Tested: New Audi A4 is superb vanilla

ROAD TEST: Audi A4 2.0T

By: Jesse Adams

Choosing ice cream. Hard! So many wonderful flavours. Butter pecan. Chocolate chip cookie dough. Rum ‘n raisin. There’s even a maple bacon out there. Who wouldn’t want to try that? Just a taste, I mean. A whole cone full might be a bit much.

You can see where I’m headed with this. Yes, I’m about to call Audi’s new A4 the vanilla of small executive sedans. And I don’t at all mean it as an insult. Vanilla ice cream is delicious, and there’s a reason why every shop in the world has it in their selection.

It doesn’t take a car expert to see that Audi’s erred on the side of conservatism with this all-new, fifth-generation version and rather than come up with a completely wild re-design, this A4’s exterior styling is instead a mild evolution of the last. Sure, they could have done more. Headlights even angrier than they are now. Slimmer side window lines. Maybe even some swooping coupé-like C-pillars (although that would effectively make it an A5 Sportback). But then it might become polarising. Like pistachio ice cream. Some love it. I don’t.

If Audi slightly copped out with external flavour, it has done anything but with build quality. Attention to detail is tenacious to say the least, and it’s more than up to the task of challenging its market rivals in quality perception. Step into a new 3 Series or C-Class and fit and finish standards are on equal terms; but Audi takes a different, more delicate approach with cabin layout. Where the Beemer and Merc bombard with an abundance of switches buttons and knobs for their many features, the A4 is far less busy.

The features are all there, but the presentation is much more clean. Ambiance here is neater, cooler, fresher. It’s sterile but in an extremely nice, immaculate way.

Smooth, comfy drive

The feeling extends to the way it drives too. Our test car was a front-wheel-driven 2.0T, so don’t expect detailed descriptions of how the steering transmits road-surface data when its tail is hanging out on a mountain-pass hairpin. No. This A4 just gets on with business, pulling calmly, smoothly and comfortably, always. Steering feel, by the way, is especially light for a German sports sedan, but makes daily drives all the more pleasurable. Heavier steering in, say, a 3 Series exudes sportier feeling but can be irksome with regular occurrences such as parking.

Ride quality is superb, even on optional 18-inch wheels (17s are standard). Our car, a Sport derivative, also came with firmer suspension settings than a regular A4 2.0T but was still very agreeable on bumpy surfaces. Rough roads also demonstrate the impeccable build quality I mentioned earlier, with nary a squeak nor rattle from inside the cabin. Road noise is also filtered out to such an extent that an optional Bang & Olufsen sound system (R12 000) could be well worth the cost, especially for music lovers.

All A4 models in South Africa, except for a base 1.4, come with Audi’s familiar, but still benchmark seven-speed S tronic (DSG) twin-clutch transmission. It’s now eight years old in design, but the gearbox is so slick in operation that there’s really no need to change it anytime soon. With such intuitively timed up and downshifts, and quick changes I can’t see how it could be improved upon. Standard in our car was a Drive Select function which allows for a higher-revving Dynamic gearbox mode, but I found it performed best left alone in its Comfort setting.

Is virtual cockpit worth it?

I did, of course, use Dynamic mode for performance testing, where our Vbox concurred with Audi’s claimed 0-100km/h time of 7.2 seconds. At 15.3 seconds it also covers the quarter-mile quicker than its closest competitors the 320i (15.8) and C200 (15.7).

After attending the new A4’s launch around two months ago, I had a good moan at Audi’s decision to make the Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster and its array of full-colour background displays an expensive option. Together with the required satnav system to make it work, this nifty feature, which is a major focus of Audi’s ad campaign, costs around R40 000. The question is, is it really worth it?

For me, it’s an absolute yes. I love the huge shot of maple bacon it adds to what can be considered a vanilla package. But it is a novelty at the end of the day, and a pricey one at that. Still, it’s a novelty that you can’t have in a 3 Series or C-Class – and that’s the very definition of a unique selling point. And if there’s one thing a car needs in this cut-throat segment, it’s a USP.

VERDICT

I doubt if many people shopping in the mid-sized junior-exec sedan category will get a tummy flutter by just looking at the new A4. It’s just not very exciting in appearance. But it’s genuinely excellent to drive, and extremely well built. And, for what it’s worth, vanilla is the most popular ice cream in the world according to the all-knowing Wikipedia.

Star Motoring

Follow me on Twitter: @PoorBoyLtd

FACTS

Audi A4 2.0T

Engine: 2-litre, 4-cylinder turbopetrol

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automatic

Power: 140kW @ 4200-6000rpm

Torque: 320Nm @ 1450-4200rpm

0-100km/h (Tested, Gauteng): 7.2 seconds

Top speed (claimed): 210km/h

Price: R511 000

Warranty: 1-year / unlimited km