2017 Audi A4 Review Design & Styling, Interior, Performance

2017 Audi a4 Review Design & Styling, Interior, Performance

Audi A4

If you need an extended introduction to the A4, you will wish to browse our last review before continued on. one thing regarding golf, maybe – if you’re a fan of eighteen holes, you’ll in all probability be at home with Audi’s popular product.

The A4 saloon, the estate-shaped Avant and therefore the rebadged A5 coupé ar just about present within the automobile parks of the nation’s clubhouses.

The model, specifically the saloon, has not solely been the firm’s mainstay for over four decades however is additionally one among the first reasons why Audi has managed to force its means into a client reckoning that antecedently enclosed solely BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Its surname has modified since then. it had been originally the Audi eighty, a automobile that touched through four generations (each of them a showcase for the innovations that will later become common traits of the four rings) before it had been outmoded by the A4 within the mid-1990s. The whole didn’t want all of the second twenty years to shift 5 million examples.

Its large success and instant familiarity have meant that Audi doesn’t strain itself in lost faraway from the script.

As you’ll have in all probability detected, the new, fifth-generation model pictured could be a ringer for its precursor, and therefore the claims created for it – a rise in size, dynamism, efficiency, sumptuousness and technology – were all trumpeted the previous time around, too. The saloon was fleetly followed by the Avant and Allroad models with the S4 activity itself to hitch the home in the close to future.

However, that doesn't build them insignificant. very similar to Volkwagen’s approach to the Golf (software code notwithstanding), Audi tends to be implausibly diligent with its endless strategy of improvement – and, as we have a tendency to ar on the brink of establish, there's an incredible quantity happening to a lower place the skin, not least the type of weight loss which may simply keep the engineers’ long-standing promise to create the A4 additional compelling to drive.

Either way, the automobile can sell massive.
To find out what our sister web site, What Car? thought of the Audi A4, watch the video below.

 

Audi A4 style & styling

Audi has conformed stunningly to national stereotype with the new A4, giving U.S. mechanics and material potency to the envy of all of its German subject makers.

Using its new MLB Evo platform, it has switched to hybrid aluminium and steel construction and downsized engines in places, making certain versions 120kg lighter on kerb weight than their predecessors.
The weight hasn’t only come out of the body-in-white. A relentless programme of weight saving has shed it throughout the car, from wiring to seats to suspension to steering.

The upshot is that the new entry-level 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol model is just 1320kg dry. Plenty of examples of the original A4, launched more than two decades ago, weighed more.

An equally unstinting focus on aerodynamics puts some A4 models at a drag coefficient of just 0.23.

Seven engines are on offer from launch, not counting the S and RS versions that will follow – and only the most powerful options, on both petrol and diesel sides, need emit more than 120g/km of CO2. Among the headline inclusions are a 99g/km, 148bhp 2.0 TDI Ultra to lure in the fleet faithful, a high-compression 187bhp 2.0 TFSI petrol unit with CO2 emissions as low as 116g/km, and a 215bhp 3.0 TDI V6 that is claimed by Audi to be the world’s most efficient six-cylinder passenger car engine, emitting as little as 109g/km, consuming fuel at a combined 67.3mpg and capable of propelling the A4 from 0-62mph in less than seven seconds.

The impending S4 gets a turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine producing 349bhp and 369lb ft of torque too.

Suspension is via aluminium-rich multi-link arrangements front and rear, chosen to allow softer bushing against longitudinal forces at the same time as firmer bushing against lateral ones (the same rationale is used by Jaguar for its Integral Link rear end).

Audi has also switched to monotube dampers for the A4 and offers four suspension configurations across the full model range: comfort and sport-tuned passive set-ups, as well as separate comfort and sport-biased adaptively damped configurations.

Our test car was a 187bhp 2.0 TDI in S line trim, on that a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic casing is commonplace. It conjointly had passively damped sports suspension Associate in Nursingd standard-fit passive power-assisted steering (variable-ratio dynamic steering is an option). though it’s offered with quattro permanent simple machine drive, we have a tendency to tested it in front-drive kind.

 

Audi A4 interior

When the previous A4 came on, its interior raised the bar on perceived quality among compact premium saloons, however since then Audi’s rivals have had time to retort.

As a result, you wouldn’t say the new A4 blows all of its rivals into the weeds on apparent cabin quality within the means that the previous one did. And however this can be undeniably an enclosed of deeply spectacular integrity, masterfully designed and dead to seem and feel clean, fashionable and unlittered. It’s reserved instead of in any means eccentric, and slightly lacking in heat, maybe, however the standard is outstanding from carpet level upwards.

The car’s terribly minor growth spurts have created further area in each rows of seating. in keeping with our measuring instrument, the rear ones supply competitive leg area however slightly unsatisfying head area for larger adults.

The boot, at 480 litres, is identical on claimed size thereto of a Mercedes C-Class or BMW three Series, and larger than a cat XE’s – and its expandability has been bolstered by the addition of 40/20/40 split-folding rear seatbacks.

Occupant house within the front is sweet, then is that the driving position. Our S line check automobile came with snug manually adjusted sports seats with long cushions, many base height and angle adjustment and plenty of leg area.

As commonplace, the automobile is fitted with analogue instruments and a typical trip computer-style central screen, however they will optionally be swapped for identical twelve.3in Virtual Cockpit TFT instrument cluster because the one offered within the TT. not like within the TT, it is partnered with a head-up show and a central seven.0in flick screen.

The flexibility of what data you select to be displayed within which location provides the A4’s driver the final word in configurability: 2 widescreen high-resolution navigations maps displayed at the same time, as an example, just in case you wish to be guided in bird’s-eye and north-up modes at identical time.

Even the foremost ardent critic of Audi would realize it troublesome to not be affected by the technological sophistication of the A4’s interior and therefore the substance and tactile attractiveness of its fittings, right right down to the sculptural indicator stalks.

There ar 3 trim levels to settle on from once speccing your Audi A4. The entry-level SE models go with argonon headlights, three-zone climate management, 7in Audi MMI flick system with DAB, Bluetooth and USB ports, control, keyless entry and ignition, and front and rear parking sensors. Upgrade to Sport and expect to search out luxuries like front sport seats, sat nav, Associate in Nursing Audi electronic equipment and rear diffuser fitted. in the meantime the range-topping S-line models are going to be equipped with 18in alloys, sports suspension, semiconductor diode head and hind lights, colorful bodykit and electrically adjustable front seats.

Our check automobile had Audi’s superior flick systems fitted: MMI Navigation and with a free-standing eight.3in central screen; MMI bit, that turns the highest of the MMI controller knob into a touch-sensitive pad; the configurable {lcd|liquid crystal show|LCD|digital display|alphanumeric display} instruments of Virtual Cockpit and a color head-up display.

Having all of them means that defrayment £2600 on choices packs — and a premium stereo would be an extra addition — however it’s well well worth the outlay if you'll afford it. Having such a lot screen assets to show navigation and diversion data could be a boon, and it’s all conferred at terribly crisp resolution and extremely responsively so due to many Nvidia graphical process power.

MMI Navigation and brings with it 10GB of flash music storage and a 4G wireless hotspot that’ll support up to eight devices, with 3 years of mobile knowledge subscription. Audi’s MMI Connect conjointly will smartphone mirroring for each Apple and Android-based operational systems, and therefore the nonobligatory Audi Phone Box system will wireless charging via the energy commonplace, which may be created compatible with preferred phones via a case.

 

Audi A4 performance

The A4 has plainly been designed and built for high-mileage business users with a healthy disdain for compromise – those that desire a automobile that’s as fast to urge to outside lane speeds as the rest for the cash however is additionally quiet, smooth, simple to control and economical with it.

At least in some ways that, they’ll realize what they’re craving for here. All A4s get intelligent switchable engine mounts Associate in Nursingd an acoustic noise-filtering windshield as commonplace, and our check example additional acoustic glazing for its facet and rear windows, too.
It was pleasantly automatically refined, suppressing engine noise alright and ending up a lucid 2dB quieter than identical C-Class at each idle and at most revs in gear.

However, cruising at 30mph and 50mph, the Mercedes registered less noise, a distinction owing to the gently rumbling distant coarseness of the Audi’s low-profile Hankook tyres, S line 19in alloy wheels and passive sports suspension. On smaller rims and otherwise tuned chassis settings, the A4 may perhaps deliver the cruising manners many homeowners can expect, however it manifestly won’t do therefore flatly.

The 2.0-litre engine is responsive, versatile and fairly free-revving – additional imposingly therefore at low revs than high, with the S tronic casing shifting up prior to a BMW two.0-litre diesel would.

In fact, the manners and quirks of the A4’s dual-clutch casing outline a good deal of its motive character. In regular drive mode, it appears to achieve for ever-higher ratios prior to a convertor would, boosting fuel economy, you’d expect, however ultimately giving itself additional to try and do in kickdown.

If you’re wont to the elastic feel of the initial torsion multiplication you get with a traditional car, the S tronic might feel slightly ponderous on step-off and, again, too keen to shuffle ratios. however in Sport mode, it shifts additional resolutely and intuitively for passing. It conjointly coasts terribly effectively to conserve momentum and boost your fuel economy come.