daniel1113

You're definitely not alone. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

The thing that Audi nailed in the B9 is the placement of the buttons. The shifter provides a rock-solid pedestal for your hand. Rest your hand on the shifter and you can access all of the MMI controls by touch and feel alone without ever looking at your hand. It's so solid, that you can be going over bumps and uneven tarmac and still have full control over the MMI. That's good engineering and design.

You lose all of that with an ill-placed touchscreen.

gooberman

Agreed! I'm not a fan of touch screens. If it was a touch screen also then ok but not locked into it.

VM

Any news on powertrain improvements?

Tipp55

I have a new A4 in mind for 2020 to replace my 2016 B9 TFSI.

The big ugly infotainment screen in my face plus the MMI wheel now being unavailable and the strangely fractured exterior side body lines lend a fussy inelegance to the new car's appearance imho.

I'm going to have another closer look at VW's new facelifted Passat. I think the Passat may be 'buttonless' too, but I think it is now a nicer-looking car than the Audi A4. Never thought I'd say that, lol!

Q5 Bob

Have you seen the new VW Arteon? Arguably more elegant styling.

Flyguy31

I watched reviews of the new GLI and I like the direction VW is taking. The Arteon takes some time to get used to, but it looks like a solid car.

Tipp55

Yeah, I like the styling of the Arteon but it's just a bit too big for my needs. My current A4 tick almost all my boxes size-wise and style-wise so the Passat is looking better and better - but I'll hold off making any decision until I see this new A4 in the showrooms when it gets here.

marz1

This car has been on my radar ever since the concept was unveiled back in 2015. The fully loaded SEL Premium R-line is $47000 and there is a $5000 discount already on it! I think that’s a steal. My only problem with this car is the 8 speed Asin transmission instead of the DSG it gets in RoW.

hipendicular

I came from a 2017 VW Golf and I never cared for the dated in dash look of the touch screen. To add the fact that the touch screen takes way too much concentration and the fact that they lock out everything once your moving made the MMI in the B9 Audi seem like the greatest thing. Sure the tacked on look of an Ipad on the dash takes a bit of getting used to but almost all the car makers are using this look and the Audi does it with more class. I agree here that I think Audi is making a huge mistake going to touch screen and coming from a 2017 A4, it seems like a band aid. Why not go touch screen for the people who like it but keep the mouse wheel for the rest of us? Mazda uses that strategy and it works pretty good.

Audi's styling seems to have hit a Zenith, like when BMW came out with the E46 3 series. The current A3/S3/RS3 and almost the entire B9 line up (I really like the A5 SB) is what caught my eye for Audi, esp the interior. We used to have a 2011 X3 and I hated the fact that all the newer BMWs still used this dated dash and interior and have only just recently changed it. So Audi was a no brainer for me anyways.

I hope Audi spares the A5 this awful styling as I'd like to stay with the Audi Family.. there is still hope.

Ken

P.s. when I defected from VW, I was seriously hoping they would release the new Arteon but sadly, I've almost had my A4 for a year and that car still hasn't come out. I really like the exterior styling, they just need to ditch the in dash touch screen.

cuke2u

Matched by the A5 Sportback which is the same class of car...