The A4 is Audi's most popular car by a country mile. In the cheap seats, you can get into one and still have change out of 50 grand. and if you can stump up an additional $60,000, you'll drive off far more rapidly in a 245-kilowatt S4. To help decipher the Audi A4 model range, here's Car Advice road tester Paul Meric.
Paul, I get the feeling like you really don't get good value in this segment unless you're prepared to spend something like 70 grand. Yeah, to a degree you're right there. Seventy grand gets you a 2 liter turbo with all-wheel drive and I think that's probably the best way to experience, the luxury you get from an Audi, plus the performance of all-wheel drive with that turbo-charged engine.
If you're back at the entry level of A4, you can buy yourself a fully loaded a Mazda 6 or an Accord Euro and its got all the fruit, no boxes to tick where as your base model A4 really is a works in progress isn't it? Yes thats right. That's lots of boxes to tick and I think that's a major downside to this car.
You can't leave the showroom without starting to you now go with options, there a real problem when it comes to spending this much money.
When you drive an A4, I mean Audis feel pretty good, they don't make a bad car. We could talk about the price but the experience itself is pretty good. Yeah, if you put the price aside, the drive is fantastic, you've got really direct steering, the breaks are great, and it handles sublimely, especially in all-wheel drive form.
Even the front-wheel drive cars aren't too bad either.
Fair enough, but one of the things that's always impressed me about Audis is their build quality and their legendary bank vault closure on the doors. What's the build quality in an A4 like?
Oh, look, it's unparalleled. The dashboard doesn't feel harsh like some of the dashboards you get in cheaper cars. The fit and finish is fantastic and it's a great car to be in. Everything from the smell right through to the doors closing as you said before.
Okay, but how do you rate the steering and road holding?
The steering is great, you get really direct response, it's a tight steering ratio on the all-wheel drive cars. The brakes are perfect. You get a really fluid motion and it's progressive throughout the braking range. The handling is great. You can tilt into a corner and just bury the throttle, it'll stick without any problems whatsoever.
Okay, but if you own an Audi you're going to have to come to grips with the multitude multimedia interface, which is how you control all the car's secondary systems. Just walk us through that process. a little bit counter-intuitive, unlike the BMW iDrive system and the Mercedes alternative, the MMI sometimes does things in ways that you wouldn't want it to and in ways that you don't think are naturally progressive.
So you've always got to be fiddling and doing things the wrong way in my opinion before it actually does what you need it to do. Yeah, but people in our position, we jump in the car for a week and then we give it back. I guess if you own the car and you do come to grips with it, maybe it does become instinctive, you want to change the navigation from two day to three day or back, that can be difficult the first time, but after you have done it once, it's a process Do you find it like that?
With us, with only having the car for a week, it is a bit like that, but I find, when I drive, for example, I can pick it up straight away, and there's no sort of learning fatigue where there is with the A4 and I find that a little bit annoying, especially when you need to get stuff there and then and you can't take your eyes off the road for too long.
Now, our friends at BMW they're gonna be very I'm happy to hear you say that the A4 experience is unparalleled. Is it really unparalleled or can you get the same thing with a different verge when you buy a 3 Series?
Yeah. Look, I think it's much the same. to a certain degree where as BMW might move away from rear wheel drive. Audi is happen to offer you front wheel drive if you are not much of a sports enthusiast. but also all wheel drive if you like tearing through corners at high speed. The only downside to the package is [xx] gearbox, its still limited when it comes to, coming to a halt and also taking off.
You get the bit of a clunk, which I think they really need to fix. It's been far too long now. Now Audi has really done a lot of work in high tech engine development the TFSI that's the turbo charge direct injection engine thats a prespecial engine, I mean BMW also take it different tack with their straight sixes.
Their straight sixes are God's gift to straight sixes as well. So I guess it depends which why you want to spring if you have got a turbo charge 2 liter four, it's a light weight package and I guess that really does help the dynamics along. Yeah, that's it, and when you couple it with all wheel drive it's hard to actually the mid corner agility and the grip on offer when you open up the throttle.
The BMW gets a little bit of over steer every now and then but the just drills down and just shoots out of the corner at maximum velocity. Have you driven the efficiency model, the two liter TDI-E That was a different driving experience because you spent a lot of time under 3000 rpm and trying to achieve maximum fuel economy.
And I've got to say, I managed to get it down to four point liters per hundred Ks which is just astonishing for a car carries five people. It just amazes me every time. Stop-start technology sound like fantastic idea but what happens if you're out there in the traffic, it's humid, the air's on, the wipers are on because it's raining, and you've got the headlights on, does that all stop?
No, it all keeps going, which is a good thing, otherwise you'd be in a spot of trouble. You wouldn't be able to see what you were doing. the obvious question for [xx] car in minds is what happens when the battery starts getting depleted from all of that electrical stuff working with the engine offing traffic,luckily the computer pick its up and will automatically switch the car back on whether you like it or not.
So if it senses going low it will fire back up and get the alternator running well a jump start is an undignified thing to ask for in an A4, so I guess that's all good news. Exactly. Thanks Paul. That was Paul Marrick, and I guess the A4 is on your shopping list if you got at least $70,000 to spend.
You can read the full A4 review; download the specifications, at your comments; and even get a quote from an Audi dealer follow the links on this page.
