More than a hairdresser’s car
Audi’s A3 Cabriolet has always been a refined boulevard cruiser favoured by the multi-tasking sex and hair-dressers. Paul Owen finds that the latest version has wider appeal.
I PRESUME that many folk call cabriolets ‘‘hairdresser’s cars’’ mostly because you definitely need to dress your hair after you drive one. Motorcyclists have to deal with a post-ride affliction where any prospect of enjoying a ‘‘good hair day’’ has been crushed by the sustained weight of their head protection.
With Cabriolets, there is an opposite effect as putting the top down allows the wind to tease your hair into a style that the late Phyllis Diller would’ve worn in one of her hilarious stand-up comedy routines. If that’s a look that you desire when you drive, the new Audi A3 Cabriolet is a great way to get it.
But there’s more to the new A3 Cab than just its ability to make you look as though you’ve had a big fright on the journey to any destination. For a start, this second-gen version is far bigger than the first, expanding to A4 Cabriolet dimensions.
That means a rear seat no longer fit just for lap-pets. You can now fit children and smaller people in there too, although Sumo wrestlers and shot putters will still have to catch a bus.
Most of the 183mm increase in the length of the A3 Cabriolet has been added at the rear, which allows the luggage capacity to expand to 320 litres when the hood is up. That’s statistically four litres more than a Ford Focus hatchback offers, and a family of two adults and two children could now contemplate taking an extended road trip in the latest A3 Cab.
With the Audi’s towing capacity of 1500kg, they could even pull a caravan along as well.
Not that anyone but English caravan fetishists would use an A3 Cabriolet for gypsy work. But the point is that this is a more practical car than previously, and it also remains the good-looking fashion statement that it has always been.
It’s even more attractive to my eye as the added length and lowered roofline bless it with a sleeker profile. Parked up with the roof and windows dropped, the rear- view of the car becomes drop-dead lascivious.
Along with the increased visual appeal, Audi’s newest Cab off the rank offers more driver appeal. New Zealand gets just the one engine in A3 Cabriolet’s global five-motor portfolio, and European Motor Distributors has chosen the most powerful – a 1.8litre directinjection turbocharged petrol four developing 132kW and 250Nm of thrust.
Hooked up to an efficient sevenspeed twin-clutch robo-manual gearbox, the motor drives the front wheels of the roof-optional A3 with a well-considered balance of performance and economy. Helping the car achieve a Drivetrain: Transverse, front-mounted front-wheel-drive with seven-speed twin-clutch robo-manual transmission. Output: 1798cc DOHC direct-injection turbopetrol inline four producing 132 kW at 5100-6200rpm, 250Nm at 1250-5000 rpm. Performance: Maximum speed 242 kmh, 0-100kmh 7.8 seconds, 5.8 L/100km, 133g CO2/km. Chassis: Front MacPherson struts, rear multilink. Variable electro-mechanical power steering. Vented disc brakes front and rear. 17-inch alloy rims with 225/45 tyres. Dimensions: L 4421mm, H 1409mm, W 1793mm, W/base 2595mm, Fuel 50 L, Weight 1430kg. Pricing: $69,900 0-100kmh time of 7.8 seconds and fuel use figures of 5.8litres per 100km is the lighter construction of the body.
Overall mass is 50kg lighter than the smaller first A3 Cab, the saving won through the use of aluminium for the engine bonnet and the bows that hold the cloth-top in shape.
Speaking of the latter, you hardly know that there is no metal (other than those bows) above your head when you drive the Cabriolet as the cabin noise levels are quieter than many full metal jacket cars. Putting the roof up or down can be done at the push of a button and on the move at speeds below 50kmh.
Should a thunderstorm threaten during roof-less travel, it takes 18 seconds for the car’s weather protection to install itself again. It’s a Cabriolet well adapted to the fickle nature of the New Zealand climate.
Roof-less driving isn’t for everyone however, and I personally spent no more than 10 kilometres in the A3 Cabriolet with the top down. It was enough to know that this a better car with it up, as retrieving the roof from the boot adds another 60 litres of luggage capacity, allows in-cabin conversations and the fine audio system to be heard, and prevents earache. Oh, and did I mention that the ambient temperature was three degrees that day?
So, for me, a Cabriolet that cuts the usual compromises of the breed is absolutely a fine thing as I’d mostly use it like an ordinary car. And the A3 is happy to oblige courtesy of all the body reinforcements Audi added to compensate for the usual bracing provided by a metal roof.
It therefore drives a lot like all the other new A3 models with a slightly-more neutral balance, the same ultra-absorbent ride, and a steering agility helped by the fitment of 17’’ wheels clad with tyres of a sporty profile. It even disguises the extra mass added by the servo motors that drive the hood operations and the extra chassis reinforcing well.
The drawbacks of buying this $69,900 car amount to the extra $7900 premium you pay above the price of an equivalent A3 Sportback, and that you do have to pay even more to get the leather upholstery.
Evidently nobody wants to put the base model’s ‘‘cheap’’ cloth seats on display when removing the roof, so EMD is expecting a high uptake of a $2,700 S-line leather seat option.
Meanwhile, every A3 Cabriolet buyer will get to look like Phyllis Diller for free when driving sans roof, so I recommend they keep the name of their hairdresser on speed-dial. THIS HAS occurred with other brands too over the years, when people at model companies given plans or pictures to work from, leak shots of their products long before the real thing surfaces.
Now scale models of the upcoming seven-seater SUV are effectively the first undisguised pictures of the production version, albeit downscaled.
The model’s design appears to be similar to the Discovery Vision Concept unveiled at the New York Auto Show in April, so it’s not that big of a surprise.
The main differences are the lack of ‘‘suicide doors’’ and a bigger glass area, with crisper lines at the C-pillar than the Vision concept car.
The front fascia’s shape is also less solid, with a softer horizontal opening below the grille to define the bumpers. LED fog lights appear to sit in a trapezoidal opening, rather than below vertical vents, while the general lines and surface have undergone the expected toning down that occurs between show and production vehicle.
The previous times that models have ruined the reveal of a production car was when Burago IN THE same way that Ron Burgundy — aka Will Farrell — lifted Dodge Durango sales, it’s hoped that Matthew McConaughey ( The Lincoln Lawyer) will raise Ford’s Lincoln luxury brand to higher sales numbers.
We’d have suggested Daniel Day-Lewis whose portrayal of President Lincoln won one of the most deserved Oscars in recent times, but apparently he’s unavailable. However, as an award-winning Dallas Buyers Club man and a convincing True Detective actor, Matthew McConaughey is surely better than second best.
Thus, Lincoln has signed the 2013 Academy Award-winner into a multi-year contract with the Lincoln brand to help sell their new cars in a series of TV ads. The first will sell the 2015 MKC compact crossover later this year.
‘‘Lincoln is an iconic, American brand and I like where they are heading with their transformation,’’ McConaughey said in a press release, which added: ‘‘I had the chance to drive made a car based on a Boxster concept and got it totally wrong (and better than the real thing).
The latest Dodge Viper was seen as a HotWheels product two years before the real thing, just as Mattel released the 68 Corvette in diecast model form before the production car’s unveiling nearly 50 years ago. the new MKC around Texas and I think they’re doing a good job.’’
Variety magazine says this is a coupe for Lincoln, and one that could significantly raise its profile. The mere availability of the MKC has already boosted the brand’s sales, but it still has a long way to go to reinvent itself into a formidable competitor against Lexus and Cadillac.