GagaStan

Reports of about 800, 000 protesting on the streets on May 1.
540 arrests and 406 police injured. 
Meanwhile out here in the countryside not a sign of anything...this is predominantly an urban thing.
Another mass action planned for June - but no problems with fuel availability up to this point luckily.

A couple of new tyres have just gone on at a village garage. Look what they had in for work:

Do let the rest of us know when it does actually come up for sale…  

But your car was white in the earlier pictures! 😉

Ran out of speedo a couple of times in my 657cc Suzuki Alto. Downhill with a tailwind of course. And it did over read by about 10%… we’ll call it 80mph!

fitted a replacement headlamp washer cover today

wrong colour but looks better than a hole! washers still work perfectly and whilst i was there i decided to give it a good wash and waxing

looking very nice indeed! does look better with the cover fitted even though it's the wrong colour
otherwise it's been a perfect car!
put a fair few miles on it so far too!

what a fantastic purchase this has been

After a bit of a Christmas delay here's some more A2 facts and ownership info for all you boozy dullards who need a bit more holiday reading. This car has 105,000 miles, looks like it's been well cared for in its early life, and although it has passed through a few Autoshitters over the last year and has some areas of tattiness, it's generally in good shape and has clearly had some time and money spent on it sorting out a few issues and keeping on top of servicing and maintenance. 
 

Before getting into this car’s issues here’s some thoughts on what A2s are like based on the first couple of hundred miles/half tank of driving. It’s like our old 2000 A6, but with a less chunky feeling and you sit higher up and can see out of it better. The doors in particular are noticeably thinner and feel a bit flimsy. It’s like my dad’s old 2002 Audi TT but less sexy and taller and squarer. I think this era, early 2000s, was a great time for Audi, they produced some really good cars and I’m a big fan. 
 
The A2 idles, revs and pulls nice and smoothly. Really good stereo, everything is simple and in the right place. Has a few bells and whistles but is not that well specced for an SE top of the range model. I think there was probably a long options list on these from what I can tell, and these are what Audi made their money on. Or rather, these are what enabled Audi to lose a bit less money on some well optioned A2s. 
It’s nice and easy to drive, it feels bigger than it is, but you notice how narrow it is when you meet a car going along a country lane and have to squeeze through. The steering is a bit light and could do with a bit more feel. Way bigger than expected inside. We had 4 adults in it and it was fine. There’s tons of room for its size. I’m 6ft and need the drivers seat about half way forward to be comfortable. Loads of head room. Behind me is room for another 6ft adult in the rear. The rear foot well is deeper that the fronts, so there’s plenty of room for legs & feet.

My nephew has a same colour, similar age Polo and it’s interesting putting 4 adults in that to compare the space. The A2 is genuinely some sort of magic. I don’t know how it’s so different to the Polo inside for pretty much the same size outside. The boot is about the same size as the Polo, but the floor pulls up to reveal un ‘unterboot’ big enough for a few small bags of shopping. The unterboot floor lifts up too and reveals the battery, jack and associated breakdown gubbins. 

 

 

 

 

The back seats fold individually, flip up against the fronts, and their special trick is that they can be removed completely.
I’m going to see if I can get 2 mountain bikes with the wheels off in there, I reckon it’s possible.

 

 

 

 


The 1.6 is rough sounding but fairly nippy even with 4 adults who had spent the previous 48 hours stuffing our faces with Christmas food and various strong boozes. On start up the first 2-3 secs gives you a diesel clatter start up noise, then it quickly settles into being a petrol engine. It’s not a smooth or nice sounding engine but has a fair bit of torque and revs nicely up to the red line when needed. 
Vision is very good all round, even out of the rear where I expected the spoiler half way up the rear window to obscure vision, but it doesn’t really. No rear wiper is a bit of a pain, as road dirt cakes the lower rear window below the spoiler and there’s no way to clean it off on the move. The A pillars are bit of an obstruction and take some getting use to as the drivers pillar in particular obscures the view to the right on approaching roundabouts and junctions. Wing mirrors are a bit small, or maybe odd shaped. Car tax is cheap (£180), Insurance is expensive (£400 vs £200 for identical policy for our Mini of the same age)
It was raining a lot when I bought it and drove home. One of the first things I noticed was that puddles/laying water splashes hitting the underside of the car at speed sound different to other cars. It was also nice to not have to worry about hunting for rust on a 20 year old used car. The underneath is pretty much as new. Felt a but unsettling.
And finally a dull fact for all you VW/Audi/NSU fans, the A2 was of course built at the old NSU factory in Neckarsulm, the same factory that built the Porsche 924. 

Looks amazing! I’ve always lusted after one of these (serious) but they’re completely unobtainium down here.
Truly the thinking man’s family car, well bought indeed! Have fun with your sexy single pantograph wiper action 😎

also i seem to have maybe mended the central locking
i simply unplugged and plugged back in the connector on the passenger door
it seems to be working fine now!

this looks fantastically horrible, now something like this will be absolutely perfect
my god the XMs carpets are soaking wet in the rear

Everything that’s needed doing has been simple enough so far, that’s not to say I haven’t buggered up a couple of things along the way… I’m sure something completely mean and nasty is in store for me now 😉

Well I've now been awake 32 hours but finally made it to Faro, Portugal. (see Grumpy Thread for tales of delayed trains and travel embuggerance). It's 20 degrees, the sun's come out and the streets are lined with shite - let the good times begin!

I did something I've never done before 
I was dropping a parcel off at the collect+ shop luckily as the guy was collecting, he hung on for a minute to take my parcel, looked about 60, stressed to fuck 
I got back in the car as he drove off up to the next shop, he went in and I waited for him 
I asked him if he was OK, told him I really appreciated what he did and gave him £10 for a Christmas tip 
He was properly grateful, shook my hand and thanked me, it's the best thing I've done in a long time, it's made me feel as good as it did him. 
 

Nicely done - here’s mine!
 

I take it you’ve checked out A2OC.net? Cracking forum.

Great looking A2s! Love that dark red and those alloys with the round holes really suit the A2. Might have to see if I can get hold of a set.
I’ll add more details soon but for now here are some more photos.

That is one fine motor. Easy* to fix by the sounds of it too... 😂

Great winnage with the BX today.
I had noticed a warm breeze pretty constantly at my feet, even with the heater on cold and pointed at your face. It got worse with the window down too.
so I had a wee look around in the drivers footwell and found that the steering column grommet had been pushed all the way through past the firewall - surely this was the source of my overwarm tootsies, dear reader! 

I managed quite easily to pull the thing back through and get it properly seated on the firewall, held in place properly by the groove in the rubber.
and we have a result! No more undesirable warm breeze on my be-sandalled toes, a boon in the summer weather down here.
but best of all - an unexpected but perhaps but unsurprising difference - the cabin is now significantly and noticeably quieter, with the engine bay now fully separated from the cabin! Very pleased with that, and for the grand price of zero dollars. Now for a beer.

Great winnage with the BX today.
I had noticed a warm breeze pretty constantly at my feet, even with the heater on cold and pointed at your face. It got worse with the window down too.
so I had a wee look around in the drivers footwell and found that the steering column grommet had been pushed all the way through past the firewall - surely this was the source of my overwarm tootsies, dear reader! 

I managed quite easily to pull the thing back through and get it properly seated on the firewall, held in place properly by the groove in the rubber.
and we have a result! No more undesirable warm breeze on my be-sandalled toes, a boon in the summer weather down here.
but best of all - an unexpected but perhaps but unsurprising difference - the cabin is now significantly and noticeably quieter, with the engine bay now fully separated from the cabin! Very pleased with that, and for the grand price of zero dollars. Now for a beer.

Great winnage with the BX today.
I had noticed a warm breeze pretty constantly at my feet, even with the heater on cold and pointed at your face. It got worse with the window down too.
so I had a wee look around in the drivers footwell and found that the steering column grommet had been pushed all the way through past the firewall - surely this was the source of my overwarm tootsies, dear reader! 

I managed quite easily to pull the thing back through and get it properly seated on the firewall, held in place properly by the groove in the rubber.
and we have a result! No more undesirable warm breeze on my be-sandalled toes, a boon in the summer weather down here.
but best of all - an unexpected but perhaps but unsurprising difference - the cabin is now significantly and noticeably quieter, with the engine bay now fully separated from the cabin! Very pleased with that, and for the grand price of zero dollars. Now for a beer.

I have to check if the Drosje signs are legal but I'm pretty sure they are. And I haven't quite decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the Drosje signs that would make it stand out more and also pay tribute to its history. And those registration plates were on the car from new and throughout the 60s.

For me the registration plates are an important part of how the car looks. Putting modern Norwegian registration plates on this would ruin it as much as modern low profile rims in pink would. But fortunately the system here is such that older cars can have correct plates for their age and also keep and use their old registration numbers.

I have always wanted a Fintail because my father had one as a company car when I was a child. My Father had a new Vauxhall Victor 2000SL FD in 1968 and as a Manager for a building company with sites spread around the South East wore it out in 18 months and 55,000 miles. The company decided to give a used Mercedes a try in the hope it would last longer.
I nearly fell off my bicycle when my father drove past me in a 1965 Mercedes 220 Sb Auto. I think it was probably about 4 years old when he got it.
I have looked to buy a Fintail in the past but always ended up with something else. In the 1990s I ran a couple of W114 280CE's as everyday cars after changing my job for one without a company car.
This is the only photo I can find of my father's Fintail.

They were quite surprised and happy.
The kid in the pictures is the son of the first owner and he and several members of the family have indicated that they would like to buy the car if it ever comes up for sale.
So I have written down the name of family members who want to buy this. And informed my family that if I die, that family has the first right to buy it.

The family of the first owner has found photos of this one and I have been allowed to share them. And Drosje is the old Norwegian name for taxi and all taxis in Norway had these registration plates back then, in case anyone is wondering.
So this is this car in the 1960s.