Road Test: Audi S3 cabriolet South Africa

Audi S3 cabriolet 2015 South Africa

With the Audi TT no longer available in roadster configuration, the S3 cabriolet takes on the responsibility of performance open-top motoring in a compact package. That’s good because nothing injects character like an open-air experience with the perfectly timed exhaust burbles amplified right by your ears. And the S3 needed some edge to its polished design.

With a canvas roof that’s sure to be the resting place for all neighbourhood cats, it offers weight saving and optimised luggage capacity as a boon. While we still prefer the integrity of a metal-folding roof, it simply would have been too impractical in the neatly nipped overhangs. Roof down there’s still enough space for two squishy bags and a few laptops but there would be even more if it wasn’t for the space saver tyre plonked in the middle – Jaguar F-Type style. We’d just get rid of it completely.

Rear space isn’t much better but short trips can be tolerated if front passengers are willing to snuggle closer to the dashboard. While not roomy, the Audi S3 cabriolet does enough to make it a consideration for those previously deterred by a conventional roadster. Inside it’s more A3 sedan design, which is to say brilliant. The pared-back approach suits the cabriolet’s nature and Audi seem to have the edge over their competitors in this regard. Ours came with optional red/black trimmed seats for R25 000 but they don’t make a good cabin even better so spend that money elsewhere.

Our only interior gripe, specific to the S3 cabriolet, is the position of the roof button next to the electronic handbrake. It looks and feel almost identical and a lapse in concentration can quite easily see you touch the handbrake rather than the roof.

Up front is the same 2.0-litre turbo but in Audi’s highest state of tune. This is not a peaky engine but rather a smooth, progressive unit that builds and expels boost in precise measurements. Through the S tronic gearbox and Quattro drive it will turn out consistent speeds over and over and make many shriek in delight at just how little skill it requires but we’d be lying if we said at any point we felt completely hypnotised by its soul. . In the S3 hatch we complained that comfort mode was a little too laid-back with languid throttle response and lazy gear changes. Same problem here. Of course sport mode changes this but the chasm between the two is too large and we often felt the comfort setting handicapped the car’s capabilities too severely. This is where the individual mode comes in handy.

So while we’re not convinced that the engine has much personality, the S3 cabriolet did reinstill  some enjoyment from those simulated pops and bangs synonymous with dual clutch VAG products. However you’re just reminded that 4-cylinder engines do not fill tunnels or bounce of rock faces no matter how hard you work the gearbox.

We don’t often talk about price but with the S3 cabriolet we need to. Ours came with some superfluous pieces of kit which bumped the price up by R80 000. Truthfully you need only the LED lights (R13 060) and the Comfort Key (R5820) to walk away with a spiffy car. That said the S3 cabriolet is R80 000 more than the sedan version and quite honestly we think you’d have just as much fun in an Audi A3 1.8T cabriolet which you can have for R150 000 less.

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