the A6s in... "Oh, you mean Crystal blue sir. With the 2001 spec upgrade..." (ie front loading 6 disk CD that I was unaware of) "...you can now get that colour on the A2" Yes YES! Searched for a Crystal Blue one and the exact one came up: DIS, 6CD front loading Symphony, Open Sky and in Crystal... BUT it had £450 worth of BOSE upgrade as well... Oh well... rather get more than less I said... So 10 days later I picked this car up from Docklands Audi (closer to home in London - Gatwick is work - and 6% discount instead of 5%)!!!
Loved every minute since... Brilliant car. Where do you get a car that attracts so much attention (especially in France where EVERYBODY seems to stare at us ALL the time), gives you 50mpg all the time, no matter how hard I drive it, is as green as you get (diesel and aluminium), has five doors and loads of space (especially with the seats out), has a very low insurance group (vs. the Golf's group 14!), and pulls up hills with four people in it like no tomorrow from 1,4 litres and has a massive sunroof (a must to me) to boot?! So to say this car suited to me is an understatement... Architects used to drive Saabs, but in my eyes there is no better car for a designer than an A2!
It has not all been rosy so far... not at all. My Clio did not go in ONCE to the dealer apart from servicing over 2 years and 40000miles. Ahdeux has been in more times over 38000miles and 1 year 4 months than I care to remember... thankfully Gatwick Audi is only 5 minutes away from work so most of the hassles have been sorted out over a lunch time... Here is a condensed list:
1. bonnet flap refused to open on delivery! the biggest party trick to friends and it did not work!!!
2. radio stops working - had to be taken out and reset
3. glow plug light comes on after a while - take it in, plug computer in to discover I had no brake lights (nope, not a single one of the 18 lights we have worked) because the brake light relay broke...
4. had a puncture... no wheels of 185x50 anywhere to be found, so car had to be towed from Heathrow to Docklands Audi and had a Mondeo rental (free of charge and on Mr Audi's account) for FOUR days... thankfully insisted on the free spare at delivery, though it was not part of the pre-ordered car... got it for free...
5. left front light bulb went... manual says Mr Audi has to replace... he replaces: I pay for bulb and labour for free (I drive with my headlights on day and night so was not worried that this happened at only 17000 miles)
6. TWO weeks later (at 17400 miles) right bulb goes, Mr Audi replaces again: I pay for bulb and labour for free
7. internal backing of boot misaligned and is pulling free when you pull the boot shut with the internal handle... still to be fixed...
8. Leather handle tore loose from the false floor... £100 odd from Audi, so I bought a £30 staple gun and fixed it myself...
9. 34000miles and car tells me bulb went again... this time I say to Mr Audi replace both please as I KNOW the other will go in two weeks... "No, we can't do that" I insist. "No" "OK, I say replace one and if the other goes in two weeks it is free..." "OK, we'll do both"... hmmm BUT they wanted to charge me 30minutes labour!!!!!!!! After not charging twice before now they wanted £59 for two bulbs!!!! He halved it to 15 minutes in the end... but I was not happy...
10. cigarette lighter stops working intermittently and switches the mobile phone car kit off completely and thus the phone... so I think the phone is on but the car switched the thing off... VERY annoying... got a new lighter socket just today and AGAIN it stopped working TWICE on the way home!!! Two phones and two car kits... so it HAS to be the car... grrr
11. Another puncture... not in the mood for a Ford again so just called Audi Assist to come and inflate the space saver and put it on... and what does he tell me... if I had called Audi Assist Monday to Friday (and not over a weekend as I did on both punctures) an A6 allroad will arrive and they could and would replace A2 bulbs for free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrr... and Gatwick charged me nearly £40.....
... and the Clio... NOTHING ever went wrong...
... and the Golf... as many little niggling faults as the Audi... so German = perfection? Nope, not in my eyes...
...so my next car? A Renault Megane 120bhp Dynamique 3 door Coupe DCI thanks... but not until November I think... Audi 2 years old then... 38000 miles now on the clock, so 50000miles of motorway by then... time to change...
But all in all I'm very happy... I'll post more of my interior idiosyncrasies later...
Johann
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony, DIS and HALF a winterpack!
The first time I saw a real A2 was the orange one at the 2000 Motor Show in Birmingham... thought it very VERY ugly and walked of to sit in the (then new) TT... But slowly and surely the A2 grew on me... and when a replacement was needed for my 2 year old 40000mile Clio I only test drove 2 cars: an Alfa 147 and the A2 petrol. I was not smitten by either truth be told but did start to like the ideas behind the A2 more and more.
About 6 months later I test drove a TDI A2 and handed the keys back after a no-salesman-present test drive on my own with a MASSIVE smile on my face... I absolutely loved the diesel A2. The other car in the family is a V5 Golf so I'm used to instant urge and loads of it (170bhp and 5 cylinders). I also LOVE the off-beat sound the 5 cylinder Golf makes. So the SOUND of the 3 cylinder Audi instantly impressed... it is, I dare say, the closest sound to a Porsche 911 you can get from only 1,4 litres!
So then the decision was either to buy from dealer and pay full wack, order over Internet or buy from a supermarket. Found best price on Internet at that stage, but after further investigation found that both the directors of this Internet company where banned from trading until 2013!!! They operated under a new name from Jersey or somewhere but where based in Nottingham... so no-no to that then... AND there was at least 6 months of wait in there...
Supermarket: yes could save about £2000, but only if I wanted silver and with a dead set spec... no thanks. I am too particular in spec for that...
So went to Gatwick Audi after I got the finance arranged from my bank to ask what was in the system pre-ordered and unallocated in silver (did not want to wait 4 months to order exact)... nothing... nothing... So I said how much I would love a car in that light blue you get the A6s in... "Oh, you mean Crystal blue sir. With the 2001 spec upgrade..." (ie front loading 6 disk CD that I was unaware of) "...you can now get that colour on the A2" Yes YES! Searched for a Crystal Blue one and the exact one came up: DIS, 6CD front loading Symphony, Open Sky and in Crystal... BUT it had £450 worth of BOSE upgrade as well... Oh well... rather get more than less I said... So 10 days later I picked this car up from Docklands Audi (closer to home in London - Gatwick is work - and 6% discount instead of 5%)!!!
Loved every minute since... Brilliant car. Where do you get a car that attracts so much attention (especially in France where EVERYBODY seems to stare at us ALL the time), gives you 50mpg all the time, no matter how hard I drive it, is as green as you get (diesel and aluminium), has five doors and loads of space (especially with the seats out), has a very low insurance group (vs. the Golf's group 14!), and pulls up hills with four people in it like no tomorrow from 1,4 litres and has a massive sunroof (a must to me) to boot?! So to say this car suited to me is an understatement... Architects used to drive Saabs, but in my eyes there is no better car for a designer than an A2!
It has not all been rosy so far... not at all. My Clio did not go in ONCE to the dealer apart from servicing over 2 years and 40000miles. Ahdeux has been in more times over 38000miles and 1 year 4 months than I care to remember... thankfully Gatwick Audi is only 5 minutes away from work so most of the hassles have been sorted out over a lunch time... Here is a condensed list:
1. bonnet flap refused to open on delivery! the biggest party trick to friends and it did not work!!!
2. radio stops working - had to be taken out and reset
3. glow plug light comes on after a while - take it in, plug computer in to discover I had no brake lights (nope, not a single one of the 18 lights we have worked) because the brake light relay broke...
4. had a puncture... no wheels of 185x50 anywhere to be found, so car had to be towed from Heathrow to Docklands Audi and had a Mondeo rental (free of charge and on Mr Audi's account) for FOUR days... thankfully insisted on the free spare at delivery, though it was not part of the pre-ordered car... got it for free...
5. left front light bulb went... manual says Mr Audi has to replace... he replaces: I pay for bulb and labour for free (I drive with my headlights on day and night so was not worried that this happened at only 17000 miles)
6. TWO weeks later (at 17400 miles) right bulb goes, Mr Audi replaces again: I pay for bulb and labour for free
7. internal backing of boot misaligned and is pulling free when you pull the boot shut with the internal handle... still to be fixed...
8. Leather handle tore loose from the false floor... £100 odd from Audi, so I bought a £30 staple gun and fixed it myself...
9. 34000miles and car tells me bulb went again... this time I say to Mr Audi replace both please as I KNOW the other will go in two weeks... "No, we can't do that" I insist. "No" "OK, I say replace one and if the other goes in two weeks it is free..." "OK, we'll do both"... hmmm BUT they wanted to charge me 30minutes labour!!!!!!!! After not charging twice before now they wanted £59 for two bulbs!!!! He halved it to 15 minutes in the end... but I was not happy...
10. cigarette lighter stops working intermittently and switches the mobile phone car kit off completely and thus the phone... so I think the phone is on but the car switched the thing off... VERY annoying... got a new lighter socket just today and AGAIN it stopped working TWICE on the way home!!! Two phones and two car kits... so it HAS to be the car... grrr
11. Another puncture... not in the mood for a Ford again so just called Audi Assist to come and inflate the space saver and put it on... and what does he tell me... if I had called Audi Assist Monday to Friday (and not over a weekend as I did on both punctures) an A6 allroad will arrive and they could and would replace A2 bulbs for free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrr... and Gatwick charged me nearly £40.....
... and the Clio... NOTHING ever went wrong...
... and the Golf... as many little niggling faults as the Audi... so German = perfection? Nope, not in my eyes...
...so my next car? A Renault Megane 120bhp Dynamique 3 door Coupe DCI thanks... but not until November I think... Audi 2 years old then... 38000 miles now on the clock, so 50000miles of motorway by then... time to change...
But all in all I'm very happy... I'll post more of my interior idiosyncrasies later...
Johann
2001 A2 TDI SE Crystal Blue with Open Sky, 6CD Symphony, DIS and HALF a winterpack!