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Thorough article www.autospeed.com

huge torque

Most people are aware of my hatred for VW ... I think this car is going to kick ass! I love it. I was stunned like the competition by the unstoppable R8 and I can't wait to see this. It may not be Can-Am, but this is what racing should be about - trying new things, new ideas. Exactly why I hate NASCAR. If only F1 could be less restrictive.

And the idea of that transmission makes me hard.

Yup, that car is bad ass.... I don't like the way they're promoting it though. Like they invented Diesel technology and are the first to race a diesel in LeMans. Meanwhile the Perkins team did it the last two years. Audi does and makes some cool stuff but thier attitude sucks, hence I'm not a fan.

look forward to more manufacturers on the diesel trip next year including Puegot who pulled out of WRC in order to build a diesel LeMans team.

evolutionmovement wrote:Most people are aware of my hatred for VW ... I think this car is going to kick ass! I love it. I was stunned like the competition by the unstoppable R8 and I can't wait to see this. It may not be Can-Am, but this is what racing should be about - trying new things, new ideas. Exactly why I hate NASCAR. If only F1 could be less restrictive.

And the idea of that transmission makes me hard.

I am a hardcore Volkswagen/Porsche guy, and diesel lover, and I will agree with you that they have really dropped the ball in recent years. My mom's 2003 Passat has as many or more problems than my 191,000 mile Subaru.

However, their upmarket cars like the Audi's, Lamborghinis, Bugatti, etc. are pretty damn neat...

And, their Diesels are very well engineered, to the point that I believe they have almost caught up to Mercedes Benz in diesel technology...and they were the first company to come out with the high-efficiency direct injection motor for the US market.

I think I'm gonna see this car in action at Sebring next week...

A friend just got an A3 V6. With less than 800 miles, the DSG got stuck and the car wouldn't even start.

Nice car though, and I liked the DSG shifting because it really did feel like an racing simulation game.

DLC wrote:A friend just got an A3 V6. With less than 800 miles, the DSG got stuck and the car wouldn't even start.

Nice car though, and I liked the DSG shifting because it really did feel like an racing simulation game.

I also think the DSG idea is really cool, and I was also concerned with its potential to break

Same here, especially with VWAG building it.

My mom got a brand-new 2006 A4 2.0T quattro 6-speed at almost the same time as I got my Legacy (early-mid January). It's a really nice car, although I haven't had a chance to drive it yet (I'm in UT and she's in MD). I did help her and my dad with researching the cars and test-drove our contenders over Christmas.

We chose the A4 over the Legacy 2.5i (despite the Legacy being $12,000 cheaper), the BMW 325xi, and the Mazdaspeed6. We thought the A4 was worth it over the Legacy because of its better handling and shifter/clutch, as well as the safety features (stability control and extra crash reinforcement). We agreed that all the cars we looked at, including the Legacy with 175 hp, had enough power for our purposes; thus the Mazda was out because power was its only really big advantage. The BMW wasn't as nice and was $3000 more than the Audi.

Audis have actually become more reliable recently; Consumer Reports rates the A4s as more reliable than the 3-series, and even recommends them now because of how much the reliability has improved.

We got ours in silver with Platinum leather and wood trim, the Premium Package, and headlight washers (the one option that we didn't want, but this car was in upstate NY and had everything else exactly the way we wanted). We actually bought it on December 31, because Audi jacked up the invoice by $600 and the MSRP by $3000 on January 1. We got it for about $200 over invoice.

Cool, at least you got a 6-speed.

You didn't look at the Legacy GT though?

I've never driven an Audi, but I've driven quite a few Bimmers, and I've never driven one that I didn't absolutely love, so I'm a bit surprised to hear that you picked the Audi over the BMW, although I wouldn't want an AWD BMW; that's what I have Subarus for.

The new Quattro system is rear biased so it should be much nicer to drive. The older front-biased Audis I've driven were numb and I didn't like the suspension set up at all.

subyluvr2212 wrote:Cool, at least you got a 6-speed.

Wouldn't have gotten any car without a stick-shift. My parents and I all hate automatics; our criteria while we were looking at cars was AWD with a stick-shift. There were some okay cars that we might have looked at because they were AWD, but they fell off the list because they were auuomatic-only.

subyluvr2212 wrote:You didn't look at the Legacy GT though?

If I'm not mistaken, the main advantage of the Legacy GT is the sweet engine -- the suspension and drivetrain aren't significantly upgraded over the 2.5i. We already thought that the 2.5i handled decently, but the Audi was just in a whole other league with regard to a number of things.

subyluvr2212 wrote:I've never driven an Audi, but I've driven quite a few Bimmers, and I've never driven one that I didn't absolutely love, so I'm a bit surprised to hear that you picked the Audi over the BMW, although I wouldn't want an AWD BMW; that's what I have Subarus for.

Well, there were four problems with the BMW. We actually drove the 325i and not the xi, and even though it was in the rain the handling was still very good while still feeling quite safe. So the handling was a plus. However, the drivetrain wasn't as nice as the Audi's -- the 6-speed wasn't as crisp and precise, and the clutch wasn't as natural; we could just jump into the Audi and master the clutch within seconds, but for the other three cars, it took a few minutes of driving to get used to it.

Then there were the stupid controls. BMW has decided to go to "soft-touch" light and wiper stalks, which are computer controlled and not mechanical, and give absolutely no tactile feedback. It was an exercise in concentration to cancel the turn-signal if it didn't do so itself. For the wipers (and as I said, it was raining), if you wanted to put them in intermittent mode, you had to push the wiper stalk down to engage regular slow mode and then up again to get them to do intermittent. It was the kind of thing were you ask yourself, what was wrong with the old way? The Audi had normal, nicely-damped mechanical switches that felt expensive but still worked the way they should.

Even though I said we thought they all had enough power, the BMW was (or so we thought during the test drive) the same price as the A4, whereas the Subaru was $13,000 less. So we could forgive less power in the Subaru, but we were looking to differentiate two identically-priced German cars. When you stepped on the gas in any gear in the Audi, you got a nice surge forward. The BMW still had somewhat of a surge, but there was a slightly delayed response and it wasn't as strong-feeling. Road and Track actually did a comparison test with all of the cars we looked at (albeit with the S-line package for the Audi and the Spec. B for the Legacy) plus a few cars we didn't look at:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp ... le_id=3280

In the data panel on the article, the 325xi and the A4 2.0T were neck-and-neck in the acceleration runs, but the A4 made 200 bhp @ 5100-6000 rpm vs. the 325's 215 bhp @ 6250 rpm, and 207 lb-ft @ 1800-5000 rpm vs. 185 lb-ft @ 2750 rpm. I think that's the explanation for the better seat-of-the-pants performance of the A4 -- it has a better power band and more torque.

The last issue was price. The A4 was about $32,000 once we bargained it down. When we went into the BMW dealer to discuss pricing, an identically-optioned 325xi stickered at $36k, and they were only willing to bring it down to $34k. They tried to justify it with the standard BMW-snobbery, which we didn't buy, because we thought it wasn't as good as the A4 and we're not big on the whole brand-identity thing.

This wasnt really as much of an issue, because we don't buy cars based on looks, but in my opinion the A4 looked much better inside and out than the 325, too. I'm not a big fan of the E90's styling, and the B7 A4 just continues to grow on me the more I see it.

So there you have it -- why we liked the A4 over the 325xi. Sorry for the novel, but hopefully it will help someone make a decision, somewhere.

evolutionmovement wrote:The new Quattro system is rear biased so it should be much nicer to drive. The older front-biased Audis I've driven were numb and I didn't like the suspension set up at all.

The B7 A4 also uses a significant number of suspension components from the S4 -- that might be part of it too. It was a bit less communicative than the 325xi, though.

Very cool, glad you made a decision based on educated research and personal preferences. Thanks for the feedback.

evolutionmovement wrote:The new Quattro system is rear biased so it should be much nicer to drive. The older front-biased Audis I've driven were numb and I didn't like the suspension set up at all.

Rear biased Quattro is only on the $90k RS4. Most other Audis are the same Torsen 50/50 bias that has been out since the early 90s. Ones built on the Golf platform (TT and A3) are Haldex, so they are front biased.

Audi's are numb and understeer so much because the engine sits so far in front of the front wheels. The 1.8t and new 2.0t cars suffer from this less as the engines are smaller/lighter, but old 5cys and the v6 cars feel like you're turning a car with a boat anchor strapped to the hood. Pop the hook on one and take a look, there's literally no room at all between the headlights and the engine.

I hear the RS4 overcomes all these ailments with its rear bias electronically controlled Quattro and a very light all aluminum V8. If I ever get a chance to slip behind the wheel of one I'll let you kats know how it goes but since most of my friends who can afford the $90k price tag don't have an interest and the only one who does just bought an RS6 Avant, the chances of that happening in the near future are a little dim.

Subarus don't necessarily have ideal weight distribution either...

Count me among those impressed with the A4 Quattro. I do like the handling and the feel of the (manual trans) shifting.
What impresses me most is how they can get 30+mpg with AWD and turbo.
I can't help but wonder what they would do without all the added plush stuff in the US models weighting it down.

It must be much better than the last one, then. I found the last one to be numb and slow (1.8T) with no charisma. I actually enjoyed a POS Mustang Cobra I drove earlier that day much more (although the Audi's brakes were for more than looks).

Wow.

I couldn't help it; I was rootin for this car all day.

This is a historic moment in motorsports history.

I did attend the event today, and this car surprised me in two ways: 1) it's quiet!!. Other than a slight deep exhaust note and the whoosh of the turbo, you can barely hear the thing, especially if there's a loud-ass Corvette nearby. The other way this car surprised me, 2), it hauls ass!! I got a chance to stand at the end of the main straight and watch the cars take off after a caution and the pace car got off the track. The Audi just pulled on everyone. There is no high-end power loss as is typical for diesels. It just moves. Wow.

Did anyone else see the battle between 3rd and 4th at the end??? Had me on the edge of my seat!

I'll have a bunch of pics once I get home tomorrow...

unfortunately I missed most of the race and Speed finds it more important to show stupid nascar crap instead of an actual race

I have the pics on my puter, but Hardy's site won't let me upload

Stay tuned...