A flop that shouldn't have flopped? The Audi A2 Story

At the dawn of a new millennium car buyers were spoilt for choice when it came to really clever and innovative cars. There was the Renault Scénic, the original MPV that showed you can pack a large family into not a lot of car. Then there was the Mercedes A class, a masterclass in space management, with a cleverly packaged engine that allowed for the maximum interior space. And don’t forget the hideous but highly innovative Fiat Multipla that offered three wide seating that could be removed to turn a family car into something that could best a Volvo estate. Audi entered the fray with another highly innovative car, the A2. It followed on the heels of the TT, another car that took Audi to new engineering heights. The A2 was Audi’s new mass car, a vehicle they hoped would appear on every middle class family’s driveway. Yet, the car was a colossal failure, only selling 176,000 cars before its production run was unceremoniously cut short. Just why was that, and how was it so innovative?