A
DRIVING experience every motoring enthusiast should have on his or her bucket
list is a middle-of-winter road trip along the N2 with three friends, the top
all the way down and the volume all the way up.
While the Capies huddle around
indoor braais to escape their winter rain and the Highvelders get depressed in
their mosaic of black and beige, the green province enjoys the best of all
possible worlds — with balmy breezes, hot bunnies and a lot of laid-back joints.
Of course, such a road trip can
only be done with four roomy seats and some packing space in the boot, even with
the top down, and most of all without a “point price-tag” — as in
one-point-something million rand.
The good news is there are five
convertibles that deliver all this in Audi’s A3, BMW’s 4-Series, the Fiat 500,
the Mini Cooper and VW Golf.
The Fiat and Mini are strictly
for the younger crowd who don’t mind their top-down fun a bit more cramped and
who may need a lighter set of wheels to reach the Prawn Shack on Dokodweni Beach
near Salt Rock. That said, the Fiat 1,4T 500 S cabriolet is an epic little motor
that provides a handful of fun in manual mode. For a R100 000 more, Mini offers
a Cooper that oozes style, although the rear seats live up to the car’s name
with things being a bit cooped up in the back.
Of
the five, the Golf could be considered the budget premium buy, more suited to a
golfing and beer-tasting weekend at the Basset brewery on Pennington’s course.
The Golf’s autobox adds R14 000 to the price and is butter smooth, but the
manual is more engaging. In both versions, the Golf cabrio is a great car for
year-round use and will leave its owner less out of pocket to boot.
The A3 cabriolet dates back to
2008, when Audi first introduced it to South Africa. Since then, 1 260
discerning buyers took ownership of one. This car perfectly fits the parking
bays in any of the top B&Bs dotted along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline. Four
models sell locally from R420 000 for the entry-level 1,4 manual, upwards to
R465 000 for the 1,8 with the S-tronic gearbox.
BMW launched its new 4-Series
cabrio in South Africa at another of KZN’s great venues — Dezzi’s race track
outside Port Shepstone, hence touring to have high tea at the Oyster Box in
Umhlanga, where SA’s royal swimmer, Princess Charlene, also hangs out, don’t you
know? The 4-Series is bigger than the A3, which would have competed with the BMW
1-Series convertible if such a model was on sale in South Africa. It, therefore,
also costs over R200 000 more.
Selling for R660 501 for the
six-speed manual (an eight-speed auto box adds about R18 000 to the price), the
2,0-litre Beemer 4-Series convertible makes up for the premium price tag by also
looking a lot pricier than the ageing A3. BMW offers one gear ratio more than
the Audi and the bigger block deploys all its 350 Newtons from low revs to
enable a sub-eight second 0-100 km/h run out of Dezzi’s, after which it will
settle down and cruise with the needle just over 2 000 rpm.
The only other rivals worth
mentioning in this league are Merc’s E250, which starts at over R700 000, and
the E400, which can quickly top the million mark with a few extras.
Cabrio competitors
R326 100 — Golf Cabriolet
manual 1,4T (90 kW/200 Nm)
R432 900 — Golf Cabriolet 2,0T
(155 kW/280 Nm)
R419 500 — Audi A3 Cabriolet
1,4T FSI S manual (92 kW/200 Nm)
R436 500 - Audi A3 Cabriolet
1,4T FSI S seven-speed S tronic
(92 kW/200 Nm)
R448 000 — Audi A3 Cabriolet
1,8T FSI SE manual (132 kW/250 Nm)
R465 000 — Audi A3 Cabriolet
1,8T FSI SE seven-speed S tronic
(132 kW/250 Nm)
R660 501 — BMW 2,0 428i
convertible (180 kW/350 Nm)
R660 501 — BMW 2,0 428i
convertible eight-speed auto (180 kW/350 Nm)
R700 378 — Mercedes-Benz E250
2,0T (155 kW/350 Nm)
R917 069 — Mercedes-Benz E400
3,0T (155 kW/350 Nm)
