Make: Audi
Model: VW MkIV Golf Cabriolet

October 1998Release date:

March 2003End date:

Audi won’t like this, but the A3 Cabrio is really the spiritual successor to the second-generation Golf Cabriolet that was based on the MkIII Golf, and which – in this iteration – gained a MkIV-like snout and some interior bits to stay fresh for the New Millennium.

And except for the Golf’s signature rollover hoop, the Audi very much uses the same blueprint – a relatively spacious and useable four-seater convertible with a deceptively large boot, a hardy and easy-to-use fabric roof, and a choice of two four-cylinder petrol engines (in this case an anaemic 66kW/145Nm 1.8-litre for the CL and 85kW/166Nm 2.0-litre for the GL Cabrio).

Gearbox choices were limited to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic.

Safe, solid and hardwearing, the Golf Cabrio punched above its weight at a time before the folding hard-top convertibles such as the Peugeot 307 CC and Renault Megane CC hi-jacked the segment.

Indeed, the Karmann-built original started the whole small convertible thing in 1979.