turbojet

Today I visited the Edmunds.com autoshow at Chicago Motor Speedway. Its a good chance to test drive nice cars back-to-back. However, the test track was very short and so each test ride was only like 2 minutes. But the test track had some sharp turns and overall it was fun to throw the nice cars over those turns.

I have been driving my 2001 1.8TQM for six weeks now. Compared to my car, the impressions after driving these cars are as follows (unfortunately, all cars they had were automatics, so no real fun with revving and clutch dumping):

323i : I was overall not impressed by 323i. It was slow! May be the automatic version is slow and 5-spd is nice. But the one I tested was defintely less fun than my 1.8T, IMHO. And the interior is surely not as nice as that of A4.

A4 2.8 FWD Tip: Unfortunately, the A4 they had was FWD, Tip and no sport package. And as we all know, A4s with Tip are slow! After driving the 1.8 Quattro for 6 weeks, the front-heaviness of FWD 2.8 was noticeable. It felt very awkword, I even felt some torque steer (but may be that was psychological, since I dont expect A4s to have torque steer). But for sure I missed Quattro. I wonder why Audi did not provide a car with quattro and sport package. They did not even have a sport steering wheel, so no Tip controls on steering wheel.

IS300: This was probably the winner out of the cars I tested! (except for the styling). It was very quick compared to the A4 and 323i, and the handling was better than A4 FWD and 323i. (But I feel like A4 Quattro would be better handler). I loved the "tightness", and probably it had very nice "sport suspensions" as stock suspensions. Steering was amazingly resposive. Very nice engine, and way smoother compared to my 1.8T! Since it was fast off the start anyway, I did not miss the 5-spd. But the dashboard layout sucks. Overall, this was the winner.

Acura 3.2TL: After drving the other three, the handling of TL was just not good enough. It is a very nice car, but feels very boring compared to the other three.

Interestingly, after I drove these and got back in my 1.8QM, I was happier than before to have quattro and 5-spd.

Sorry for the long post, and if anybody takes time to read this, thanks for your time

Anand<p>2001 1.8TQM
Premium/Cold Weather/Xenons

arn

I second that review

Dan F.

It wasn't Audi that made that decision. I went to the DC event and asked the exact same question about the car ... why such a non-competitive configuration?

They told me it was to make the comparison "fair", since the other cars don't all have AWD, a manual tranny, and/or a sport package available.

Seems like a vacuous argument to me. Why didn't they also make the comparison "fair" by disabling the 300M so it only makes 190-210 HP instead of 250? But that's what they said ...

Dan

tonypilot

<p>cessna_Joe

Okra

Great post....not too long at all. I have a '00 A4 1.8TQM (non-sport) and I love the balance of ride comfort and handling. I just drove a manual 323iC this past week and was truly surprised at how slow it felt. I know it has more hp and torque, but my little 4-cylinder with a turbo (and I even have quattro) felt so much stronger. And I was incredibly disappointed with the interior as well. It didn't look as well coordinated as the A4, and some of the trim pieces looked really cheap. I love the shape of the exterior, but what a disappointment overall.<p>Owen