I'm just going to write about the driving dynamics of this car as other reviews have covered other aspects of this car quite nicely.

My car is A4 Quattro 3.0 Tiptronic with steering wheel mounted shift buttons. It has the sports suspension pack and 17 inch wheels with Dunlop 9000 tires (235/45/17).

Around town:
Bottom line - very nice cruiser. I live in Seoul Korea where it is traffic hell. All you who live in the US, you couldn't even imagine how bad the traffic is here. To give you an idea. From my apartment to the my health club in the middle of the night with no traffic takes 5 minutes flat. During the day where there is traffic most of the time, it can take anywhere from 20 min to 1 hour! I kid you not. No bull. You just sit there idling. Anyhow, back to the car... The suspension is nice & soft yet firm enough that I don't get jarred driving through pot holes & crappy pavement undulations. The car drives firmer than a Camry but not so hard that you notice the ride.

Highway:
In Korea you don't have highway cops drooling to nail you. Instead we have camera mounted over the roads. And since on Korea, the intention of the law is to prevent speeding rather than to catch you speeding, there are signs that warn you of speed traps ahead. The thing they do is place the speed trap is zones where it is actually not prudent to speed. For example, flat zones following a down hill decent. I personally don't mind the speed traps as they are labeled & do serve a function to keep idiots from speeding dangerously. So what do we do where there are no speed traps? Go fast as the traffic & road allows you to go. On my most recent road trip I was crusing at 85~100MPH & hit peak speeds of 130MPH. On the way to my destination it was raining on & off.

On straights what I noticed most about the Quattro system is the stability through sheets of water. The highways here drain quite well so I wasn't driving through pools of water on the highway, but even sheets of water, the car just slices through it, totally stable. Also the Dunlop 9000 tires do cut water quite well.

When accelerating full blast, I do prefer auto transmissions. You just step on it & have the auto tick off one gear after another. A4 Q3.0/Tip, when you stand on the gas from a stand still, like all auto's, makes that empty engine sound for a moment while the torque converter churns, then start give you thrust. Then the engine builds from, a bit weak in my opinion, engine note to a nice growl until it shifts up to the next gear. Seat of my pants feeling of straight line acceleration feels like about what the data of 8 sec-ish 0~60MPH says. Speed builds rather than hit you on demand. My feeling is that the Quattro system plus the auto torque converter gives this feeling. The first 3 seconds of the car accelerating feels a little sluggish, but from there it picks up speed quickly. But around town where you only accelerate 35~45MPH, it feels different. On the highway you nail the throttle, while in town you go partial throttle, so that may create the different impression off the line. Put another way, around town it feels like a "whoosh~~", while full throttle on open road it feels like a "wherrrr~~~ whoosh".

As around town, highway ride quality is still great. The car cruises great. 100MPH cruise is not a problem. The car is very capable of 100MPH+ cruise for miles and miles. The car is very stable and road & wind noises are within comfort. I feel quite relaxed at that speed. Part of feeling comfortable at speed are the brakes. The brakes are quite good, so I can cruise at speed and slow down with a good & firm press of the brakes. I drive other cars but I don't drive as fast in them because of the weak brakes. It makes little sense to go fast if you can't slow down quickly when you need to. At 100~130MPH you come up on other cars doing 60MPH VERY quickly. Thing about German cars is that at speed they hunker down to the road. While lesser cars float at speed. Aerodynamics plays a very large part in this, but the suspension plays an equally large part. We are driving on public roads, where road surface aren't mirror smooth. The undulations get amplified at speed. If the suspension can't handle it you float and bounce your way into the rail guards. The Audi love the speed. The suspension soaks up the road and lets you cruise. At speed I use the transmission manual over ride. The torque converter lock up gives me more control.
(greatly simplified, the torque converter's function is this: when you are standing still the engine runs/spins. But the car is stationary. So the torque converter is the thing between your engine & your gears. It allows some slipage between your engine & gears so the two can work at different rotation speeds. It's a "liquid clutch" literally. But when you manually over it in Tiptronic function or when the car is crusing at stable speed, the "liquid clutch", the converter, locks up allowing power from engine to go to the gears direct.)

At 130MPH+, the car is solid. "Voom........." It's nice.



Changing directions at speed:
WOW. Here the Quattro system really come into play. Since all wheels are propelling the car, A4 is absolutely stable changing directions. It's quite slick how stable it changes lanes.


Hills & cruves:
I use manual over ride in the twisties. Again it is a matter of control. What is very good about the A4 auto trani is that gear change is very quick. It's faster than when I would shift a manual box. I nub the gear stump forward for shift up & stump back for down. Or I click the steering wheel mounted button. A4's steering wheel mounted gear shift buttons suck though. The button is on the top of both sides of the wheel spoke. Push up for up & down for down. But the button is real small and it is hard to hit. Down is easier but up is harder to click. I'd prefer paddles behind the wheel. Going into a 2nd gear turn, I shift down as I touch the brakes to shift weight to the front axle. I turn into the turn, then apply power and just 4 wheel drift through the turn & power out. This kind of turn are where the A4 Quattro is really satisfying. The car does lean in the turn, but again, the suspension holds you in the turn. The car understeers a bit, but not so much so that you need to take corrective action. For sane speeds and G-loads on public roads, in my opinion the understeer is quite acceptable. A4 does not corner body flat. It does lean in turns. But for a road car I find this acceptable as it gives you feel for how much G-load you are putting on.


Steering:
The steering is precise but not sharp. It lacks sharp road feel. It does what you ask it to do, but it's not vivid. And the 235/45/17 tires do tram line. Maybe 225/45/17's maybe a better choice. Or it could be the Dunlop 9000 tires. Dunlop 9000's do not have a rib going down the center of the tire. I've noticed tires with center ribs have better steering feel. Dunlop 9000's have "V" shaped groove/treads down the middle. Great for evacuating water, but for steering feel, I'm not so sure.

The steering is a tad numb as you go off center. Once you put some lock on it, it's nice, but between the center & lock it lacks feel.


IN SUM:
Great car. Confident at speed. Confident in turns. Very cool 4 wheel drifts. Good brakes. Suspension with good ride & handling balance. Good transmission for an auto.
Steering could use more road feel & better center to going off center feel.


Last point:
I've always been very hard core manual transmission person. Still prefer manual transmissions. Very curious about the 6 speed. Considering trading in for a 6 speed. But the A4 Tiptronic is acceptable.

Amount Paid (US$): 40,000