We are looking to buy a 4 seater cabriolet car to carry the kids about in. Keeping the '5 for weekends or sepcial occasion.
But when I search for cars its seems there is very limited choice.
The one that seems to fit the bill most is the Audi A4 cabriolet but I am shocked and a little scared at their reliability record of some of the variants which seems to be shocking!
The 1.8t’s have good fuel economy but suffer from sludge blocking the oil strainer starving the engine of oil!! pretty basic stuff I would ahve thought Audi could have got right. The 2.4’s are big slow and thirsty and the 3 litre is just to expensive to run and I hear they can crack the enigne block on some models.
The diesles are out of our price range and our budget is about £4K tops but I hear horror stories relating to their oil pumps to.
Any body have any experience of the Audi cabriolet’s and are they really that bad? The internet is full of horror stories.
Or can anybody suggest another 4 seater that fits the bill and isnt prone to major mechanical failure! LOL
It seems the choice is very small. others I ahve seen would be a Saab… but these are obsolete and I worry about spare parts. very cheap to buy though.
Volvo, but these seem a little boat like for our liking.
My 73 year old father has a 08 Focus CC3 (facelift) diesel.
Compared to the Vauxhalls, Peugouts, Renaults, it has a lot more room in the back; one of the reasons he picked it was so he could ferry his mother in law around. The others had similar leg room, but far less head room. Been very reliable. Roof up; huge boot. Roof down; there is still a decent sized stowage area. Its cost him pennies to run. Pulls like a train, compared to the petrol version; these CC cars are very heavy.
The very early ones had a reputation for leaks, but it turns out all of these CC type cars have issues with leaks (lots of seals). Ford was so disturbed by this, for a while they actually stopped selling them, and brought back cars off the used market, to maintain values. Once they had revised the Pininfarina seals, and essentially rebuilt Pininfarina’s facility, they restarted production with the facelifted (“Kinetic”) car. Needless to say, he has not had any leak problems.
The trim is basically top of the line Focus, in CC3 trim (CC1 is true poverty spec), which means workman like plastic mouldings (kid proof; he regularly transports his grandchildren in it, who love it), with decent leather, a decent cd player, cruise, climate control, heated seats etc. No sports car, but its a very smooth drive.
He looked at Audi and BMW offerings, but for the same money, he was looking at cars twice as old, 4 times the mileage, shod with scrapyard tyres, and sold by a bloke called Arthur Daley. I know from experience that older E46 BMWs have pathetic reliability, and are expensive to keep going.
Facelifted Focus CCs can be picked up for £5-6k, the early ones are a lot cheaper, and all will have received the revised sealing under warranty.
Not as common as the French offerings, and Clarkson actually liked it.
Fully agree with people who have suggested the Saab.Prices have dropped since their demise and they are a supremely comfortable car and if you go for the diesel 50+ MPG is not bad
Thanks for all the replies, some very interesting reading here. Still cant decide though LOL
What I do know is I would never buy a french car… having repaired a few they are quite simply a nightmare
Never been a Vauxhall fan although if they did the Isignia in a cabriolet version I may be tempted.
The Ford CC is a nice car, a friend has one where I work but its not for us… cant really say why exactly just not keen on it.
Volvo is a tempting proposition and I am thinking more about the Saab’s now the prices have dropped the 1.9td version 200 miles yesterday and was quite impressed.
However the repair bills for diesels really put me off and offset any savings you gain on good mpg. it seems all diesels are at some point goingt o break down in a major way and cost a fortune to fix. ( Been on the honest john web site and all problems listed are for the diesel variants of just about anything)
So I know at least I’ll be sticking to petrol.
So I think my options are Saab 2.0t, Volvo or maybe still the audi (but depends on condition and previous owners etc)
I had an Astra Twintop Design & couldnt fault it & its by far the best looker out there in my opinion.
You will read horror stories about the complex roof playing up but mine was fine & what ever car you search info about you will only ever find bad reviews as people don`t often shout about how good there car is (apart from MX5s of course )
I only parted with mine as i needed more rear seats.
A saab…Safe,solid,spare parts no problem,loads of extras as standard,great prices.They have been the top selling cabriolet for years.Loads to choose from…What more could you want.
2.8 V6, you won’t be dissappointed with that, my Wife has the 2.0t with the Hirsch performance chip and that is very fast. She goes through a set of rear tyres every 10,000 miles.
Whilst our work fleet vehicles are not cabriolets, we run BMWs and Audi’s and from what I have experienced so far, I wouldnt buy either of them in any shape or form.
A mate has a Saab and its spot on, he has had it years and it still runs well, looks good and has been ultra reliable.
Thankfully, I dont have that problem of kids to transport so our two seaters are all that we need (as well as my VW Passat Estate to transport the gandchildren)
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