AudA2Numpty
A2OC Donor
I have had x2 Audi A2s. The first I should have never sold. I sold it to buy a Nissan Leaf. That car with its short electric range was the best car ever, at the time. Cost only £400 in fuel for the entirety of its 70,000 miles and sold it for much less depreciation than most of my cars. Oddly if I had kept it I would have made a profit.
The second I bought for £800 from Auction and spent a while getting it to spec but had an itch for an i3 Rex. I bought an 94ah Rex pre 2017. No luxury car tax and no road tax but at the height of its retail price as it had warranty. *ultimate stupidity!
Love the car entirely. Once you get used to the flighty, bouncy - trying to kill you - handling in high winds, and skittish nature around the pot hole filled off camber subsided Scottish roads, it’s an awesome, surprising swift drive. Mine has a factory fitted basic lane assist (called Traffic Jam Assist - TJA) it’s almost like a self drive functionality which is currently limited to motorways in lane keeping mode and also keeps its distance from the car in front. The majority of the time the TJA does not work in Scotland but that will be modded at some point when the warranty runs out.
The distance control works surprisingly well and warns you with steering vibration and bleeps if it detects slow or stopped vehicles in front.
Also my car has the distance control when in cruise control and I rarely need to brake as the car does it for me, it keeps me at the flow of traffic at a safe distance which can be adjusted to stop fishermen in their hot hatches trying to slam their way into the safe gap the car creates to the car in front.
Economics, fuel efficiency wise, are only slightly better than the A2, but I knew that already having test driven one when I had my first A2. My main complaint, other than it’s plummeting value, is the Bluetooth function is crap and has a massive lag when trying to play stuff from a phone. This can be upgraded with a new carplay module from the newer i3 for about £400 and an hours worth of labour.
I sold the A2 as I kept getting a sore back and shoulder when driving it. The mpg for the A2 was awesome (in my first car with no sun roof) my the second A2 was more like my now i3 for mpg (if just using the i3 rex) around 66mpg.
Electric cars are cheaper now, if anything, more realistic in price, this is thanks to Tesla, the still tragically poor electric infrastructure, with idiots trashing charge points or them not initialising with the internet. Public charge points now being 70p+ per kw, puts charging more expensive than diesel or petrol per kWh in the i3 as its usage efficiency for my Rex is 4.4 kwh. It’s equivalent to filling up at only the most expensive motorway petrol stations on the A34 near Weston on the Green in Oxfordshire. Last time I went there it was £1.72p per litre for petrol.
Free charging is super rare and the only way to get cheap/free charging is to charge at home 18p per kw, or Asda (free) where Teslas and Polsars are sat there all day charging for free as they can’t afford to charge the cars anywhere else. Using my local Inverness Asda as an example.
Would I recommend someone to buy the i3?
Second hand spares are cheap as many are being written off by insurance companies for minor damage as it is more expensive to repair than the car is worth, as no insurance repair garage wants to touch them. Sounds like the A2. But I was told that they are more repairable than a Tesla. But those are independent insurance repair garages comments, not mine.
But would I recommend buying one?
Now is better than ever to get one, and It is considered one of the top 10 reliable cars with, relatively speaking, maintenance free problems.
Not had any issues with mine except a frozen door handle in winter, and a sticky non opening petrol cap on occasion, which has now been fixed under warranty. But I had the same thing with my last A2 petrol cap and once I cleaned the contacts it was all better.
Electric range is approx 146 miles in summer and 110-120 in Winter, with Winter tyres and shed loads of snow. I live in the Highlands.
But I do drive with Mpg values in mind, as you can probably see when I posted about my mpg achievements in the A2.
I can go to England in it without much effort, not in one stop like the A2, but topping up the Rex petrol tank every 110 miles. Which I would stop roughly for a pit stop anyway.
You start the drive with 100% electric and when that gets to 75% you can hold the state of charge with the little petrol engine (Rex).
If you like long uninterrupted journeys, I would probably stick with the A2, but the i3 Rex is great, even on long journeys. I drive it from Inverness to Wick to Skye and Fort William to Oban and NEVER worry about range. I would think very little of heading up to Wick and return in one sitting. If I knew I need to head off to Elgin from wick I would top up on electric.
I have my i3 but still consider to buying another A2, but I would get the 1.2 if I was getting another, as I cannot face another manual, yes I am old and lazy.
Wife thinks I’m mad for wanting another A2. Well I bought an i3 Rex at a premium, so I must be.
Wife hates both the A2 and i3 due to both seats being uncomfortable. To me the i3 is super comfortable to the last A2 I had.
Bought the wife a DSG Touran to keep her happy. At least that car is holding its value.
The second I bought for £800 from Auction and spent a while getting it to spec but had an itch for an i3 Rex. I bought an 94ah Rex pre 2017. No luxury car tax and no road tax but at the height of its retail price as it had warranty. *ultimate stupidity!
Love the car entirely. Once you get used to the flighty, bouncy - trying to kill you - handling in high winds, and skittish nature around the pot hole filled off camber subsided Scottish roads, it’s an awesome, surprising swift drive. Mine has a factory fitted basic lane assist (called Traffic Jam Assist - TJA) it’s almost like a self drive functionality which is currently limited to motorways in lane keeping mode and also keeps its distance from the car in front. The majority of the time the TJA does not work in Scotland but that will be modded at some point when the warranty runs out.
The distance control works surprisingly well and warns you with steering vibration and bleeps if it detects slow or stopped vehicles in front.
Also my car has the distance control when in cruise control and I rarely need to brake as the car does it for me, it keeps me at the flow of traffic at a safe distance which can be adjusted to stop fishermen in their hot hatches trying to slam their way into the safe gap the car creates to the car in front.
Economics, fuel efficiency wise, are only slightly better than the A2, but I knew that already having test driven one when I had my first A2. My main complaint, other than it’s plummeting value, is the Bluetooth function is crap and has a massive lag when trying to play stuff from a phone. This can be upgraded with a new carplay module from the newer i3 for about £400 and an hours worth of labour.
I sold the A2 as I kept getting a sore back and shoulder when driving it. The mpg for the A2 was awesome (in my first car with no sun roof) my the second A2 was more like my now i3 for mpg (if just using the i3 rex) around 66mpg.
Electric cars are cheaper now, if anything, more realistic in price, this is thanks to Tesla, the still tragically poor electric infrastructure, with idiots trashing charge points or them not initialising with the internet. Public charge points now being 70p+ per kw, puts charging more expensive than diesel or petrol per kWh in the i3 as its usage efficiency for my Rex is 4.4 kwh. It’s equivalent to filling up at only the most expensive motorway petrol stations on the A34 near Weston on the Green in Oxfordshire. Last time I went there it was £1.72p per litre for petrol.
Free charging is super rare and the only way to get cheap/free charging is to charge at home 18p per kw, or Asda (free) where Teslas and Polsars are sat there all day charging for free as they can’t afford to charge the cars anywhere else. Using my local Inverness Asda as an example.
Would I recommend someone to buy the i3?
Second hand spares are cheap as many are being written off by insurance companies for minor damage as it is more expensive to repair than the car is worth, as no insurance repair garage wants to touch them. Sounds like the A2. But I was told that they are more repairable than a Tesla. But those are independent insurance repair garages comments, not mine.
But would I recommend buying one?
Now is better than ever to get one, and It is considered one of the top 10 reliable cars with, relatively speaking, maintenance free problems.
Not had any issues with mine except a frozen door handle in winter, and a sticky non opening petrol cap on occasion, which has now been fixed under warranty. But I had the same thing with my last A2 petrol cap and once I cleaned the contacts it was all better.
Electric range is approx 146 miles in summer and 110-120 in Winter, with Winter tyres and shed loads of snow. I live in the Highlands.
But I do drive with Mpg values in mind, as you can probably see when I posted about my mpg achievements in the A2.
I can go to England in it without much effort, not in one stop like the A2, but topping up the Rex petrol tank every 110 miles. Which I would stop roughly for a pit stop anyway.
You start the drive with 100% electric and when that gets to 75% you can hold the state of charge with the little petrol engine (Rex).
If you like long uninterrupted journeys, I would probably stick with the A2, but the i3 Rex is great, even on long journeys. I drive it from Inverness to Wick to Skye and Fort William to Oban and NEVER worry about range. I would think very little of heading up to Wick and return in one sitting. If I knew I need to head off to Elgin from wick I would top up on electric.
I have my i3 but still consider to buying another A2, but I would get the 1.2 if I was getting another, as I cannot face another manual, yes I am old and lazy.
Wife thinks I’m mad for wanting another A2. Well I bought an i3 Rex at a premium, so I must be.
Wife hates both the A2 and i3 due to both seats being uncomfortable. To me the i3 is super comfortable to the last A2 I had.
Bought the wife a DSG Touran to keep her happy. At least that car is holding its value.
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