One month mild gripes on 18 A4 Prestige
10-07-2017, 08:22 AM
#1
One month mild gripes on 18 A4 Prestige
I've now had my 18 A4 Prestige for a little over a month and I am generally very happy with the car. The adaptive cruise is awesome for my annoyng traffic filled daily commute, the car is near silent at highway speeds, the sport seats are.great, the sport suspension is fine even on my crappy roads. There are two thing that has been bothering me ,one easily fixed one not
1- The stock tires SUCK. Low speed corners where I regularly drove my Subaru Legacy GT and would be hard on the throttle coming out, not even pushing that hard, get a nice squeal and ESC light coming on . This never happened with my Michelin Pilot AS3s on my old car, and the suspension is much better on this car. I understand not equipping summer tires, but c'mon, is a high performance all season too much to ask for on a 50k+ sedan?
2- The transmission logic is annoying in that D mode is essentially an ECO mode and S mode is a true sport mode. What I mean is that in D the tranny is insanely aggressive about upshifting at low revs, clearly for fule economy. On my old 6 spd manual there is no reason to be in 6 (or 7th )gear when at city speeds of 30 mph or less. While the car does downshift very quickly if you stab the gas, it just seems to be a gear or two too high during normal cruising, leading to a ton of shifting back and forth.
Conversely, while S mode is a blast and holds a more appropriate gear, for my average day to day driving, I really don't need the aggressive downshifting and engine brakeing at every deceleration. This and the fact 7th gear is never used are both a bit too much for everyday use. So between this issue and the over upshifting in D , I find myself switching modes all the time.
It would be nice if D as currently programmed was an ECO or Comfort mode, and there was an in-betwren setting. Kind of like how all other drive select settings have comfort/auto/dynamic instead of just D/S. An Auto would be great for the Tranny.
Other than these two things I love this car so far
1- The stock tires SUCK. Low speed corners where I regularly drove my Subaru Legacy GT and would be hard on the throttle coming out, not even pushing that hard, get a nice squeal and ESC light coming on . This never happened with my Michelin Pilot AS3s on my old car, and the suspension is much better on this car. I understand not equipping summer tires, but c'mon, is a high performance all season too much to ask for on a 50k+ sedan?
2- The transmission logic is annoying in that D mode is essentially an ECO mode and S mode is a true sport mode. What I mean is that in D the tranny is insanely aggressive about upshifting at low revs, clearly for fule economy. On my old 6 spd manual there is no reason to be in 6 (or 7th )gear when at city speeds of 30 mph or less. While the car does downshift very quickly if you stab the gas, it just seems to be a gear or two too high during normal cruising, leading to a ton of shifting back and forth.
Conversely, while S mode is a blast and holds a more appropriate gear, for my average day to day driving, I really don't need the aggressive downshifting and engine brakeing at every deceleration. This and the fact 7th gear is never used are both a bit too much for everyday use. So between this issue and the over upshifting in D , I find myself switching modes all the time.
It would be nice if D as currently programmed was an ECO or Comfort mode, and there was an in-betwren setting. Kind of like how all other drive select settings have comfort/auto/dynamic instead of just D/S. An Auto would be great for the Tranny.
Other than these two things I love this car so far
10-07-2017, 08:56 AM
#2
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I've now had my 18 A4 Prestige for a little over a month and I am generally very happy with the car. The adaptive cruise is awesome for my annoyng traffic filled daily commute, the car is near silent at highway speeds, the sport seats are.great, the sport suspension is fine even on my crappy roads. There are two thing that has been bothering me ,one easily fixed one not
1- The stock tires SUCK. Low speed corners where I regularly drove my Subaru Legacy GT and would be hard on the throttle coming out, not even pushing that hard, get a nice squeal and ESC light coming on . This never happened with my Michelin Pilot AS3s on my old car, and the suspension is much better on this car. I understand not equipping summer tires, but c'mon, is a high performance all season too much to ask for on a 50k+ sedan?
2- The transmission logic is annoying in that D mode is essentially an ECO mode and S mode is a true sport mode. What I mean is that in D the tranny is insanely aggressive about upshifting at low revs, clearly for fule economy. On my old 6 spd manual there is no reason to be in 6 (or 7th )gear when at city speeds of 30 mph or less. While the car does downshift very quickly if you stab the gas, it just seems to be a gear or two too high during normal cruising, leading to a ton of shifting back and forth.
Conversely, while S mode is a blast and holds a more appropriate gear, for my average day to day driving, I really don't need the aggressive downshifting and engine brakeing at every deceleration. This and the fact 7th gear is never used are both a bit too much for everyday use. So between this issue and the over upshifting in D , I find myself switching modes all the time.
It would be nice if D as currently programmed was an ECO or Comfort mode, and there was an in-betwren setting. Kind of like how all other drive select settings have comfort/auto/dynamic instead of just D/S. An Auto would be great for the Tranny.
Other than these two things I love this car so far
1- The stock tires SUCK. Low speed corners where I regularly drove my Subaru Legacy GT and would be hard on the throttle coming out, not even pushing that hard, get a nice squeal and ESC light coming on . This never happened with my Michelin Pilot AS3s on my old car, and the suspension is much better on this car. I understand not equipping summer tires, but c'mon, is a high performance all season too much to ask for on a 50k+ sedan?
2- The transmission logic is annoying in that D mode is essentially an ECO mode and S mode is a true sport mode. What I mean is that in D the tranny is insanely aggressive about upshifting at low revs, clearly for fule economy. On my old 6 spd manual there is no reason to be in 6 (or 7th )gear when at city speeds of 30 mph or less. While the car does downshift very quickly if you stab the gas, it just seems to be a gear or two too high during normal cruising, leading to a ton of shifting back and forth.
Conversely, while S mode is a blast and holds a more appropriate gear, for my average day to day driving, I really don't need the aggressive downshifting and engine brakeing at every deceleration. This and the fact 7th gear is never used are both a bit too much for everyday use. So between this issue and the over upshifting in D , I find myself switching modes all the time.
It would be nice if D as currently programmed was an ECO or Comfort mode, and there was an in-betwren setting. Kind of like how all other drive select settings have comfort/auto/dynamic instead of just D/S. An Auto would be great for the Tranny.
Other than these two things I love this car so far
10-07-2017, 08:56 AM
#3
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I've been living with my 17 Prestige since December and I completely agree with your take on the transmission. D is far too relaxed and S is a bit aggressive for normal driving. There's also a significant MPG hit in S for me. I mainly drive in the city and can get around 18 mpg in heavy traffic in D but that drops to 11-12 in the same conditions when in S mode. While I appreciate the downshifting when I want to accelerate out of a corner, I don't need to be at 4000 rpm in steady cruising at 35 mph from stoplight to stoplight. APR has a flash for the DSG in the MK7 Golf GTI/R which alters behavior and shift points so I'm hoping that they eventually tackle our cars as well.
As for the tires, which ones do you have? I have 19s with the factory Hankook Ventus V12 EVOs and I don't find them too bad. Early on I was anticipating that I'd do an early swap to Pilot Super Sports, but I can definitely live with these. My next set will likely be either the Pilot Sport 4S or ExtremeContact Sport.
As for the tires, which ones do you have? I have 19s with the factory Hankook Ventus V12 EVOs and I don't find them too bad. Early on I was anticipating that I'd do an early swap to Pilot Super Sports, but I can definitely live with these. My next set will likely be either the Pilot Sport 4S or ExtremeContact Sport.
10-07-2017, 12:00 PM
#4
I have the 18 inch rims and since I got a car in stock not special order it came with Pirelli Cinturato P7 all seasons. I have nothing against performance all seasons but these are more of a carppy touring tire. I haven't driven a car w this class of tire in a decade, and they suck. A performance all season like a Pilot Sport A/S 3 or even a Conti DWS (worse dry grip but better snow performance ) makes so much more sense for this class of car. These are tires usually found on a Camry and such.
10-07-2017, 02:47 PM
#5
AudiWorld Senior Member
I have the 18 inch rims and since I got a car in stock not special order it came with Pirelli Cinturato P7 all seasons. I have nothing against performance all seasons but these are more of a carppy touring tire. I haven't driven a car w this class of tire in a decade, and they suck. A performance all season like a Pilot Sport A/S 3 or even a Conti DWS (worse dry grip but better snow performance ) makes so much more sense for this class of car. These are tires usually found on a Camry and such.
Frankly, I feel like part of what is being forgotten here is that some people (probably the majority of people, in fact) are NOT buying these cars looking for handling/performance/etc above all else. Audi has the S4 and the sport/S-Line (depending on country) packages for people who want better handling and performance at the cost of comfort. Since my car (deliberately ordered to be as unsporty as possible) has the Cinturato P7, I'm going to presume that those are NOT the tires they include with the sport packages...
10-07-2017, 03:40 PM
#6
AudiWorld Super User
Does your car have the sport/S-Line package?
Frankly, I feel like part of what is being forgotten here is that some people (probably the majority of people, in fact) are NOT buying these cars looking for handling/performance/etc above all else. Audi has the S4 and the sport/S-Line (depending on country) packages for people who want better handling and performance at the cost of comfort. Since my car (deliberately ordered to be as unsporty as possible) has the Cinturato P7, I'm going to presume that those are NOT the tires they include with the sport packages...
Frankly, I feel like part of what is being forgotten here is that some people (probably the majority of people, in fact) are NOT buying these cars looking for handling/performance/etc above all else. Audi has the S4 and the sport/S-Line (depending on country) packages for people who want better handling and performance at the cost of comfort. Since my car (deliberately ordered to be as unsporty as possible) has the Cinturato P7, I'm going to presume that those are NOT the tires they include with the sport packages...
10-07-2017, 04:22 PM
#7
AudiWorld Senior Member
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10-07-2017, 05:50 PM
#8
AudiWorld Senior Member
I had an A4 Prestige loaner for a few hundred miles. I loved the transmission. Drove an S4. Hated the transmission. It made it obvious to me that I didn't want an S4 (except for the seats).
I had the car set to dynamic. Not sure if that puts the transmission into sport mode or not.
I had the car set to dynamic. Not sure if that puts the transmission into sport mode or not.
10-08-2017, 05:51 AM
#9
Does your car have the sport/S-Line package?
Frankly, I feel like part of what is being forgotten here is that some people (probably the majority of people, in fact) are NOT buying these cars looking for handling/performance/etc above all else. Audi has the S4 and the sport/S-Line (depending on country) packages for people who want better handling and performance at the cost of comfort. Since my car (deliberately ordered to be as unsporty as possible) has the Cinturato P7, I'm going to presume that those are NOT the tires they include with the sport packages...
Frankly, I feel like part of what is being forgotten here is that some people (probably the majority of people, in fact) are NOT buying these cars looking for handling/performance/etc above all else. Audi has the S4 and the sport/S-Line (depending on country) packages for people who want better handling and performance at the cost of comfort. Since my car (deliberately ordered to be as unsporty as possible) has the Cinturato P7, I'm going to presume that those are NOT the tires they include with the sport packages...
10-08-2017, 05:52 AM
#10
I had an A4 Prestige loaner for a few hundred miles. I loved the transmission. Drove an S4. Hated the transmission. It made it obvious to me that I didn't want an S4 (except for the seats).
I had the car set to dynamic. Not sure if that puts the transmission into sport mode or not.
I had the car set to dynamic. Not sure if that puts the transmission into sport mode or not.