Alternative review of Audi A4

My other half has been driving an Audi A4 saloon as a company car for about five years now and is delighted with it. He's been dying to try the MK3 model but to his dismay, he was at work when I brought one home. To my surprise, I loved it. I found the old A4 impressive but slightly anonymous and not that memorable to drive. The handling in particular has never been as involving as I've experienced with some rivals. Once on the motorway, to be fair, the car has been great, simply eating up the 400 miles or so we regularly drive to Scotland to visit my folks. The latest A4 is different altogether, as far as I'm concerned. It's still great on the motorway but it's also a car I've found myself really enjoying on some of my favourite B roads. On top of that, the revised steering is light yet responsive and the car could turn on a sixpence. It has the same spacious boot as the old model, I'm glad to say, but the interior has been given a welcome facelift. The dashing blue 3.0-litre turbo diesel-engined car I was driving had a tasteful wood veneer trim, lightening the unimaginative black of my husband's old A4. Opt for a four-cylinder A4 and you have to do without the classy timber. If, like me, you don't choose the family's 'main' car, you probably get to drive it only once in a blue moon. This means, of course, that you never get to know it and love it the way he does. If my husband brought home the new A4, I'm sure I would be finding excuses to borrow it - and often. My other half has been driving an Audi A4 saloon as a company car for about five years now and is delighted with it. He's been dying to try the MK3 model but to his dismay, he was at work when I brought one home. To my surprise, I loved it. I found the old A4 impressive but slightly anonymous and not that memorable to drive. The handling in particular has never been as involving as I've experienced with some rivals. Once on the motorway, to be fair, the car has been great, simply eating up the 400 miles or so we regularly drive to Scotland to visit my folks. The latest A4 is different altogether, as far as I'm concerned. It's still great on the motorway but it's also a car I've found myself really enjoying on some of my favourite B roads. On top of that, the revised steering is light yet responsive and the car could turn on a sixpence. It has the same spacious boot as the old model, I'm glad to say, but the interior has been given a welcome facelift. The dashing blue 3.0-litre turbo diesel-engined car I was driving had a tasteful wood veneer trim, lightening the unimaginative black of my husband's old A4. Opt for a four-cylinder A4 and you have to do without the classy timber. If, like me, you don't choose the family's 'main' car, you probably get to drive it only once in a blue moon. This means, of course, that you never get to know it and love it the way he does. If my husband brought home the new A4, I'm sure I would be finding excuses to borrow it - and often.

The A4 with its classy new lines - what the marketing men called "sexy, younger and fresh" - is gorgeous. It still looks like an Audi, of course, so our menfolk will lose nothing in status, dare I say. It will double up as a business and family car, and is, therefore, in my view eminently practical. The lengthened wheel base enables a 36mm increase in rear leg room, with the added bonus of a 20-litre boost in boot capacity, making this car easily the most spacious in its sector. Personally, I've never found fault with the roominess of the A4 and this one is equally comfortable, with plenty of space for three adults in the back. The boot is capacious, but as in any saloon, it can be awkward to load because of the long, low shape of it. I can live with that, as in our house, loading the boot is the man's preserve!

This A4 feels very different to our 'old' model. The brochures tell me it's "faster, more frugal and better specified" and I wouldn't disagree. All the 'luxury' extras were in evidence in the 3.0 litre TDI model I tried, including electric everything, ABS, climate-control and more airbags than you could shake a stick at and an excellent Audi 'Concert' stereo system. I felt very comfortable behind the wheel. It helped a lot that the driving position is further improved. Where the A4 knocks the BMW into next week is in interior design and perception of quality. Put simply, the A4 has moved the game on a good few notches. The old A4 was held as the class best in terms of build integrity and ergonomics but some felt that from a design perspective, the acres of black plastics were starting to look a little too nineties. The latest model rectifies this, taking many of the design cues from the A8, including more imaginative use of contrasting coloured trims, metal brightwork and electronic functionality. The headlines from a roadgoing perspective are a new sports chassis with a repositioned front axle, all new steering and (on 3.0 TDI and 3.2 FSI variants) a latest generation quattro system with 40:60 torque split. I'd certainly say that the latest model rides a good deal more fluently than before with less constant pitter-patter from the road surface transmitting itself into the cabin. However, it still suffers from some bump and thump over larger irregularities and driven back to back with a BMW 3 Series, it has to be said that the latest A4 still doesn't match their Bavarian rivals when it comes to dialling in a ride and handling compromise.

If he's happy, I'm happy and I'm in no doubt that my other half would not hesitate to bring home the latest Audi A4. For once, I wouldn't be moaning on about it being anonymous and boring to drive. As long as he doesn't get into the notion of replacing everything in his life with "sexy, younger, fresher" models, I'll be happy, too.

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Audi A4 2.0 TDIe 136 SE 4dr [Start Stop] Diesel Saloon
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