saholz

I've put about 700 miles on my new 2006 A4 Avant since getting it 10/28...enough to start forming some opinions. First. let me state that this car was not ordered with the sport suspension, a choice I agonized over for several weeks. I have never ordered any car I've owned without a sport package, so this was a change for me. My reasoning, I think, is solid. I have a 2005 C6 Corvette which I take out for aggressive driving and for those times when I need an adrenaline rush. Next, my wife is the prime driver for the A4 and she uses it for everything. The only time I really drive the car is on trips or on weekends. The car is also our winter car and will be on Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22's through the entire winter. I did test drive an A4 with sport and without before ordering. The sport had somewhat less body roll, and a bit less dive on braking, but the handling difference was not all that huge in that the base car handled quite well. The ride was noticeably more stiff on the sport and, for the intended use of this car, that was not a plus. So....sport was not ordered.

Now that I have that out of the way....

Coming off my 2003 A6 2.7T lease, I wanted to get into another Audi. I test drove the new A6 and found it very comfortable, but too big and too expensive for what i wanted now. I was also unimpressed with the mediocre gas mileage of the A6. I was surprised to find that the front seat accommodations of the A4 are actually better than my A6 was. I'm 6'3" and I can't remember when I had to actually move the seat forward to reach the pedals. Amazing amount of room for a small car. Of course this room comes at the expense of rear seat room...I would not want to be the person sitting behind me on any drive. Luckily, it's usually just me and my wife. The seats are very comfortable and have better lateral support than my A6 did.

The instrumentation is well laid out and easy to read. The glove box is actually usable and all the storage bins are great. The door armrests are short though, and I really can't put my left arm on the rest. I have also found myself hitting the directional signal stalk when I thought I was adjusting the cruise control.

The steering is well weighted and linear. On my A6, the steering was very light at low speeds, and got very heavy at higher speeds. On the A4, the steering never gets too light, and gradually tightens up as speed increases. It never gets as heavy as the A6 steering and seems a little quicker.

The 2.0T is nowhere near as smooth as the 2.7T engine. The 2.7 never shuddered or intruded into the interior of the car. The little 2.0 sure lets you know it's there though. It shakes and shudders at low speeds and makes quite a racket when accelerating, especially up inclines when in cruise. It is however, very quiet when just driving at steady speeds. On the other hand, I've already seen over 28 mpg averages on short trips. The A6 rarely ever saw better than 23 mpg. Acceleration on the 2.0 feels surprisingly strong and the turbo boost is a real kick in the pants. It's not really as fast as my old 2.7T, but it feels faster.

Interior noise levels are very low. Aside from the occasional engine noise, this car is dead quiet inside. No rattles. no squeaks, no wind noise, no nothing. my A6 always had some rattles, especially from the seat belt weights in the door pillars. This car exhibits none of that at all. Quality of the interior materials is excellent and very well done. Fit and finish appear as close to perfect as possible. The same goes for the exterior. Panel fit is excellent and the paint is as good as I've seen for any factory paint job. There is only very minor orange peel visible...much less than competing luxury brands.

The handling, even without the sport suspension, is taut and well controlled. Recovery from road undulations is almost instant with no secondary motions or floating. Hard cornering will elicit some mild body roll, but not much. The steering, as mentioned before, is well weighted and precise. The ride over rough roads is smooth and quiet...there is no harshness to it at all. I'm not sorry I didn't order the sport, although I'll probably always think about it.

The Bose sound system is not bad at all. I have a Bose in my Corvette and immediately swapped out the crappy Bose speakers for some Eclipse units. I won't do that with the A4. With CD's, the system actually sounds pretty good. It's not bad with FM, but does get muddy with satellite radio. The satellite signals do use heavy compression, so this was not unexpected. All in all, a very good stereo system for the money. It is not an audiophile system though, and anyone who demands truly exceptional sound in their vehicle, rather than just good sound, will probably feel a need to upgrade with aftermarket components.

Reliability of the A4 is still to be determined. My A6 had a three year service history of one leaky headlight washer nozzle, and one set of brake pads. If the A4 does as well, I'll be very pleased.

The 2006 2.0T A4 Avant is fun to drive, handles very well, is surprisingly economical, and is extremely well put together. In many ways, I think it's a better car than my A6 was. That's probably the biggest surprise to me. So far....another happy Audi owner.

irenesbob

Congrats! I have a 2006 A4 2.0T Q, Tip w/Premium, sunroof, Quarz paint/ebony interior and dark wood trim. I love it so far for the reasons you cite, and have the same reaction to the noisy, rough engine. I am 6'2 1/2", 200 pounds 63 yo, and I fit very well. For me the best thing in my A4 is the dark mahogany wood interior trim - it transforms the environment where I spend my time into a mini-luxo/Teutonic haven. The dash on this car IMHO is the best in the industry, making the new A6 and A8 (my daughter has one) look tricked-up. I only have 990 miles since 10/1 delivery, but I plan a trip from Westchester County, NY to Montreal the weekend of 11/12 & 13 - so hopefully the miles will begin to pile up. I leased it for 2 years w/15,000 miles a year, so I guess I better get moving. I love the solid feel and sound when I pull the driver's door closed from inside the car - like a bank vault!!!

GodBlessQuattro

and do you think the same upgrade can be done on the A4?

jsamans

Great write-up, agree on everything!

jsamans

But I agree 100%. At first I really was on the fence about wood trim or aluminum, but once I got the car (ebony with walnut), I feel that it really makes the interior.

saholz

I replaced the two front 3.5" and the two rear 5.25" speakers with Eclipse speakers. ( I can't remember the model numbers, but they only ran about $160 for all four). In the Vette, I left the front center speaker and the two woofers alone. The impedence match was perfect. This minor upgrade provides increased high and mid range response and cleans the sound up considerably. In the Vette, Bose uses something called a twiddler rather than a true tweeter and that was part of the problem...the twiddlers are garbage.

I haven't looked into the A4's speaker setup yet, so I'm not sure what they're putting in or what the speaker impedence is. The Eclipse speakers I used in my Vette will not necessarily work in the A4.

irenesbob

Walnut it is - and I should have known better, I am a facility manager always buying wood furniture! Fact is, I had never thought of this option, but when the dealer was checking their inventory when I was set to lease, he said he had two '06 2.0TQ in Quartz, Premiium and Sunroof - one with the brushed aluminum and another with "dark mahogany" interior trim ($8 a month more). I was at first against that until he showed me a black A4 on their lot with the wood - instant love. I never had thought to check this option online or in the catalog since normally I detest wood (it is usually fake). This is the real thing - thanks for pointing out it is walnut, since I like that wood more, darker (almost black, whereas mahogany is reddish). Love our A4's!!

audixx

I left a 1.8t - I've got a 2005.5 MT2.0 Avant, can't say enough about the car. I've been doing some early morning comutes, and have to catchg myself to stay under 100mph - I so wish we had an autoban in Massachusetts

Lov'in every minute of it...