Review of the new Audi A4 Cabriolet 2.0 TDI

Let it be said that I'm a huge fan of bad cars. Not only do they make easy copy, generating stories by their quirks, faults and design glitches, but they're also something of a dying breed. Gone are the days when a workshop manual could transcend language barriers and reduce engineers of any nationality to pleats of laughter as they inspected sundry Heath Robinson solutions to simple problems. Conspicuously bad design is a breath of fresh air to motoring journalists. Unfortunately, we then get cars like Audi's 2.0-litre TDI Cabriolet, a car that's almost infuriatingly competent at everything it does.

Much as I'd love to regale you with stories of how your fist hits the hazard lights when you select first or third gears, or how the remote central locking goes on the fritz when your mobile phone makes a paging request, I'm afraid I'm plum out of blooper stories when it comes to this car. It's as thoroughly well engineered as you'd expect from a company with a motto that translates to 'forwards through technology'. The tagline fits the A4 Cabriolet a whole lot better these days. Once a rather ageing relic in a refreshed line up of sleek Audi models, the Cabriolet has developed apace over the last few years and the facelifted model with its single-frame grille and sculpted headlamps is challenging BMW's 3 Series as the current drop top du jour.

The addition of a slick 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine makes the Audi both desirable and reasonably affordable. Of course, affordable is a distinctly relative term, and any car that commands an on the road price of around £27,005 is a serious financial undertaking, to most of us at least. Stack the Audi up against its peers from BMW and Mercedes and it looks reasonable value for money. There's certainly little that can be said against that 2.0-litre powerplant.

"A soft top car may be slightly frivolous, but the 2.0-litre TDI engine injects a dose of pragmatism into the buying decision"

If you've driven Audi TDI units in the past and come away unimpressed by their lag and lunge power delivery, now's the time to give them another go. With a far more progressive power delivery than the old 1.9-litre units and excellent refinement, this engine generates 139bhp at 4,000rpm and a hefty 320Nm of torque from just 1,750rpm. The net effect of these outputs is overtaking ability from very low in the rev Range, meaning you won't have to downshift a gear or two to dispatch a middle lane dawdler. With a top speed of 131mph, the Audi will feel very relaxed cruising at typical British motorway speeds. Fuel consumption is as good as you'd expect from a modern pump-injector diesel engine, the Cabriolet turning in an average of 43.4 miles per gallon. Emissions are similarly laudable at 176g/km and the car is also fitted as standard with a particulate filter.

One choice from the Audi options list that may well appeal is the acoustic roof. We're not saying that the diesel engine is noisy, but try two versions of the same car with and without the acoustic roof and you'll probably feel the investment is worthwhile. With thicker padding, it certainly cuts down on wind noise and I should wager that it's warmer for those winter mornings when you're urging the car's heater to get its trousers on. Yes, the Audi continues with a soft top, arguing that the engineering compromises required to fit a folding hard top force designers into all sorts of other knock-on issues regarding weight and packaging. This electro-hydraulically operated hood features a heated glass window which is a welcome change to the rather cheap plastic 'wendy house' windows still offered by some rivals.

The concept of a diesel-powered convertible has traditionally been massively unappealing. Picture the scenario. You pull out to overtake, affecting your finest Terry-Thomas cad-like grin and, nothing. You're stuck in the oncoming with significantly less acceleration than is required to prevent yourself becoming an Eddie Stobart bonnet ornament. When the engine finally gets its trousers on, it belches out a cloud of soot that rivals the Asian Brown Cloud. Your car then waddles forth issuing so much clatter and din that your gritted teeth are now encrusted with midges drawn to the sweat leaping from your every pore. If Audi are to counter this sort of perception, they need a very convincing product. Fortunately they have one.

The six-speed gearbox of the 2.0-litre TDI is slick and wristy; a major improvement from some of the notchy Audi manuals of the past. It seems that Audi have been listening to customer feedback. The universally hated overservoed brakes have been ditched in favour of a more natural feeling setup that won't hang you off your seatbelt the first time you use the middle pedal. Prior complaints about the A4's rather stiff ride have been taken on board and the Cabriolet features a modified four-link front suspension and trapezoidal-link rear suspension with extensive modifications to the shock absorbers, mountings and track rods utilising lessons learned from the development of the A6 and the S4 quattro models. The steering has also been improved to offer more feel with Servotronic speed-sensitive power steering offered as an option. That inert, wooden feeling has been gently excised from the A4's chassis, and while hardcore drivers will still likely prefer something with a blue and white roundel on the bonnet, the difference in driver satisfaction is now a matter of degrees rather than a yawning gulf.

Few cars come across quite as relentlessly polished as the Audi A4 Cabriolet and the 2.0-litre TDI version looks to be the value pick of the entire Range. It may lack the barnstorming performance of its 3.0-litre diesel sibling but it's still acceptably quick to step off the mark and the fuel economy means you won't be shy about using every one of those 139 powered horses. It's tough to know how a car like this can be materially improved, but locked in studios at Ingolstadt, Audi's designers are already hard at work on the next generation car. Audi may be making my life tougher, but you don't need me to tell you that convertible buyers have never had it so good.