Thinking about buying an A2, but some indecisions.

M

Man-L

Member
Hi there !


I'm thinking about getting an A2.
At home we think it is a cute car with a personality of its own and very beautiful design.
Furthermore, it is equipped with ABS and ESP (correct me if I'm wrong) which is of most importance to me, obviously for security reasons. By the way, can you tell my if the rear seats are Isofix compatible?

I've searched the usual used car site in my country (Portugal) and I've narrowed my choice to two (or three units), each one with its drawbacks.

On one side I have an A2 1.4 TDI 90hp. It's one of the last model (the 2005 one) with the front grille with the "fins", but it lacks two important items to me;
rear power windows (so I can lock rear windows and doors - I have a 2-year-old toddler) and fog lights.
It has CD Radio (which is a drawback since it is more difficult to get a line-in, right?).

The other car is an A2 1.4 TDI 75hp from 2001, supposed to have 10.000km less than the previous car (I wonder it that is real?!) but it has rear windows and fog lights.
This unit has also a cassette radio, which i guess would make things easy to connect my Mp3 player (via cassette adapter) right?
Nevertheless, this car, by the photos I've seen, has a slight misalignment of the bonnet regarding the wheel arches panels near the headlights.
The bonnet is a little retracted (maybe 5 or 10mm) which makes me think if this car has already suffered any accident. Or is it just usual the bonnet getting misaligned since the opening system is unusual?
Both cars supposedly have their maintenance book, although I have some reservations about them being true. My biggest fear is that any of them needs to have the distribution belt changed (don’t know if this is the right technical term), but I think that it is not still the right mileage for it and then "bam"... Belt breaks and I have an expensive repair or even need a new engine.

Talking horsepower, I would definitely go to the 90hp unit, but I read here somewhere that it is not easy to install front fog lights in a unit coming out of factory without them. I would be necessary to get cables, lights, change the headlights round switch on the dash...

Regarding the rear power windows, I guess that changing everything to look stock would be very expensive since it would be necessary to change all the door trims (maybe except the passenger's door) which would become too expensive, no?
Can anyone tell me if these modifications are doable (by a non-Audi mechanic)?
I'm all thumbs so I guess making these mods myself is out of the question.

I would like to know if these mods are possible:
- installing cruise control
- auto door lock when the vehicle starts moving
- OEM parking sensors installation
- 3 spoke sport steering wheel (S-line?)

Are these all possible? Are there any workshops who can perform these without having to go to an official dealer?

Mechanically I don't want to change the car (reducing suspension height, reprogram de ECU)
Just taking good care of the car so it lasts.

What is your opinion about all these questions?

I read that one of the major problems of the A2 is because of being made of aluminum, since almost no one knows how to repair it well.

If you can, feel free to share some hints about this or that aspect that I should have in consideration when I'll be "inspecting" the cars before buying.

Regards from Lisbon, Portugal.

Ps: please forgive my English.
 
Hi and welcome to the A2oc.

Yes as far as I am aware the A2 comes with abs and esp as standard.

They will have isofix or not, just depends if the first purchaser specified this at first purchase.

Rear windows have been retrofitted by a few members but is a very big job. Unless you find a suitable A2 being dismantled with all the bits you requre its very expensive. How about removing the window winder until you son is a bit Older and this not being a problem?

Fog lights can be done. A lot easier than the rear windows. The biggest job is getting the wireing from the switch to the lights.
But a few member with fog lights have commented that they look good. But they do not make much of a difference when driving in fog.

The cd player or cassette player is just as easy to add mp3 by adding a dice unit that plugs into the back in the cd multichanger plug.
You get much better sound quality this way as you loose a lot of the sound quality with those cassette things.

Of all the A2's I have seen the bonnet always fits correctly. The bonnet can only fit one way so would be concerned if it did not fit correctly.

It's important that the cam belt and water pump have been changed at the right time. As you said its expensive if they fail. I think the correct advise is to change the belt and water pump at 5 years or 70.000 miles. Sorry not sure in km.

You do get a bit beter performance out of the 90, but not a large difference. But they can get problems with there turbos that are expensive and clutches.

A remaped 75 will give you the same performance as a 90. When I got my 75 remaped it was put on a rolling road to see what it did before the remap and it was preforming at the same levels as the 90!

Yes you can retro fit cruse. As you will get a left hand drive car, I beleve you an buy kits from Germany. You get a new stalk with the controls a cable to goto the ecu. And you need Vcds to code your car. You need someone who is mechanically competent to do this as it's safety issue.

Auto door lock, yes with vcds again.

I think that Mike Skipton recently posted up a link to parking sensors that look as good as oem.

I had fitted dolphin parking sensors fitted that look very good and very happy with.

And yes it's posible to fit 3 spoke sports wheel.

There are not very many garadges who have the skill or knoledge to repare A2's, but the biggest problem is the cost. A2's are not getting written off by insuance companys with relitivly little damadge on cost of repaires along.

And there is nothing wrong with your English, it's better than mine:)

All the best and good luck with your search.

Cheers

David
 
Guys, many thanks for your replies.
After knowing that almost every mod I mentioned before is possible, the 90bhp seems the best option.
Like you said ULP, I won't loose a (I hope) better buy just for the electric rear windows.
Riverlad, are the turbo and clutch of the 90bhp much more problematic and expensive? I've always liked to have a little more power in a car, but I'm very sceptical about remapping due to supposed loss of feasibility.

Cheers,
Man-L
 
Hi, I have 3 boys and the windy windows aren't a problem. Using a cassette adapter for mp3 is bad quality and on mine only comes out of 1 side! Make sure it has climate considering your country ie if it has knobs to turn manually it doesn't have aircon.
 
To be 100% sure if it's definitely a 90PS model, check does it have rear disc brakes (indicating a 90) or drum brakes (indicating a 75)?

I'd completely agree with the above point that getting air-conditioning climate control is essential for you - only if the temperature control system has buttons and a digital display is it climate control and therefore has air-conditioning. If it has rotary dials, there's no air-conditioning what ever the vendor may say!

Rear seats all have Isofix points - not that we used them with either of our two boys' car seats (now 6.5 and 4 years old respectively).

The 90PS turbo can have problems with its variable vane nozzles coking up if the car isn't driven hard enough for long enough, which causes problems. The 90PS model also came with a dual mass flywheel, which is less reliable than the solid flywheel of the 75PS model.

I've had my 75PS model re-mapped for the past 4.5 years with no problems whatsoever! However, that said, if I had found a 90PS when I was shopping for an A2 I would have loved to have had that; but then I still would have re-mapped it!

I have fitted a 3-spoke sport leather steering wheel, and also had cruise control fitted. Pretty much any mod is possible with the right parts, the right knowledge, and skills!

Good hunting!


chubbybrown said:
most 2005 cars were 75 bhp not 90's
Maybe its a late 2004?
Click to expand...
 
You can look the rear doors with the key so that your child/children ant open it from indoors. Only you can open it from outdoors. My daughter is 4 now it works well. The manual window handle is to low for her to reach and of no interest for her to touch.
I have a 90ps since 2 months ago and im super excited with it. Great buy. Did try the 75ps also but of course 90 is more and more is always better ;)
 
Maso - In the case of the A2 less is better... The 1.2 is great!
No dual mass flywheel either...
 
Chubbybrown, the 90ps is March 2005. It is curious, I don't know if it is any special edition because all the seats and upholstery (is this the term?) the fabric of the inside-of-the car part of the door is the same color of the car. I guess they call it cobalt blue. Pitty it has some lousy MkI A3 6-spoke wheels in black. Disgusting! Some S-Line 16" alloys... Those would be nice. I could post a link here but I don't know if I'm infringing forum rules.
Dan_b What do you mean by the turbo nozzles cooking up in not driven hard enough for long enough? Any advised speed on motorway? 90/110 not fast enough? ;)
Dual mass flywheel... :( Had a bad experience with a 2008 2.2 i-DTec Accord Sports Tourer... There was a misconception problem, then when Honda was redesigning / remanufactoring the new flywheel Fukushima happened! (sorry about the off-topic).
Thanks for the tips of the rear disk brakes. Looking at the photos it seems rear disks but it's hard to tell.
It's funny how an Audi which is more expensive than an equivalent VW has drum disk brakes while the Polo has disks.My 1.4 Tdi (75bhp) Trendline from 2000 had all disks. And what brakes that car had... It was so funny to drive and so economic... If there was a fun per gallon ratio I guess that car would have a high value. That is one of the reasons we look forward for a 1.4 Tdi.
Still I think that perhaps the quality of construction of an A2 is closer to the one from a Polo than from the one from an A3, no?

John L how about the "3L"? I've read somewhere that it's a bit slow. Isn't 140Nm torque too short? Still I love automatic gearboxes. How does the A2 feel with that smaller engine? My Polo did 55 MPG which I found astonishing because I could drive relaxed without worrying too much with consumptions.

Thanks for all your answers...
Cheers
 
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Rear disk brakes can be overkill, since the front brakes do most of the work. The polo is heavier than the A2, so needs extra braking power to compensate.
 
John L said:
Maso - In the case of the A2 less is better... The 1.2 is great!
No dual mass flywheel either...
Click to expand...

That is a matter of opinion. I love my A2 90ps much more than the 1.2TDI that i used to have. I had a lot of issues with my 1.2TDI when it came to the automatic gearbox and it costed me around £4000 to fix at Audi cause it was messed up. So never again a 1.2TDI, i rather have a manual one that is always easier & cheaper to fix.
 
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Man-L said:
Chubbybrown, the 90ps is March 2005. It is curious, I don't know if it is any special edition because all the seats and upholstery (is this the term?) the fabric of the inside-of-the car part of the door is the same color of the car. I guess they call it cobalt blue. Pitty it has some lousy MkI A3 6-spoke wheels in black. Disgusting! Some S-Line 16" alloys... Those would be nice. I could post a link here but I don't know if I'm infringing forum rules.
Click to expand...

That makes your prospective car a rarity ( in UK terms anyway) as you dont see many 2005 registered 90's as Chubbybrown says. Theres a couple of UK based A2OC members who have an 05 and a 55 plate 90 and its something you rarely see for sale.

The car wont be a special edition - they were all 75's I'm pretty sure. Not having any fog lights suggests its a base model, but I'm not familiar with European Spec

Blue interior trim is fairly common with azure and mauritius blue finish. I havent seen it with cobalt which is almost inky black. Theres no infringement of club rules by posting a link to the advert or pictures of the car - be good to see it and answer some of the above questions.
 
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Guys... being the A2 a model whose production ended in 2005 (I guess) is it still easy to find spare parts, or are they hard to get even at the official dealerships?

Tomorrow I'll be taking a look at two or three A2's ... Any advice to watch closely this or that aspect of the car? Any known issues I should be looking for?

Cheers.
 
At the moment there is no issue with getting parts. Only parts for the Bose premium sound system are no longer available, but that's been the case for some years.

Tom
 
Hi guys!

So today we've taken a look at the cars. Me and my Mrs, that is. After all she is the one who is supposed to drive the car most of the time - and we came up to a decision. We're buying the supposed 90hp which after all is a 75hp. No deal breaker to me. And as I am a bit skeptical about dual mass flywheels, maybe its better that way. Of course I would like a 90hp engine. Maybe I'll remap it, who knows, but it is not a must. Is it bad do remap it with 150.000+ kms? The registration paper here has the power in kW but before that I checked the rear breaks as you well suggested. Indeed, it was the first thing I did when I approached the car. Many thanks for your hints.
:)
I think there won't be a fight here to see who is driving the car, since my wife is not very fond of driving. But I guess the A2 is going to be used more often that it is supposed to (by me). :)
The used-car dealer (not an Audi official one) made a small reduction in the price and agreed to do the following:
- install rear parking sensors (painted in the car color)
- change both cup holders, which are malfunctioning (they don't stay closed unless you use some kind of folder paper)
- paint the grooves on the roof (those who are between the door tops and the roof) because they were becoming yellowish (instead of blue - which I find a bit odd.Are they usually in the car color?)
- he says the car has 1 year warranty (but another used-car dealer said his warranty was 1 year or 5000km - which I think is rubbish - I'll check it with him tomorrow).
- replace a small plastic tap with a lock icon just above the place where you insert the key to activate the child lock, which is missing.
- replace the front left headlight which is kind of "foggy".

The other one seems new but the car doesn't seem to have marks of a big impact, neither from the outside nor under the bonnet. Maybe it suffered a minor bump or maybe it just got cracked.

The negative aspects are that the driver seat is very worn, specially near the side airbag, and I guess it won't last much time without tearing. I don't know where to fix it, but I guess that in an Audi dealer will be too expensive. But as the replacement involves removing the side airbag, I don't know if it is a good idea to go anywhere else but Audi.
The climate control panel is a mess as you can see by this photo (sorry about the quality). I know that they are very expensive right? I heard something around 800€.
forum001.JPG

The alloys, as I said previously, are A3's 15" 6 spoke, black painted which I find awful.
forum002.JPG

The radio is Concert I.

From all three A2's we've seen it's the most recent and in general better condition. March 2005. Interior is not in bad condition. General painting too. Some small
scratches here and there, and two tiny dint in each of the front door, around 1 cm diameter.
Car has the tyre compressor, which curiously none of the other cars still had it.

Tomorrow morning we're closing the deal, but I'm already thinking about some modifications! :)

One of the first things I would like to change are the alloys. Here are some photos of the ones I like. My goal is getting one which are A2 official - not just another Audi model alloys. I think that all of the bellow have appeared in Audi official photos.

IMG_0130.JPGIMG_0146.JPGIMG_0147.JPG03.jpgIMG_0127.JPGOriginais.jpg

My heart goes to the ones in the first two photos. Maybe the first (S-Line 16" I think), as for a better balance between style and comfort\tyre-price.
Then the second photo ones, 17" which I find really really nice. Just with this change, the car gets a more sporty look.

Photos 4 and 5 I find them really nice, but although I've seen in some official photos I don't know if they fit. The ones from photo 4 don't specify screw holes distance, and those from photo 5 specify 5x112 and I guess the A2 only supports 5x110 right?

Being more rational (more confortable ride, less expensive tires), I like those from photo 3 but I'm not sure if they look well with this car colour. Same thing with the ones in photo 6, which are the most popular here.
Do you know the model names of all these alloys? I've searched a lot, but can't find many photos of A2's this colour with those alloys.
I don't even know which is the name for this color of the car. Is this the Azure?

Many thanks for your answers.

Cheers...
 
Excellent! Congratulations on your new car, and welcome (more officially!) to the owners' club. :)

Alloys:
  • The first set are 16" and were standard on the A2 SE in the UK. They are probably the most common A2 alloys you'll see here.
  • The second set are 17" and were standard on the A2 Sport in the UK. I love the look of the A2 on these wheels, but you pay a price in terms of ride comfort.
  • The third set are 15" and were standard on the A2 base model in the UK. They have a terrible tendency to flakey lacquer, but they're very lightweight, offering good fuel economy and ride comfort. If you choose to go with these, you'll probably want to get them refurbished.
  • The fourth set were never issued on the A2 in the UK, and I don't think they were used by Audi elsewhere in Europe either.
  • The fifth set look excellent in my opinion and, for this photo to have been taken, I presume there must be a set out there with a PCD of 5x100, but they may be replicas. I'm not sure.
  • The sixth set are 15" and were available in the UK as an optional extra. They are very rare in the UK, as clearly not many people chose them.
Cheers,

Tom
 
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timmus said:
[*] The fifth set look excellent in my opinion and, for this photo to have been taken, I presume there must be a set out there with a PCD of 5x100, but they may be replicas. I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
I'm sure that picture is on the Audi website, so have to assume they're genuine....
 
6cyl Chris said:
I'm sure that picture is on the Audi website, so have to assume they're genuine....
Click to expand...

I agree, Chris, the picture does look official. They must be rare as rocking horse poo, as otherwise why is nobody running them!?
 
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