2001 Audi A2 review from UK and Ireland

The front light cover seemed to steam up, water trapped inside.

Suspension would crack going over any bump.

Engine lost all its oil in 3 seconds leaving me to start a fire in the engine.

This is the 1.4 version. This is the most basic engine in the line-up, and I think the TDI would have been much nicer. The engine needs to be worked hard; all 74bhp of it. It's very nippy at low speeds and is fantastic at darting about in city traffic. The low weight of 900kg made the small 1.4 unit manage.

The car was all to easy to stall; you would need about 10 million rpm to keep the car from stalling. Hill starts would require around 10 billion and the use of a tow bar.

Performance was around 12 seconds to 60mph. Not ground breaking, but 0 to 30mph felt like one second. Again this is due to the low weight.

The body itself is all aluminum. Therefore it will not rust, which is always useful in the MOT. It also looks very modern for its age, and since it is quite rare, it's something of a nice car to have.

There are only 4 seats, but the space in the car is rather big for the size of the motor.

One problem was the low boot depth. Due to the spare tyre and toolkit, which comes with the car, it takes away space in the boot.

The battery in the car is clearly not suited to the car, as it could power most of the UK. They have nicely given it a small lorry battery to save them from having to invent a new one.

You nice that some of the things on the A2 are lifted from the rest of the Audi range. The heater is one of the worlds most powerful heaters I have ever come across. I think this is due to it being lifted from a bigger A4, then shoved into an A2. This makes using the heater any longer than 4 seconds unbearable.

Handling in the car was fantastic. Great steering, if a little light; it was very accurate and had good feel. A lovely gearbox that you could feel the gear going in nicely. The pedals were also very good, with the right about of force and distance between them.

I found the brakes to be very decent, pulling up well, although the ABS could be made to work quite early. The traction control, while sometimes was useful, other times would simply cause you to swear. If you hit a small puddle of water or anything, it was likely to cause the power to be cut. And not until another 1 hour would the car let you decide your foot is still pressed down and to continue moving.

The large wheels and little body weight gave fantastic grip round corners. Predictable under-steer would occur if pushed.

MPG was decent, but nothing too ground breaking. 40 plus was fairly normal. The car was given the world smallest fuel tank. It was roughly the same size as a fun size bottle of Coke. No more than 25L.

The cars modern looks were ahead of its time at its launch, but its one of the few cars that still looks new and fresh ten years old. Spoiled by a high production cost.