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Audi A3 Cabriolet 2.0 TFSI 'S-Line'
The A3 Cabriolet is, like all the decapitated strains of tiresomely mass-produced commuting fodder, essentially instantly thought of as a spousal arouser, a second car with added glitz. You buy one when you can't afford the flashier, bigger A4 Cab/BMW 3-series CC and can't have a sport scar because your life still surrounds itself with dull, grown-up practicalities that you just can't shake. You want to feel like you haven't surrendered, so you settle for something just a little risqué. But that's just the kind of assumption that the A3 Cabrio takes great glee in dismantling from a variety of different angles. It might have the faint whiff of white-gold ankle chain, but the reality is that if you dismiss this car based on the fact that Essex tanning salon car parks will be frothing with them, then you'd be missing out on the best car in the class. After all, ubiquity does not a bad car make. Just ask Mini. Still my personal sales forecast needs some justification because, roof up, it's not the best-looking hunchback of the common crop of attainable cabriolets, and you'll probably want to deduct some initial points for the appearance of fabric when VW's Eos and Ford's Focus CC can manage a hard folding carapace, but there are advantages to that hood that we'll come to later. First of all though, it's wise to make the rather obvious point that this is an Audi - Audis are affordable and generally respectably cool, a bit like a Next cashmere jumper. And let's face it, when it comes down to keeping-up-with-the-Joneses baiting, it's better than saying you've just plumped for a open-air Focus, no matter how clever and rigid the roof. Secondly, even though some of the interior plastics aren't quite up to scratch (or, rather, they are), the interior feels as solid, restrained and unlikely to annoy as any other part of the A3 family. There's the usual huge C-pillar blind spot with the roof up that plagues any cabrio, so parking sensors are probably a bumper-saving option, and it looks better on big wheels. The seats are well-proportioned - though the pedals are stupidly offset in the left-hand drive version - there's some nice detail stitching on the 'S-Line' versions, and you could happily throw a couple of close friends in the back for a short journey. So far, so predictable. Not so fast though, because once you start prodding and pushing, the A3 Cab really comes to life. The party piece is really the roof, and when we live in a resolutely wet country like the UK, whose only benefit from global warming is to be marginally more prone to spectacular flooding, that's a big deal. For a start, you're looking at the sprinter of the open-roof world. The fully automatic hood (semi-auto version in the basic models) drops the overhead carpet in just nine seconds, up to a maximum speed of roughly 19mph. What this means is that dropping the top isn't just touch of a button, but a realistic traffic light endeavour. Even if the lights do change, by the time you've cruised away, the roof is secure and stowed flush with the haunch of the car, in the same way as the brilliant TT or the Boxster. |
http://www.aboutcars.co.cc
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This intel was contributed by piske91
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May, 2012
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