I suppose it might be committing motoring heresy to say that I prefer the new Audi A4 to the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the key target in the Audi’s upgraded status to luxury saloon.
But it would also be unfair, because I haven’t yet driven the latest version of M-B’s ‘real’ saloon entry level car. Still, when I do, it will need to work hard to compete with the good feeling I’ve got from the Audi, at least the 2.5 TDi I recently left back with deep regret.
Audi’s VW owners have a strategy to move the brand further upwards, and maybe it’s working.
To the point that the new A4 could cannibalise sales from its larger A6 sibling. It has the style and the room which the old A4 did not have. It has the powerplants and running gear for tomorrow. It has maybe even more of the sophistication of the A6. It has so much more than its predecessor that perhaps it is a pity that they’ve felt stuck to use the same name.
(A5, anyone? Whoops, too late. They never asked us.)
In its latest incarnation, the A4 has a blunt, no-nonsense nose, but with a modern front lights cluster design untempted to the fashionable teardrop shape. An elegant shoulder line shows particularly well in some light, giving an otherwise slab-sided style a discrete sharp edge, leading neatly to an arrowtail six-sided rear lamp treatment that strongly raises the rear profile of the car.
It’s all bigger than the predecessor car. But not grossly so. There’s a feel that this has gone from medium to large car with a minimum of extra metalbending. And with the six-arm alloys on the review car, it looks ready for the party it wants to play in.
It was properly dressed for that party inside, with an optional beautifully light-coloured Buffalino leather where leather should be. And a walnut dash inlay, which most of the time I can do without, that just seemed to be a perfect fit in the scheme of the review car. Indeed, a more standard darker dashboard with aluminium inlay which I’d sat behind just before this one seemed almost drab.
Looking through the 4-spoke wheel, chrome-rimmed dials are white-on-black, flanking a central information block which details such matters as radio channel, outside temperature and, when selected, a warning that you’ve gone over the speed limit. This last, I think I have mentioned before, is a really useful facility, and also very easy to set (it unsets automatically when the engine is switched off, which means you’re not stuck with an earlier reminder every time you drive the car, which can be annoying. Even expensive.).
A quickie through the other nice bits - this car had full climate control (again, as I’ve said before, a must if you decide to buy an Audi or an equivalent VW, poor as they are on normal ventilation), and it came with a really decent sound system.
Except for the fact that it only had a singles CD player. Hello, guys? This is a car costing £43,000 or so with the extras on board. I know Irish Penal VRT means cutting costs somewhere, but a six-disc CD unit is not such an expensive piece of equipment these days. Look at yon basic Lexus IS200 - they even provide their press cars with a selection of discs in the units to show them off.
But there are all the seriously important safety gidgets: ESP, EBD, six airbag systems including head protection from side impacts for all occupants. And also, in the review car, Audi’s Quattro 4WD system which has earned its reputation over at least a pair of decades. And, of course, which has improved enormously in that period. You are less likely to need the passive safety systems if you’ve not got into trouble in the first place, yes?
Ja. Vorsprung durch Technik.
(And just as an aside, did you know that you can have SIX different steering wheel design setups in your Audi A4? It’s a whole other story.)
So, all the foregoing is style and feel while stopped. What about what the car, any car, is all about? Driving.
Yup. Driving. Why, maybe, I made that first rather heretical statement because while Audi might not have a three-pointed star up ahead, this particular version certainly drove far better than the last version of the M-B direct competition I have had under my bum.
And I’m burning not just bridges here, but diesel too. Because as far as I’m concerned, this is the A4 to go for, even if it is some 13 grand ahead of the basic 2-litre petrol car. It is also the one which, I believe, will beat the socks off any other version in terms of residual values. It is too the kickass best bloody Audi I have ever driven.
There’s a mean 180bhp available. But that’s not the whole story. Because while it might not meet the 0-62mph of 6.9sec that the 3-litre petrol car can boast, there’s a much more satisfying, low-down dirty, pulling power from the oilburner that gives a more than acceptable 8.6sec performance over that same speed range. And I rather think that in the intermediate overtaking situations, there’ll be far less strain on both the driver’s and the car’s heart in the 2.5 TDi.
I also have to say, that the 2-litre petrol entry model seems more raucous than the 2.5 TDi. That’s just because I happened to drive both versions back-to-back.
I’ll further proffer my head on a salver by saying that I found the A4 under review a more balanced car than a number of A6s I’ve driven. Against the A6 (which of course is an older design), the A4 seems suspended better, and the driving seat more to my anatomical needs.
It’s been a long while since I drove a BMW 3-series. I suspect that particular marque is also looking very carefully at Audi and wondering 'can they do it?'
Duhh ... yes!
August 2001
by Brian Byrne