2008 Audi A4 – Brisbane Motor Show
February 1, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
The new Audi A4 at the 2008 Brisbane Motor Show.
Longer by roughly 113 mm (4.7 meters overall length), the new A4 has had some surgery to shorten the front body overhang while the bonnet and wheelbase are both longer than before.
The differential has swapped places with the clutch (torque converter in the auto) to allow the front axle to move forward by 154 mm. Audi says this will ensure ideal axle-load distribution.
Audi has also tinkered with the suspension, the new A4 is blessed with a completely new suspension design, one which is mostly made from weight-saving aluminium.
One of the noteworthy technologies in the new A4 is the Audi drive select, a system which can vary the engine, auto transmission, steering and suspension damping characteristics to suit the driver’s need, on the fly.
Print it: 
Are there any designers employed at Audi, all of their cars look the same!
Not sure I can get one as the new family car – despite the more economical 1.8TFSI being on par with a 2.2l atmo engine the RTA won’t let my kids drive it. I’m not stumping up for the diesel either. God contender but legislation will make me look elsewhere and probably pollute more… :-(
Those RTA laws are UTTER Sh/it.. problem is, you speak to someone who knows nothing about cars and they think not allowing P-Platers to drive turbo cars is a good idea… Reason is they instantly link turbo’s to speed and eneviteably Hoons…. They forget about Turbo Diesels in Trucks, 4WD’s etc and the low blow turbos in Saab’s etc for efficiency.
Its that age old factor POOR EDUCATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah, the anti turbo brigade. It seems that the only sort of turbo they remember was attached to a Ford Sierra or a Nissan Skyline GT-R. These cars were faster than the local v8s, so therefore ALL turbos are bad.
Saw an interesting article recently stating that GM in the US were thinking of looking at smaller capacity ebgines with turbos to achieve the new fuel economy cap…
turbo diesels are allowed under the RTA laws for P platers
I think this is built on the same platform as the S5. Wonder how different a beast the new RS4 will be when it arrives?
Looks better with the reduced front overhang, which was always a bit of a bother with the Audis.
A highly desirable drive, this one.
Are there any designers employed at Audi, all of their cars look the same!
Yeah Bill I`m thinking they probably are, ever noticed how they never seem to age, don`t have to do model updates regularly. Guess what? they don`t need to and I`m guessing when you are styling something, you would like it to be admired for more than 5 minutes unlike most other cars.Oh and I`m guessing the R8 looks the same as all the other models as well.
Next RS6 is out shortly – 429Kw 650Nm 0-100 in 4.6. An M5 Eater. Woooosh
An this A4 is considered better looking than the A5 coupe. With a 3.0TDI why would you want anything else. Ace
Awful looking front and strange headlights. Base model will be underpowered as usual, especially now that the new model is bigger and heavier.
A gorgeous design. Well done Audi. Classier than a C Class. Best in class interior. Can’t wait to test drive it and compare to a 3 series. Shame it’s not RWD, as I cant afford the Quattro. Then again, if they’d completely redesigned it for RWD I probably couldn’t have afforded the inevitable bump in price. Audi have indicated the 2.0l TDI will start at under $55K plus on roads. That’s almost $3K less than the previous model. But (and this is a big but) Audi options tend to be prohibitively expensive. You can spend big big bucks kitting an Audi out. Hope they offer a bit more value for money in their standard inclusions for this car. Could be a huge step towards entry level luxury domination.
Those beautiful LED lights look great on the R8. They look crap on a regular body shape.
It just doesn’t fit in with the lines of the car.
Steve
This design is already dating in my opinion against that of BMW and Mercedes. The S5/A5 is their best looking car at the moment (outside of the R8 of course)
Noice. Shame there’s no profile view, but they’re available elsewhere.
Get used to wacky LED shapes, Tony C. Makers will begin to use shapes and patterns as a signature. From now on, anyone copying Audi’s pattern is just copying Audi.
The design isn’t adventurous enough. It doesn’t look much newer than the current A4 apart from the front headlights.
Re: “Get used to wacky LED shapes, Tony C. Makers will begin to use shapes and patterns as a signature. From now on, anyone copying Audi’s pattern is just copying Audi.”
What a stupid statement. Why should I get used to it? There are so many other cars to buy. Also, why would anyone bother to copy such an ugly design (pattern)?
Personally I love the new LED lights. These pictures don’t do them justice. There are better pictures on the net (they seem to look a bit nicer to me on white cars and asolutely gorgeous when turned on). Of course they could look very different in real life. But if you don’t like them then don’t specify them. They are an option (& come with the optional Xenon lights). In fact there is a bit of an uproar going on in the UK at the moment as it seems they may not even be available on the base model as an option, only the SE or S-line model. Remains to be seen what will happen for the Oz models.
I like the new A4 saloon’s external design, but not quite as much as what i of thought, maybe it will slowly grow on me. I think the Avant looks very nice though! I guess i am getting more and more critical as Audi’s designs are getting ever more beautiful in a modern/simplistic/bauhaus type of way. The interior though looks a lot more sportier and dynamic than the previous generation.