Driven: Audi A4 Cabrio 1.8T Hello everyone! Today’s post is about a car that leaves me with different and ambiguous thoughts: The 2002 Audi A4 Cabrio. Why? Well, I truly think it’s a case of double personality. At least for me, a 25 year old man… A convertible car is most about style, but also to give away stress levels accumulated during the week, for those irreverent enough to drive with “the wind in the hair”. And then, there are the different approaches to the theme: there are roadsters, built, from day one, to be so; there are cars whose roof’s are simply cut off (yes, those brilliant old Saab cabrios…); there are convertibles developed at the same time as a similar coupe version (as the Mercedes-Benz CLK, or the BMW 3-Series). And then, there’s the Audi A4 Cabrio. It follows none of those approaches. It is not a roadster. There is not a similar coupe version. It’s based on the regular ’00 A4 saloon, but with a revised chassis and other bits. But with a much, much more appealing d...

Mercedes-Benz also presented the latest C-Class based coupe , the Sportcoupe’s successor: the new CLC. Entirely based on the CL203 chassis (a shortened version of both the W203 and S203), with several bits from the new C-Class, it appears to be a nice, and younger, alternative to the brilliant 204 C-Class saloon and estate. But then, there is the weird part… If Mercedes-Benz did not want to spend a lot of money developing a smaller-volume production, brand-new coupe (the CLK is placed between the C and E-Classes), then why not, at least, adapting all the C-Class engines?! Well, they did it, kind of. With one engine, the 1.8L, supercharged inline-4, 200 KOMPRESSOR. It’s a very nice engine, no discussion about that. But the best-seller, on the entire Sportcoupe’s six years of life, was the diesel C 220 CDI. And, basically, it’s the same engine offered by now, despite the new 170 hp, 400 Nm, 2.1L CDI being on the market since 2006, first introduced on the facelifted E-Class. And that ap...

Hello! In the last few days, a lot has been told about the facelifted Mercedes-Benz SL, as the first unofficial leaked photos emerged some days ago. Yesterday, the first official press release was made public, along with the official technical data . Apart from the design, as each one of us have our own ideas (I don't appreciate it very much, I admit, but I may change my mind when I first see it for real), the engine range is re-arranged, with the new versions SL 280 and SL 63 AMG being first in the R230. However, the most interesting part, for me, is that the SL 350 receives the very latest version of the, already brilliant, V6 3.5L, first introduced on the '08 facelift SLK , with a slight increase in power. It appears, to me, the closest re-interpretation of the Sportlich und Leicht (Sporty and Light) concept, adapted, of course, to the 21st century standards. Far from light (1825 kg), it sounds the best on the entire range, not over-priced as it's bigger brothers, but...