Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 18:00
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - paul45

A good friend of mine at work is wanting to get rid of her Mercedes SLK. She still wants a convertible (could be a soft top though), she wants a diesel this time around for better fuel economy, the car needs to be about the same size (an A5 would be too big), it needs to be automatic and finally (and this is where I'm stuck), it needs to be a quattro / 4 wheel drive.

One other thing...she doesn't want a classic 4X4 shape / style if possible.

There are various reasons for all her choices, some are style driven and some are a consequence of being stuck on her drive for a number of days last winter.

I have an A3 diesel quattro but you cannot get that in automatic guise unless you go for FWD only.

Interested to hear if anyone knows of such a car that ticks all these boxes.

Thanks

P

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 18:50
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - idle_chatterer

Personally I find the notion of a diesel convertible abhorrent. However I'm told that the 3.0L TDi in the A5 is rather nice and I accept that BMW 6 Cylinder diesels might be refined enough.

However, I can't think of anything 'smaller' that ticks all the boxes, I did also hear of S-Line spec quattros struggling in the snow on their low profile tyres. Would a better solution not be getting winter tyres for a 2WD car ?

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 22:22
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - captain chaos

Audi A4.

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Tue 27 Jul 2010 22:44
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - Avant

I can't think of any other 4wd convertibles apart from the Audi A4/A5 and Porsche 911. Anyone know any more - apart of course from slicing the roof off a Discovery.......

You used to be able to get Suzuki jeeps with soft tops - also very early Series I Land Rovers, but that's probably not what Paul's friend has in mind.

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Wed 28 Jul 2010 08:58
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - Andy P

Why the necessity for 4-wheel drive? That severely limits the options available, as does the diesel automatic.

Get a Mazda MX5 with PowerShift instead - best small convertible you can buy.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 09:27
Diesel / Convertible / 4X4 what's out there - paul45

Thanks for all the advice - it looks like its FWD or something bigger

Cheers

P

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