A few weeks ago, I picked up a bright-yellow 1997 Audi Cabriolet to review. It was overcast and breezy, with light sprinkles forecast for the rest of the day. It wasn’t great weather for a convertible, but I could handle it.
I found an empty parking lot, set up my camera, and stood by the car to record an intro. As soon as I started speaking, the storm came—catching me, and my equipment, in a downpour.
This 1997 Audi Cabriolet is currently available for sale on Cars & Bids. Check it out and bid here.
Hi friends (new and old)! Alanis King here. You might remember me from the mid-2010s Jalopnik gang, where I met Jason Torchinsky, David Tracy, Matt Hardigree, and many other folks at The Autopian. I now work at Doug DeMuro’s auction website, Cars & Bids, where I review cars for our YouTube channel.
I’ve reviewed two convertibles since starting there, and both happened on rainy days. I’m starting to think the entity controlling the sky sprinklers is doing this for fun. But hey! So am I.
I choose cars to review from a big spreadsheet that imports auction submissions on Cars & Bids, and the Cabriolet caught my eye for two reasons: The car is fairly obscure in America, and this one is bright yellow—Brilliant Yellow, to be exact. I was the moth, and it was the light.
The Audi Cabriolet came to America in the 1990s and stuck around for a few years. It was based on a car called the Audi 90, which was the more upmarket option over the Audi 80. The 80 preceded the modern A4, which is one of Audi’s smaller and more affordable cars, and it spawned all kinds of coupes, wagons, and other cars.
If you don’t know much about the Cabriolet, you might wonder why there’s no model name between “Audi” and “Cabriolet.” Cabriolet is a descriptor term: It means convertible, so calling a car the “Audi Cabriolet” is like calling it the “Audi Roadster” or “Audi Wagon”—it’s practical, but it’s a little vague. (These days, for example, you can get an “Audi A5 Cabriolet,” which lists a manufacturer, model, and descriptor word. That setup makes sense!)
To me, the Cabriolet’s name is so quintessentially ‘90s. It’s awful for search-engine optimization, since it predates our collective obsession with making things Google-able. Because of that, it’s hard to research the car. Search “Audi Cabriolet” and let me know how much you find.
The Audi 80 had a whole summer of fame in the ‘90s. A dealership gifted Princess Diana an 80 cabriolet, and she drove it for four months before giving it back with 4,000 miles on it. There were so many photographs of her in it that sales shot up, and when the car went up for auction a few years ago, the auction house selling it called it “possibly the most photographed car of the summer of 1994.”
The American-market Audi Cabriolet wasn’t so fortunate. Edmunds attributed the car’s low sales to its high price and aging design when new, which steered buyers toward cars like the BMW 3 Series, Saab 900, and Ford Mustang instead. The New York Times backed up that price claim; when the newspaper reviewed an Audi Cabriolet in 1994, it was $40,200. That’s $83,000 after inflation, while the 2024 Audi A4 sedan starts at just $41,200.
Audi only sold about 6,000 Cabriolets in the U.S. before pulling the car from the market in 1998, which coincided with the birth of its de-facto replacement: the Audi TT. The Cabriolet’s low sales in America, combined with this car’s bright-yellow paint, make it pretty rare.
The rain never cleared up the day I drove the Cabriolet. I couldn’t reschedule the shoot because I drive all around Texas to film these cars, so I filmed for a few hours under a hotel awning in the chilly wind—taking breaks to shiver and wrap myself in a white guest towel after the front desk took pity on me.
I got done filming, threw on the windshield wipers, and drove around in my soaked clothing. And honestly? It was delightful. This 1997 Cabriolet has a 172-horsepower V6 engine and a four-speed automatic transmission, and because it was a luxury car back in the day, it still drives like one. The suspension made rough roads soft, the car was quiet, and because its owner fixed it up, the interior looked brand new. I was immediately back in 1997.
The four-speed automatic threw me off, because I’m used to driving modern cars with anywhere from six to 10 forward gears. There’s this bit between 20 and 40 mph where the car accelerates but doesn’t shift, and you find yourself wondering where the rest of the gears are. But I reacclimated to four gears quickly enough, and the rest was a joy.
It’s never ideal to drive a convertible in the rain. But it’s always fun to drive a rare car like this—and with the sun behind the clouds, this Cabriolet provided my light that day.
I only wish it could’ve warmed me up while I stood next to it to film.
[Ed note: This is the first review of a car for sale from our friends at Cars & Bids. Expect more from Alanis, Doug DeMuro, and Kennan Rolsen. I can’t wait for you all to find out other cars they have lined up for in the coming weeks. The one from Doug, for instance, is one of my all-time favorites and a car I almost bought myself. Can you guess what it is? – MH]
Alanis has gone full Troy McClure.
And I look forward to seeing her in nature shows like Earwigs: Eww! and movies like McBain IV: Fatal Discharge..
It would be nice if the Germans could bring themselves to do proper model names. Mercedes does it with commercial vehicles but not cars, VW was good about it through the whole watercooled era but seems to be straying from the truth with the ID.crap for their EVs, BMW and Audi made a feint to it in the ’70s with the Bavaria and Fox respectively but went back to number gobbledygook.
Of course, new model names with every full redesign (see: compact cars from the Detroit 3) are the gold standard for search-engine friendliness but a big ask from marketers.
Unfortunately, all the luxury brands took their naming cues from the Germans. Starting in the nineties, Acura, Lincoln, and Cadillac went to Alphanumeric names to follow suit. Like you couldn’t possibly sell a car as luxury if it had a “name”. What was so wrong with “Legend”? Seems pretty badass to me. I could never remember Lincolns dumb naming structure, MK this and that. Who cares? Thankfully, they’ve seen the light and have come back to real names, like Nautilus etc.
Another welcome byline: good to see you here, Alanis!
Have often wanted an Audi, but was emphatically warned off by a fellow gearhead who was already hopelessly hooked on them.
Actually so relatable for so many brands
Laugh in the face of danger. Get the Audi.
Never heard or seen one of these. It is a very pretty car.
Right!
I always liked the way these looked when they were new. I thought it was kind of a shame that they weren’t available in Quattro/AWD in the U.S. market. I feel like that was a bit of a missed opportunity.
There were a few of these around my suburb growing up and I always thought they looked fantastic. Very preppy, but not in a terrible way.
You 100% nailed the description of this (and all other Audi’s) from the 1999s.
Audi hadn’t reached full Mercedes/BMW level yet, that happened around 2002 (IMHO).
In 2002 they came out with the next gen A8, RS6, TT was in full-swing…
…That’s the year that we (as a society) started hating Audi drivers, because they had essentially replaced BMW drivers as the larger of 2 assholes on the road.
I can’t read the phrase “Cars and bids” in anything but Doug’s voice. No offense intended at all to Alanis – who’s work I enjoy greatly.
Caaaaaars and Biiiiids
I appreciate that the Autopian is becoming more and more Jalopnik 2: Electric Boogaloo with every new writer.
I also appreciate yellow cars, obviously, so I guess what I’m saying is I like everything about this article. 🙂
YAY
The other fun Audi from this time period to try and google would be the Coupe. You had the old B2 coupe and then eventually the B3 which could have quattro, so you had an Audio Coupe Quattro. Basically all the descriptors with no real model. Ah the 90’s!
Audi Car
I like this, I want more of this.
THANKS
Audi interiors in the old days were the best ever. Prove me wrong.
The extra benefit is that, like MT cars, they don’t get stolen by the ‘yute’. They can’t figure out how to get tiktok on the dashboard, so they move on.. LOL.
Well, I’m not sure that’s much of a deterrent, since Tiktok comes on phones now, too! Next thing you know it’ll be available on the Internet.
The internet thing will never work out. Apparently it’s formatted in landscape.
This car looks REALLY good
Woooo great to see you here Alanis! I feel like most of the OGs from the golden era of The Old Site are back together in one way or another. Herb can get fucked.
Anyway amazing color and these 90s Audis have always appealed to me even though I’m sure they’re a nightmare to own. If this was stick I might actually place a couple of bids on it, but alas. I don’t think insisting that my fun car be manual is too outlandish 🙂 But still…this would make for a very fun suburban weekend cruiser and I’m sure you can have a bit of fun with it in the twisties.
Totally fair. I do like an occasional cool offering in an auto though, for folks who can’t/don’t want to drive stick. Very common for chronic pain to interfere with shifting
Good to see you Alanis!
I get the impression that the seller of this Audi is tired of dumping money into it. They’ve owned the car less than a year and have a long list of repairs they have made, but it still has engine leaks? I’d want to stop playing whack-a-mole with it too. It could be a steal for a German car enthusiast who understands what they are getting themselves into. It is a lovely little drop top, and it’s nice to see some color on the road now that 99% of new vehicles are grayscale.
I talked to them, and they said they buy, fix up, then sell cars a lot, since they used to restore BMW 2002s. Just always wanting a project around. But take that as you wish and make your own assumptions!
BMW 2002 is a other fun one to do Google searches on…There are plenty of parts sources and information on the cars out there, but if you just dump BMW 2002 in the googles you get a lot of extraneous noise.
Yes!
Piss yellow. Charming.
Hmm. Sounds like you’re a bit dehydrated then. Drink more water to make it clear.
I’m pretty sure Adrian only drinks blood
Don’t kink shame us!
I think he’s got a thing against yellow cars 😉
Nice car, but more importantly: Welcome Alanis to the Autopian. Can I have a fun job doing car reviews too? I’d happily do crappy cars, rusty cars, boring cars. Editor’s choice.
Hi Mike!
I have a soft spot for 1980s-90s Audis, despite having owned a 1988 Model 90 that was among the most unreliable cars I’ve ever owned (second only to the 1998 Mercedes CLK I purchased new). Just picture this yellow Cabriolet but with a hardtop, four doors, and in an anonymous metallic beige… that was my Audi 90, and it would occasionally turn itself off at random intervals. Sometimes in the middle of an intersection, other times in the left lane on the freeway. When it turned off, it wouldn’t turn back on for anywhere from an hour to a few days… one morning, it wouldn’t start and my girlfriend had already left for work, so I just walked the nine miles back home from Culver City to Hollywood, but it was a nice day and I was younger then. 🙂
Despite this, I liked it more than I should have. It felt heavy and safe despite not really being big at all, and the doors closed with a thunk so solid and authoritative that it would have made my Mercedes or VW TDI proud. Also, I think it was the first car I ever owned with any real wood in the interior, and the leather on the seats was SO thick and durable it made the leather in my current ’04 Volvo seem like the thin craypaper that it is.
But of course, Audis have always pretty much been fancier and more expensive VWs, if we’re generalizing about the brand’s mass-market cars. Which is both a good thing (more for VW than for Audi re: VW interiors for a few generations) and a bad thing (both brands sort of suck to own when they’re 15+ years old). I’ve always wanted to own a yellow car before I shirk off this mortal coil, and this Cabriolet is an interesting one, but if I ever get an old Audi again, it’s gotta be a Quattro Coupe 😉
I do not have time to post a long response because I watched an ad to get 20 minutes of free wifi on the plane, but thank you so much for this thoughtful comment
Just make sure The Bomb isn’t leaking. Brakes are nice to have, and suddenly not having them on the interstate is…troubling.
The VW Cabriolet/Cabrio had the same issue.
I spent years wrenching on one, and I had to get clever with searching to get info (like knowing that the model on which I was working was mechanically a 2 years older Golf).
So difficult to search
I would hoon this Audi. It’s not a stick, but it’s a convertible. And a mellow yellow at that. And welcome back Alanis!
HELLO
I see a butter yellow one near my cabin, but it has some weird mint green bumpers and rockers that the owner swears came that way from the factory, my best guess is some football team colour scheme
Honestly? Respect
Welcome back Alanis!
Hi Robbie!
This car looks great, but that 1994 price is insane. I’d still rather have either the 3 Series, Saab 900, or Mustang instead.
My jaw actually dropped at it
Yeah, no kidding they didn’t sell many.
I mean, it’s not to the level of insanity that induced Fiat to ask $36,600 for a base Alfa Romeo 164 ($75,300 today), but it’s in the ballpark
I was surprised when I learned how expensive the 80/90 of the time were. An ’88 90 (oof) was in the mid-20s, or the mid-60s today. By the time I was old enough to really be into cars the A4 was already a success and I had always assumed the rarity of its predecessor was the unintended acceleration fallout + people just deferring to say, BMW for the segment. But seems like it wasn’t hard to find something with more cylinders (before the V6) or more power or space or even just reputation for the price.
Doug’s & Bids on The Autopian?
I think Doug himself will be here sometime too…
It’s good to have you all here.
Not a German Car Guy but wow! What an absolute looker. Just oceans of presence.
It’s so cool!
If Google isn’t pulling up much, have you tried Infoseek?
Nah, you gotta use Netscape for best results.
Ask Jeeves. Not joke, my butler is actually called Jeeves.
Butler?! Jeeze, hope John Lydon doesn’t hear about this!
He can fuck right off, the fat old right wing tossbag.
Wait, did I say Morrissey by mistake? 😉
Please tell me you call your place Blandings
Well, at least you admit he’s only called Jeeves. I hope you know his name, even if you never deign to use it. Wodehouse certainly did a number on people addressing butlers.
I’m more of an Excite! kinda guy.
Has anyone tried AltaVista?
Yay, Alanis is on The Autopian!
Yay!
More cars should be yellow!!
Amen. I drive a Golf and it would be fantastic in this color!
I have a game with my kids, the first one to spot a yellow car that is not a commercial truck or van, wins a prize (Usually a candy lol). Sometimes we don’t find anything!
This started when I was kid, every time you saw a yellow VW beetle, you will punch your passenger as you scream yellow beetle! haha
We’re not allowed to play the punch buggy/slug bug game if my wife is driving.
One evening, my daughter leapt out of the back seat to punch me while screaming “SLUG BUG BLUUUUEE!!!” I was doing basically the same thing from the front passenger seat to her, and it scared my wife so much she cried.
So we now we only play if I’m driving.
I play a game with my son called “Find a crappier car than ours” when we take the 2004 Impala 2 tone cop car on roads trips. Sometimes an hour goes by before we find a winner. It’s always fun debating the merits of, or lack thereof, with some of the contenders.
Big agree