AUDI 80 B3

1986-’91: left-hand-drive ergonomics for RHD users

Given the phenomenal success of Audi in the UK today, it is difficult to recall a time when the Ingolstadt make was comfortably outsold here by Lancia, Saab and Volvo. From a slow start when British imports were reinstated in ’66, 20 years on – the time of the aerodynamic 80 B3’s launch – Audi had grown into a serious player in the UK’S premium car sector. All the more surprising, then, that British buyers of the thirdgeneration 80 (plus its more expensive 90 saloon and Coupé B3 siblings) were short-changed with a centre console biased for LHD markets, with the air vents, heater controls, audio system and sundry switches canted away from the RHD driver’s reach. This pfennig-pinching annoyance was exacerbated when Audi’s engineers had gone to the considerable expensive of adapting its flawed procon-ten supplementary safety set-up for RHD use, rather than fit airbags like its more far-sighted competitors. The system was quickly dropped in favour of airbags after real-world accidents revealed that it could dislodge the driver’s shoulders from their sockets.

Anorak fact The UK market benefited from Audi adding a bespoke estate model to the earlier 80 B1 range, based around the first-generation Giugiaro-designed Volkswagen Passat Variant, which shared many of its panels with the Audi