Audi A4 2.8 Quattro
I've wanted an Audi A4 ever since I set eyes on one in a spy photo
many years ago. It's an absolutely gorgeous car, conservatively
styled but chunky, aggressive and beautifully refined in all the
right places. The thing is timeless; even three years into its model
cycle, it looks far better than the cars it competes
against&emdash;one of which, the BMW 3-series, has just been recently
designed.
My test car, a 2.8-litre quattro model with the optional sports
package, looked even better than most A4s, decked out in 16-inch
tires, lowered half an inch, and sporting the brightest blue paint
job I've seen in years&emdash;"pelican blue", as it's called, is one
of four "cool shades" paint colors that really enliven the car's
looks.
The A4's equally gorgeous inside, with a nicely designed, curving
dash and well placed controls and instruments, all of which are
backlit in red at night. The instrument cluster is more complete than
on any other entry-level luxury car, and is marked out in a beautiful
Frutiger typeface. All of the controls, from the high mounted radio
to the big-screened automatic climate control, are easy to reach and
intuitive.
Cloth&emdash;a "jacquard" pattern on sport models&emdash;is
standard, and a lot better in this car than the optional leather. It
feels appropriately luxurious and is grippy enough to hold you in
place during even the hardest cornering. The seats are wonderfully
comfortable, and feature adjustable lumbar supports for both the
driver and front passenger, though the passenger's seat is
manipulated manually rather than electrically. The rear seats are
excellent as well, though head and legroom in back are at a premium.
Special mention should be made here of the steering wheel, which
is the best-looking unit I've seen on any car of any price. It's a
gorgeous, leather-wrapped piece with chrome, red, and black trim in a
small three-spoke design that doesn't look like it could hold an
airbag, though it does.
On the road, the A4 is supremely stable in all conditions, from
tooling through rush-hour traffic to full-throttle back-roads
barnstorming. With the lowered and tightened suspension, it corners
flatly and its four-wheel drive gives the car an almost supernatural
level of grip; you can charge through a corner at pretty much any
speed you please and be in complete control. (Four-wheel drive,
though, can easily breed overconfidence; once you pass the car's
limits, you're probably in for a wild ride. I'm not brave enough.)
The revised 2.8-litre V6 now has thirty valves and feels decidedly
stronger than the old twelve-valve unit. With 190 horsepower, it
moves the A4 around confidently, though it never feels truly fast. It
has a wonderful exhaust note, though, under full power, sort of a
slightly muffled ripping sound that encourages you to charge through
just one more gear before letting off. The clutch pedal is
progressive and the gearshift is excellent, though not
perfect&emdash;it's a little too rubbery for my taste. The brakes are
powerful, though the pedal's a little bit mushy.
Still, the level of performance you're getting from the mechanical
bits here can easily be had for thousands less than the almost
$45,000 that my tester was optioned out to. A Subaru Legacy, lighter
on its feet and with a similarly sophisticated AWD system, costs
anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000 less. What you're paying for here is
not extra performance, but cool touches that you can't get on lesser
cars.
To wit: holding the key for a second in the lock position raises
all windows and closes the sunroof in case you've forgotten. The
trunk hinges open on hydraulic struts which don't intrude into the
trunk space. The dome light fades in and out gradually rather than
clicking on and off; the ashtray glides, rather than flops, open.
Every little detail in the A4 is engineered beautifully, and you can
see where every penny of the admittedly high price is being spent.
You can, however, have an A4 for a lot less than 45 grand, with a
less-powerful (150 horsepower) 1.8-litre turbocharged model starting
at roughly $32,000. It has the same beautifully designed interior,
the same cool touches everywhere, but doesn't have wood trim (the
aluminized plastic used inside and the blackout trim outside looks
better than the wood and chrome in the 2.8 anyway.) With a
significant weight savings over the V6 model, it never feels slow,
and uses far less gas.
I'd take either of them, though, if I could afford them. If a
thing of beauty is a joy forever, the A4 could be the car I ride off
into the sunset. It's that gorgeous.