Category: Convertibles 
Price Range: £19,935 to £26,850
Quality interior, fast-acting roof, stylish-looking, practical.
Slightly uninvolving drive, not cheap, diesel still lacks refinement.
An ideal open-top cruiser for the style-conscious metropolitan car buyer.
The A3 hatch has a four-star NCAP crash safety rating with three stars for child protection and a single star for pedestrian protection, suggesting that the Cabriolet should be reasonably solid too, though this isn't up there with class best - the Renault Megane CC and Volkswagen Eos both have the full five-star results.
It does come with a good level of active and passive safety equipment, including ESP with electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), ABS, four airbags (driver, passenger and side curtain), Isofix child seat mountings, tyre pressure monitors, adaptive front lights and daytime running lights.
The A3 range has also been awarded the Association of British Insurers (ABI) 'Best in Class' Security rating and the Cabrio should do nothing to undermine that, thanks to its Thatcham Category 1 alarm.
