Why The A3 Cabriolet Is Finally A Car You'll Want To Buy

While testing the rather good Audi S3 saloon earlier this week (while CT Ed Alex was busy being trapped inside a £220k supercar boot), we also had the chance to try out the new A3 Cabriolet. It's not the sort of thing we'd normally get too excited about, but we were taken aback to see how much better looking it was than the A3 Cab it replaces, particularly in the flesh. Just how much better? Check out the comparison pic below.

It's not necessarily the fault of the old A3 Cab, it's based on a hatchback, after all. Almost all convertibles made this way look ungainly with their nasty stumpy rears, and some of the worst ever drop-tops have been hatchback-based. Fiat Punto Cabrio anyone? Fortunately for the designers of the new A3 Cabriolet, though, there's now an A3 saloon to base the drop-top on.

That means you get a much prettier car with a longer, lower and wider body. There's now much more space in the back and in the boot. It's considerably stiffer, too, which means it's actually a pretty decent drive. It's certainly no sports car, but then it's not really meant to be. The 148bhp 2.0-litre TDI - which manages an impressive claimed 67.3mpg - is the engine to go for if you want a cruiser with a little bit of useful poke.

Alternatively, if you can stomach a drop in fuel consumption and stump up the extra cash for the higher list price, the 1.8-litre TFSI is a surprisingly entertaining steer. It's only available with a seven-speed S-Tronic DCT 'box, but it's a good match for the engine, which hauls the A3 from 0-62mph in a brisk 7.8 seconds.

The new A3 Cabriolet is on sale now from £25,790 for the base 1.4-litre TFSI, going up to £30,270 for the 1.8 TFSI. More variants will join the range later in the year, including a 296bhp S3 version.