It Starts With ‘A’

Vehicle Driven: Audi A4 1.8T

There is a very good reason the alphabet starts at ‘A’. The A4 has been around for a while now, but that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that it is old. The Audi is as modern and up to date as anything any other manufacture can produce.

I had my first spin in an Audi A4 the other day, but due to time issues, literally took it around two blocks. I liked it, but felt that maybe the 1.8 turbo was a tad small for the vehicle. However, I recently took the same car for a second spin, and it is probably the greatest case of ‘Shut Up Mark’ ever.

Let’s start on the outside, because that’s the first aspect of the A4 that’s going to cause you to take a second look. It is an aggressive looking machine with its signature Audi single grill and daytime running LED lights. The lines on the A4 flow beautifully giving the car a sporty stance, but at the same time make it look incredibly elegant and composed.

The exterior of the car makes you brace yourself for the interior. It too is just magnificent. It, again is an extremely elegant arrangement, but still manages to give off this essence of sportiness. I know this might seem like my boy-racer stripes are shining through by thinking that everything seems sporty, but sit in one and try to fight my statement. Can’t? Thought so.
The A4 we were in had an interior wrapped in cream leather which was, well, incredibly nice. More than that, the seats that the leather covered were extremely comfortable and supportive. Everything in the car was soft to the touch, and you can just feel that a lot of love went into building it.

So what is the A4 like to drive? Well, um, to put this in plain English, brilliant. The A4 we were in was powered by a 1.8 liter turbo FSI motor pushing out 118kW and 250Nm. This A4 also had Audi’s Multitronic automatic gearbox. Now, I must just mention this, I love manual gearboxes. I love the fact that you feel connected to the car. Having said that, I respect that auto-boxes are becoming more sophisticated and are rendering manuals obsolete. I have driven some rubbish automatics, some okay automatics and some very good ones, but Audi’s Multitronic has become one of my favourites. The eight speed box, yes eight speed, is incredibly smooth. The only way you can tell that you’ve changed gear is that the rev counter needle drops…that’s it. Chuck the gear selector to the left for a bit of manual override, and the A4 goes from being a sophisticated cruiser to something a little more savage. Pull the gear selector back twice, feel the flood of power start to push in the small of your back and watch the revs climb. What a piece of engineering. I take back my previous thoughts of the 1.8 being a bit small, it’s not. And I just can’t wait to get my hands on the 2.0 T FSI, the 3.2 FSI, or the mind-numbing, sanity-destroying, pants-wetting S4!

I enjoyed my time behind the wheel of the A4. I feel that it is a composed, mature long-hauler with a hidden sports car agenda for when you need it. I believe that I have just found another one of those vehicles I just don’t want to hand back…