Audi A3 Cabriolet
With the new A3 Cabriolet, Audi’s understated and rather covetable hatchback gets a soft top for the first time. More than that, it gets a record-breakingly fast one. Push the button located conveniently to the rear of the handbrake, and merely nine seconds later the canvas cover over your head will have sprinted to the back of the car and folded itself tidily against the boot. Clearly we are talking here about the Linford Christie of opening car tops, except without the somewhat distracting controversy.
Audi’s own research predicts that, for some reason, the A3 will be popular with people seeking a “second vehicle for their spouse”. They also envisage a take-up among customers with a “higher level of education and income” than their rivals. The higher level of education, we’ll let pass. The higher level of income goes without saying, though. You could get two perfectly respectable cars with the money that Audi want for this one. But how quickly would their roofs open, assuming their roofs opened at all? And how swiftly would they close again in a flood? Those are the kind of considerations we find ourselves weighing up in 2008.
