[320touring]

Now this has been on fleet for a while, I thought I had best give some of my initial impressions of driving it (getting the keys out the Bird's hauns can be difficult)

Where to start?

In the cabin, the feel is classic early 2000s VAG - all soft touch plastic and buttons engineered for feel.

Maybe when this was new it made for a pleasant user interface - now, 18 years and 185k miles later, it's just a sea of slightly tacky (as in sticky!) Plastic, and switches where the beige has rubbed off to reveal the black switch beneath.

Whoever specced it with BIEGE cloth interior needs to re-think what a nice interior looks like.

The layout is sensible, so far, so VAG, but the equipment level is somewhat stingy.

No air-con, or even a basic On Board Computer to provide feedback to the driver. This is an odd oversight in a car built for MPG - the driver has no way of monitoring either average or instantaneous MPG. On previous VAG cars I have owned (Skoda Fabia/Octavia) there has always been an OBC. It must have been a ploy to get owners to buy into "premium" features.

The seats themselves are good - excellent support on the fronts (manual adjustment), and the rear seats have a handy feature whereby the rear can be set to two different upright positions, providing some more boot space, whilst still functioning as rear seats. They are also split 50/50, so handy that way too.

The boot itself has a mixture of advantages and problems. It has a nice, tall opening with plenty of height for loading, and with the seats in their rearmost position, it'll still happily swallow 5-6 large bags of shopping.

However, usefulness is somewhat compromised by the relatively narrow boot opening and the high load lip.

Ok, let's talk about what it is like to drive.

You sit high in the car - similar to the experience of a first Gen Mercedes A Class, bit without the engine under your feet. Luckily, the Aluminium construction minimises the impact of the tall profile, and the car doesn't carry too much weight up top. The positive side to this is that the general visibility is good by modern standards - making it easy to plan ahead and drive smoothly. The one exception to this is the rear window - its shape distorts the rear view significantly, hilariously makinging every following car look like either a hearse or something out of whacky races..

Handling is not a forte - the narrow width and short wheelbase don't really inspire the confidence to wheel it into corners like you were in an ur-quattro. However, as a small car, and especially as a tall small car the turn in and lack of roll is very engaging. If one is so minded, some entertainment can be had back roads blasting.

The ride quality is nothing to write home about either, though this is likely exacerbated by this particular example's high mileage, and 16" wheels. The suspension is not likely to be an expensive fix, unless considered in the context of the cost of the car, where even replacement stock dampers would likely be over 100%. It's not the worst ride, and there are no obvious serious suspension issues, so I shall leave well alone just now.

Unfortunately, the A2 does have an Achilles heel - and it's quite a fundamental one.

The engine.

Firstly, a qualifying statement. My frame of reference for diesel engines extends to the VAG 1.9 TDi in pre PD and PD Formats, the XUD in N/a and TD form and the old mechanical pumped n/a om603 in my 320k mile Mercedes s124.

All of the above units are generally well regarded as being effective engines, and were considered (at their respective times) as being efficient or technologically advanced.

Ergo, you'd expect the 1.4TDi in the A2 to be good, given that it is essentially a 1.9TDi PD lump with a cylinder lopped off?

Alas, you'd be wrong.

Often, small 3bangers can be a hoot to drive - especially those which emit a "half a V6" bark (Daewoo Matiz, I'm looking at you!).

Diesel does not lend itself to such feelings. Instead, upon starting, a faint hint of Lister (NOT the Storm!) Can be detected. There must be a fair bit of meat on the flywheel to try and dampen vibrations, but at just above idle you get more shoogle than an airport massage chair.

Pulling off is ok, and the engine is keen enough to rev, but there is not much grunt to write home about. Like a lot of VAG engines, all the work is done relatively low in the rev range - revving past 3500 is not really worth the effort.

But, it is a diesel, not a Clio 172, so one can't expect a sonorous conveyance, however, wafting along on a wave of torque can be fun too!

At least I hear it can. This thing makes 144lb/ft peak torque (incidentally 1lb/ft more than the om603 in my Merc..) at a lowly 2200rpm. Good says you - slap bang in the happy zone for a turbo diesel.

Well maybe someone should have intimated that to the gearbox engineers. This thing has LLLLOOOOOOONNNG gears. So long, infact, that you need to use 4th at 30mph, and it's not happy to pull below about 1500rpm if you go full throttle.

It's likely I wouldn't be so critical if I hadn't encountered how good the 1.9TDi PD is, or if the car was lower mileage, but I'm definitely not impressed. I think the engine/gearbox are the components least "Audi like" on the whole car, and I could imagine many potential buyers being put off when they were new.

All the above is my own opinion, your mileage may vary etc, and on balance, I'm still pleased by how well it goes and works for the money I have in it.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with an update - hell I may even service it!