Audi A2
The Audi A2 first went on sale in 1999 at a time when the brand was in the early stages of its since mushrooming growth, and known for much bigger cars. And it’s not really fair to dub this car a failure – unlike most of the entrants in this feature, this was a technically clever design much admired by road testers.
The A2 used a sandwich chassis construction technique similar to the first Mercedes-Benz A-Class, combining an upper and lower floor with components such as the fuel tank placed between them. It was built primarily of aluminium alloys, which made it very light compared to rivals and thus highly fuel efficient, petrol versions cresting 50mpg which at the time was remarkable.
By far Audi’s smallest model, the A2 received high praise for its looks and its performance, but there were problems. It might have been small, but it was an expensive car to make due mainly to all that complex lightweight metal, while virtually all the components were bespoke to the car and not sourced from the general Audi parts catalogue.
And not everyone liked styling that would be considered normal today. After just six years the A2 was dropped, but it had served a crucial role, pioneering the lightweight shell technology that is normal in today’s Audis and many other cars.
Next page: Not of the required calibre
