Audi A1 alternatives

VW Polo.

The A1 is rather nice, but it's also hideously expensive.
The new Polo is very good, and you'd be mad to get the A1 over it unless you had too much money burning a hole in your pocket.
 
The A1's a much more solid feeling car though.....I couldn't wait to get out of the new Polo (it was a Bluemotion, mind) but the A1 I could have pootled around in all day.

Admittedly I do most of my work on the motorway, so anything that's remotely toytown can immediately run into issues - so the VW's 'faults' were probably exacerbated by it's dinky diesel.
 
The A1's a much more solid feeling car though.....I couldn't wait to get out of the new Polo (it was a Bluemotion, mind) but the A1 I could have pootled around in all day.

Admittedly I do most of my work on the motorway, so anything that's remotely toytown can immediately run into issues - so the VW's 'faults' were probably exacerbated by it's dinky diesel.
My dad rented a 1.4 TDI in Hamburg and said it was fine trundling down the Autobahn at 160km/h.. It even had heated seats :p

The A1 is of course a nicer place to be, but it is significantly more expensive..
However, if money was no object, I know which one I'd have ;)

audia1competitionkit1.jpg
 
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One other thought would be the Alfa Romeo 1.4 MultiAir TB 170 bhp Cloverleaf. Nice looks and 0-60 in 7.5 sec. Lists at £18.4k in Black (non-metallic) but a little haggling and £17k might be possible.:D
 
Broadspeed have a Mito Cloverleaf at £17.4k, I'd rather have one of those than an A1 but it all depends on if you like the looks I guess.
 
Are the Mitos at all reliable or well built though? They do look good but it might be a tough sell lol.

I'm thinking that a Polo could be an option. She is open to the idea of them at least! How flexible do you think a dealer would be if we bought a Polo near new and and an approved 07 Golf at the same time?
 
One other thought would be the Alfa Romeo 1.4 MultiAir TB 170 bhp Cloverleaf. Nice looks and 0-60 in 7.5 sec.

Gets tiring to drive fast though, tries to pull itself into the nearest hedge every time you put the hammer down, even more so in damp conditions or on poorer roads :D

They do look good though and the interiors are quite nice - although there are some flaws like cupholders that are useless, a terrible iPod interface and some questionable plastics and build quality.

It does have a boost gauge, though :p Sounds great from inside as well.
 
Hmmm, all these cars seem ok but has she considered what else her budget will buy her?

You can now get one of these for her budget:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2383017.htm

It's similar to the Audi A1, only a bit bigger and also a bit more powerful. Probably the main strength of this car over the Audi is the ability to annoy people in Ferrari 355's
 
a white nissan juke best colour

Realy cool cars

my wifes got one and gets an anoying amount of people come up and say ewww thats cute i realy like it whats that ect ect :(

cheap too

sad i know
 
Someone please remind me how VAG is getting away with tarting up a Fabia and charging several K more for it?

If she wants a small car, buy a Mini, end of story.
 
I'll try and get a got in the Polo, how is the 1.2 engine out of curiosity?

I have the Polo 1.2 SE so 60PS, not the fastest car in the world but does the job and is mint on fuel :D

From what I ahve read, the 1.2 TSI is the way to go to get a little fun/poke whilst being relatively economic.

There is the Polo GTI aswell though :D 1.4 TSI 185PS 0-60 6.9 secs with a twin clutch 7 speed DSG box, win!
 
[TW]Fox;18386974 said:
Hmmm, all these cars seem ok but has she considered what else her budget will buy her?

You can now get one of these for her budget:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2383017.htm

It's similar to the Audi A1, only a bit bigger and also a bit more powerful. Probably the main strength of this car over the Audi is the ability to annoy people in Ferrari 355's

Could be just right lol, except we are going to look at a brand new Audi tomorrow and the £30 is actually one of her big ticks :( . It's pretty hard to reason with somebody like this so my only concern is that I can help get her the best deal, however it's unlikely that Audi will even budge. Just to add, she's done 30k in 3.5 years in the Yaris and thinks that the 47 mpg she gets is poor :confused:
 
Update

We spent a couple of hours in Audi Cribbs Causeway today and took an A1 1.4TSI out for 40 minutes without a dealer. It was S Line spec but is generally the same as the Sport bar alloys and trim according to the documentation.

Generally speaking it is actually quite nice. The interior is about 95% of the A3 and the plastics seem to be of the same quality. Engine wise, the 1.4 was pretty good tbh. It is not going to set the world alight, but was pokey enough. The cabin was a little noisy on the M5, but better than her Yaris and it was not engine noise, more wind and tyres.

Thankfully after looking at the additional cost of the diesel (£650) and taking into consideration the mileage that she does she has seen sense on that front. Real world MPG are looking like 48 for the diesel and 38 for the petrol, although the demo car we had showed 31mpg on the trip computer, but I'm used to seeing that on a demo.

The experience itself was good up until the end. Audi have offered £4500 for her Yaris, which is exactly as expected. They managed to come up with an OTR price of £16968 which annoyed me as the brochure OTR was £15670. They had included GAP and Autoglym in their OTR :rolleyes: It was a little annoying that they tried to tack on useless extras.

She is in a position where she could pay cash outright at 15k, however would prefer to put down 10 and finance 5k. Audi weren't willing to really move on price, but I think it may just take patience from her. If we could get to £14800 she would get it, but we're still looking at A3s.

VW are definitely out, as are Volvo so I may try and get a spin in a Mini next week. Any advice on how to get Audi to move on price. Is playing off dealers against each other doable or are they wise to this and price fix among themselves?
 
Quick update, she has gone with an A3 in the end. It's a 10 plate 1.6 Technik which is slightly above SE spec. She's paid 16k for it but didn't get the best of deals tbh.

To give you an idea of what I've been working with, it turns out her Yaris hasn't had an MOT for most of the year as she forgot to get it done after her car was 3 years old :rolleyes: How she got her taxed I don't know, I guess she renewed it just before her MOT was due.
 
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