I Need A Car, Today!

That's what I heard from our agency's Vice President when I walked into our office yesterday. Being the resident auto expert, it was quickly decided that I would take her car shopping for the day. I was to find her a Luxury Mid-Sized (3-series, A4, C-Class, etc...) in an impossible to fit into lease budget. Oh well, back to the cars.

Although I hadn't driven one before, I was always a big fan of the Audi Marque. The A4 seemed like a perfect car for her: sleek, sporty looking, luxurious, and using the amazing Quattro all-wheel-drive system to boot. It turns out I was sorely mistaken.

Exterior:
Not much to say here. It's a nice looking car. Smooth lines, tasteful badging, and a lot less common on the road than the 3-Series.

Interior:
This car has one of the most beautiful interiors I have ever seen. The leather is gorgeous, the wood trim elegant, and everything was shaped very well.

The gadgetry was a mixed bag. I liked the way to sunroof operated: There is a dial by the map lights that controls it. Turn the dial 180 degrees, the sunroof opens all the way (you don't have to hold a button down for once... I'm surprised no one has thought of this sooner). Turn it 90 degrees, it opens halfway, etc. You can also push/pull the dial to tilt the sunroof.

The audio/climate controls were quite intimidating. I never thought anyone could make more complicated controls than Mercedes-Benz, but Audi can. The display in the center of the gauge cluster was ugly. It's like 2 inches wide and 4-5 inches tall, and it's ugly. It has a red background, with red illuminated text/pictures, and basically serves no purpose but to tell you which door is ajar and which gear you're in (and I hate to be picky, but the numbers look like something a 6 year-old makes in MS Paint).

There were two BIG interior problems. In my book, and in hers, the most important aspect of a car is its "livability." That is, the ability to be useful and not cause problems in everyday life. This car had two definite livability problems.

The First: No room for junk
Audi was sure to make a console wired for their "Audi Cellphone", but they didn't think to make any type of console, container, or space for people to set their junk. No where to lay cds, no where for her husband to set his cigarettes, nothing. That's a big minus in my book.

The Second: No Rear Visibility
When we were beginning our drive, Heather, (the person I was shopping for), put the car in reverse, turned her head, and promptly blurted "I can't see." After asking for an explanation, and testing it myself, I realized that the headrests in this thing are enormous. Try to look behind yourself when backing out, and you'll see about 1/8 of the ideal viewing area. The rest of your view is headrest. You would literally have to remove the headrests from the seat to be able to see out of the back. They blocked a good deal of the rear-view mirror visibility, too. I've been in Diablos with a wider rear viewing area.

Engine:
I told Heather that she would probably prefer the 2.8 engine, because it would have more low-end power and not be as "whiney" as the 1.8 turbo. Boy, was I wrong. She drove it quite conservatively, then pulled over into a neighborhood and let me drive it back. I had to turn right onto a busy street, so according to my logic, I had 190 horse and all-wheel-drive in a little car, so I can pull out in front of most anybody. I put the tiptronic (sequential shifter) into first, and at the first 3 car-length break, stomped on the pedal. Instead of being surprised by the Audi's amazing traction, I was surprised by the lack of low-end power. It turns out that the peak horsepower (190) is not produced until 6000 rpm. It also turns out that this "little car", with the 2.8 engine and Quattro has a base curb weight of over 3500 lbs.

This translates to the car being just plain slow. Zero to Sixty is a very unimpressive 8.8 with the automatic transmission. I'm probably mistaken, but this thing felt about as slow as my 110 hp Mazda 626.

The engine was far too high-revving and high-pitched for a mature luxury sedan. It turns out that the torque peak is 207@3200 rpm, but I sure didn't feel it. It didn't feel like it had any go until like 5000 rpm... completely unacceptable for this type of car.

Price
With the 2.8 engine, the Quattro awd system, the leather seats, the sunroof, and the cold weather package (heated seats, etc. they put this on like every car because they know nobody would buy it otherwise), this car came out to almost $36,000.

Verdict
No Way!

What'd We End Up With
A 2000 Acura 3.2TL. A great car that I will review shortly.