I'll say some good things before I start ranting.
The high seats on the Audi A2 are really good for visibility, and also for getting the kids in and out.
It's a nippy little beast, good acceleration and very strong mid range for overtaking in a jiffy. That's balanced with very good fuel economy, so win win.
Right then, the problems...
I bought the Audi A2 second hand with a four month warranty (should have heard the alarm bells with that really) which turned out to be pretty pointless anyway cos the dealer clearly was going to try every trick in the book to delay and avoid doing any work at all on it.
The problems are too many to list. The first problem that spring to mind in my Audi A2 was the air mass meter (I'd never heard of that either). It's when you start learning about new parts of cars that you know your car is having too many things go wrong.
The engine mgmt system had a problem that was sort of fixed but it seems to have been a bit more lacklustre since. Coils had problems (not cheap), the stereo as well. The cam belt was the most recent one. I don't even want to count the cost. It's actually had a quiet spell for repairs over the last six months, so I might sell up before my luck runs out!
Apart from the repairs, the rear visibility is very bad, and the spoiler on the A2 is in a very odd place on that note. The parking sensors help but some things you just need to see. Driving along the blind spots can be pretty tricky too. I've nearly taken out a couple of cyclists on turns. Annoying, unreliable and dangerous. Need I say more? Oh and the boot is an absolute joke. If you want to store anything apart from a few days shopping in the back then you need to take the back seats out. It's nice that they come out like that, but it means you have to put them somewhere, and if you go somewhere and you find you want the back seats, then you can't. Silly.
I wanted a nice economical car as I've moved into sort of semi retirement now and I just need to do the odd trip to see clients. I go quite long distances sometimes so I liked the general levels of comfort in the Audi A2.
I've been very impressed by the running costs. You always expect diesels to be more economical and the Audi A2 TDI doesn't disappoint. It's getting well clear of 60 miles a gallon most days, although my drives are usually on pretty quiet roads.
I bought it new and I thought it was quite pricey. I had previously bought from a different Audi dealer near me and been very disappointed with their levels of service. I almost walked away from Audi altogether but just happened to use a different Audi garage for some repair or other (on a car before the Audi A2) and found them to be excellent, courteous and prompt. So I've gone with them from now on and not been disappointed. They've seen to all the warranty claims I've had in good time.
That does bring me on to the down side though. The good point with the running costs is the low fuel costs and as a result the trivial £30 a year on tax, but the bad side, which is unlike Audi, is the repairs on the Audi A2. I suppose it's not been horrific but it's just not what you expect. For a year or so the alarm went off every few months for no apparent reason. I eventually got it seen to during a service and they fixed it up. The sunroof failed to open and after a long time thinking about whether to fix it, I did so, and it cost me a few hundred. Part of this is the high cost of Audi labour which I think is about £80 an hour. That's almost what I pay my solicitor! There was some other thing with the steering, and some niggles with the wheels.
I suppose it's a good car really, and these repairs haven't broken the bank. In the meantime I've been paying so much less on insurance as well (about £250 a year fully comp).
The Audi A2 doesn't look like a regular Audi, and it sure as anything doesn't maintain the Audi reputation for strong and long lasting quality cars. It's rubbish! We stupidly just went mostly on reputation with this, didn't even really read over the paperwork of all the work the previous owner had had done on it. I bet the dealer saw us coming a mile off. They certainly don't seem very interested in us now that we've bought it. Hmph!
The turbo in our Audi A2 has had a problem a couple of times, both times causing the engine to sort of die a bit. It wasn't dangerous, and it didn't cut out, but it just lost a noticeable amount of oomph. I suppose it could have been dodgy if I was doing some sort of adventurous overtaking, but I'm not that sort of driver.
It seems to eat lights. We've had at least four different lights changed in three years. After the second we worked out how to do it ourselves, so much cheaper that way. We got it second hand online as well, a whole lot cheaper and we just thought we might as well save the money if they're going to die anyway!
There have been a few other little problems with warning lights and locks in our Audi A2, just niggling things that we've got seen to at service time. There's been a bit of water leakage into the boot during heavy rain. Now that I write all these down in one place it make me think that the Audi A2 is a complete liability and we've been silly to keep it so long. I suppose it's been just about reliable enough. And also the fuel efficiency is brilliant, so that makes up for a lot.
It's quite roomy inside as well, for the whole family, so it's generally very practical. I suppose the problems we've had with it haven't usually been the sorts of things that would cut a journey off, they just annoy you until you find time to sort them out. I don't think I could really recommend the Audi A2 to a friend though.
I had a Toyota Yaris Verso before the Audi A2. I'd always loved the way you can collapse the back seats down under the front seats to make a little mini van type thing, and that's what first made me like the Audi A2 as well. It's clever inside, the sun roof is really fancy as well, panoramic view so you can see everything, no more bending over awkwardly to check the traffic lights, it's great.
I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of comfort over long distances, but actually it's turned out to be really good. We went round France this summer in it, with the kids in the back, and it was perfectly comfy for all of us. We got ours second hand and it had climate control already (think that was an option originally) and I just don't know what we would have done without that, would have been a much less comfortable trip.
We've had it five years now and it's about eight years old in total I think, and actually it's getting a bit over the hill now, which isn't quite the Audi reputation I'd hoped for. It's only done about 60k miles, but already we've had to sort out the wipers, get the gearbox tweaked (not replaced thankfully, still a pricey job though), electrical things here and there, some work on the shocks, that sort of thing. It's annoying but not disastrously expensive repairs wise.
The fuel economy on my A2 is good though, a bit under 50mpg most of the time, a shade more on the longer trips, although you use a bit more for climate control. That's the same in any car though.
Other little warning: the blind spots can be very tricky - just get yourself a pair of blind spot mirrors and stick them on the wing mirrors, does the trick just fine.
I bought this car without doing enough research and I realise now that I could have got something much more inspiring for my money. Don't get me wrong, it's a good motor but really - I could have bought something a lot flasher for that kind of cash!
The A2 is a good solid car, something between a supermini and a mini-MPV. What I did spend on it I reckon I saved on petrol costs to be honest - there aren't many cars this size that can do nearly 70mpg. That's German engineering for you. Not quite as refined as many German cars, though - there is a bit of ride noise and a sort of rattling has emerged from the tail-end recently.
It's a great car, but to be honest I wish I'd bought a nice sporty little number instead. The Audi A2 is practical, reliable and it looks great, but at the end of the day it's nothing special at all. The engine is pretty lively, though, and it's a good enough performer all round.