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]
Welcome Alanis! I haven’t read the comments yet, but hope no meatheads here like over on the blue bird site!
Hi Alanis. Great review. Glad to see the connection with CnB.
It’s yellow, but it’s a bit too Frumpy-1980’s looking for a 1997 car. Based on looks, I’d never take this Audi over a yellow 1997 Saab 900S like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSPC7hSrNdM
Handsome car. 4 speeds are all you need btw. 10 speeds? Good Lord.
So glad to see more yellow 90s cars. I have a 1997 306 Cabriolet in yellow with only 139k kms, and you don’t see too often cars on the same colour.
We need more yellow cars!
When it comes to Audi names I feel like the V8 has the edge. Sure they wanted to drive home that it’s, yknow, a V8 and that’s new to the brand. But that was less of a name than the models beneath it.
Hi Alanis! Glad to see you on here 🙂
It may be hard for the youngins to believe, but there was a time that Audi wasn’t a luxury brand on par with Mercedes and BMW. This car is right around the transition period.
Cool car and love the content. I don’t care if the cars are being sold on Cars and Bids. Keep it coming!
Love the cab! I’m not going to lie, I’ve been quietly scanning for a manual for a year or so… I owned an 80 Quattro sedan long ago and I still miss that little shit.
I’m surprised at the love this thing is getting. Yes it’s yellow and it’s in great shape, but it’s…ehh. It was born just a little too early to have the magic sculpting that Audi was about to apply to the A4 and A6, and the powertrain is also…ehh. Wouldn’t you much rather have an E36 convertible?
A buddy of mine had one of these, though not in as cool of a color. And the condition was… not great… He learned the hard way after buying the car that Audis were expensive to repair. Luckily for him, it was cheap enough that he decided to just drive until something major enough broke that it’d stop running.
Then it got towed, and the cost to get it out was way more than the car was worth.
1994 was an odd year for Audi – as they were just putting the B5 A4 into production that fall – yet the Avant, Coupe and Cabriolet soldiered on – the Cabriolet through to the 1998 model year in the US.
Yellow was more commonly seen on the Coupe – so thus outfitted on a Cabriolet is fairly rare.
That was from a great Audi design eras IMO. LOVE that dash!
Wow, nice to see Alanis here! That Audi looks super clean, very cool!
Hi!
But where’s Portia? 🙁
Home, sadly!
We need to get you one of those pouches where you can walk and carry Portia as you do these articles/reviews. She’ll travel with you everywhere!
Given a minor attachment for bad SEO names, did Audi ever use The Band in an ad? They did struggle a bit with The Weight until everything from everyone got big.
I think the “Audi Cabriolet” name was an extension of the “VW Cabriolet” name used for the post 1984 Rabbit Convertible and the “Audi Coupe” based . Also an insight into Audi models and tiers is that the 80 was supposed to be 4 cylinder engined and the 90 got the 5 cylinder plus some nicer trim. The 80 Quattro messed this up by having a 5 cylinder but the FWD 80 used a 4.
Nice context here
Not sure how to feel about this article. I’m excited to see Alanis here, but a write up on a car listed on cars and bids just feels like this series will be used to build hype for the auctions there and I very much do not want to see that. Fun read no matter what, but it’s a slippery slope.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! If it makes you feel better, my job is to drive the cars and tell you how I actually feel about them — I’m salaried only, so I do not get anything based on how the auctions do, and I hand-pick every car I drive according to my interests
Counterpoint: I’m completely okay with this. I love Autopian, but if we want it to stick around for the long term it needs ad revenue and sponsored posts. I’ll take Doug Demuro/Cars and Bids bucks over the other options.
Speaking of which, I was visiting the the old German lighting site the other day. I was greeted with an ad overlay that covered the whole screen; then every other paragraph had an ad that looked like it was written by a Nigerian prince; and then the comments wouldn’t load at all. The comments hyperlink just led to more ads.
I have much more confidence that the Autopian management understands the balance between making money and not being openly hostile towards your readership…and I’d say a partnership with Cars and Bids is a reflection of that understanding.
Yeah, totally! It’s beneficial for both websites, and I promise I’ll always write the story as I would’ve written it for a random non-auction car
Yeah, I’m totally okay with this. The folks at Cars and Bids are enthusiasts and I love poking around their site, seems like a great pairing for us Autopians.
I always try to respond to comments there too! I love the auction discussions
I was on that site the other day and realized that I had a window of text maybe four lines tall. There was an ad at the top, then an ad at the bottom, and then one at the bottom on top of the other one. Layered ads. I understand they need revenue but I had to wonder if anyone from the site had ever used it and if they felt that that was an acceptable user experience.
Welcome Alanis!!!
It just keeps getting better and better to be an Autopian!
Hi Alec!
Hell yeah so happy to see the internet’s cat weirdos coming together again
It’s like the Avengers for people who know too much about 2CVs
Love to be back
Whoooooo cat weirdos
Not really sure what the point of this article is.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=audi+90+cabriolet
Plenty of results and info.
If you want to truly find an ‘ungooglable car’, I suggest picking up a classic Mini and then trying to find parts for it. It’s obnoxious, and honestly one of the reasons I sold my 72. You can exclude “Bmw Mini” or “new Mini” or try using “mini classic” but it’s all for naught, it just does not work well and makes finding things so irritating.
BMW 2002 is a fun one too, obviously the guys naming those cars in the late 60s didn’t have the foresight to see what a cluster it would be searching on the internet after 2002 model year BMWs existed.
Having owned a 2002, yes, it was also Fing obnoxious. The car is great but owning one when internet searching is so nerfed is honestly a really annoying part of the ownership experience.
Or you could just be like me and pay out the wazoo to your local vintage BMW specialist to keep your 2002 running. (I am no longer in possession of said 2002.)
I really miss having an old car, but if i get another one it’ll have to be something that i can teach myself to wrench on and not worry about busting anything too expensive, like a Beetle.
I think a 2002 is easier to wrench on than a beetle… just my opinion.
I used to search for ‘Mini Clubman’ as, at least for a 1970s Mini, most of the parts are interchangeable, but then BMW brought out a Mini Clubman…
If there will be more women from the old site, I DEMAND Fancy Kristen reviews of the luxury crap that you guys eventually review.
And I remember being a kid and learning more about cars, and was really into Audi at that time, and for many year enjoyd the clean design with few creases.
That time is long gone. This car brings me fond memories, although I would never spec mine in this yellow.
I hung out with her just the other day
I know she is doing great where she is, but really misses her articles. Not only hers actually. All women at Jalopnik at that time were great.
I think this is my favorite Audi design era. I just love it–a little more utilitarian and less Bauhaus than what came after. Also, if you wouldn’t rock a banana-yellow German cabriolet we can still be friends, but probably not best friends.
This yellow looks better in the BMWs of that time, it always come to mind an E36 3 series cabriolet in this color. But this Audi should be ordered only in dark green over tan combination.
Curious, since this is a google resistant model, is that V6 a VR6? I seem to recall the longitudinal models were a different engine family.
No it is not. It’s a boat anchor of an engine with almost no performance upgrades, and inferior MPG and reliability compared to the 20v I5 Turbo. There’s a reason C4s with 2.8s aren’t even worth maintaining.
“LS swap,” is that what you said?
My parents friends bought one of these after hitting it big in Las Vegas. Was a dandy of a little car that met it’s untimely end when a tow truck driver failed to strap it on the flatbed properly and it fell off and was totaled. There particular version had one of the better pearlescent whites i’ve seen.
Noooooooooo omg