Used Buyer's Guide: Audi A3 Cabriolet

How much?

Diesel A3 Cabriolets outnumber their petrol equivalents by nearly two to one – £10,000 will buy pretty much any version, as long as you don’t mind something that’s done around 100,000 miles. For a car with 60,000 miles or fewer, you need to increase your budget to £11,500 – that brings mainly the 1.8 TFSI and 2.0 TDI within reach.

Only one in five A3 Cabriolets is an automatic; if you want one of these, you’ll typically pay another £600, with the cheapest automatics costing around £12,000.

Running costs

All A3 Cabriolets have variable servicing, so schedules vary from 9,000 miles or 12 months up to 20,000 miles or two years. To keep cars within its dealer network, Audi slashes maintenance costs significantly once a model reaches its third birthday. Up to this point, prices vary between £280 and £350, then they drop to £160-£310.

All engines need new cambelts every five years/75,000 miles; this is £439 on older cars, but up to £800 on those up to three years old. Every two years, the air-con needs recharging (£100) and the brake fluid replenishing (£59 for models over three years old; £82 up to that age).