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I finally took ownership, yesterday, of my 2018 A4 premium plus with Prestige, and Sport packages, with ventilated seats. Manhattan metallic gray, and black/nougat interior.
In short: hotness.
I am coming from a 2002 Toyota Camry SE which served me very well and was still running fine, but it was time. Clearly the differences between the cars are night and day, and I'd never pretend they were ever going to be otherwise. The A4 is smile inducing magic.
If are considering the A4, here are my impressions as a first time Audi and sport sedan owner:
- Until you are standing there looking at it, with no sale pressure around, you don't notice how great this car looks. It looks good in pics, but fantastic in person. Powerful, poised, and aggressive.
- The fit and finish inside and out are fantastic. The seams are all tight even where panels meet, and the paint finish glows even without any treatment. The interior feels comfortable, looks great, and just feels like you are comfortably snug ready to drive.
- The drivetrain... hold on to your pants. I am keeping my RPMS low and driving easy as I break the car in, but man, I had to check my speed constantly on that first drive from dealer to home. This car wants to go. Even keeping RPMs around 2k from a stop at a light, I'd look into the rear view and the cars would be 3 lengths behind me without trying. You guys tuning for extra HP... I can only imagine how that feels. So, in other words, this car wants to go, and I bet 100mph would feel pretty solid.
- All the instrumentation is easy to read and clear. The buttons are a multitude, but they make sense pretty quickly. The MMI controls are a bit more confusing to navigate, but I'm sure it will be more second nature soon. This thing is a techie's dream, which works for me, but older drivers might be less thrilled. I'm in my late 40's for reference.
- I debated about sport seats, but I like them. The bolstering feel snug without being confining. I'm not a big guy in stature, so it works for me. If you were 6 footer plus it might be less ideal, but that is a personal thing only you can decide. I like the lenght of the seats under my thighs... 32 inseam appears to agree with it.
- Lighting inside and out is bright, fun, and only adds to the car. Not much to say here other than I want to get some "rings" puddle lights installed soon if I can find the right source with the right price.
- The sound system... its growing on me with each listen. I had put in some nice speakers and sub in my old car with a good radio and it sounded tight. It was a change when I got into my Audi yesterday. It was different and I wasn't sure where to put my finger on it. My best way to describe it is that the tonal quality is more neutral than what I was used to. It sounds good. None of the rattles, so far and knock on wood, that others have mentioned in another thread.
So with all the great stuff, here are the things that I am not as enchanted with:
- The way the MMI system handles music. Instead of seeing each SD car as one group of songs, it sees it as two different devices with separate files. You need to toggle back and forth betweem the material on each one. Seems a bit odd, but it is what it is. Consider I have my 139GB music collection in my car now, I can deal. It also doesn't like my iPod video (5th gen). Sometimes it sees it in a menu when I am searching for stuff, but when I go to access it in the media menu it sees "something" but can't access it. Again, I'll live.
- The front door sills are a pretty wide. Getting in is easy, but out takes a bit of practice with bumping my legs against it. The lowered height is different too. That said, it's just adjusting to a new car from the old. I am sure I'll get used to it, so it's not really a negative... but it was weird at first. if you are dealing with an injury you feel when moving it might make things tough.
- The trunk is small. Just had to say it. The Camry had a trunk I could put a family of four in and still have room. I could have rented it out as a room. Again, I knew this when buying the car, so no surprise. I'll just need to get creative packing and invest in a new roof rack for my cargo box and bike.
That's it for now. I need more time with my baby before I can offer more. Its off being detailed and having a front bumper skin film put on followed by Ceramic Coat Pro. I'll offer some good picture after that. Until then, here is an arty shot I did yesterday. I call it "Magnum Force."
All this said, I've been reading the forum for a month and wanted to say thanks to everyone. It looks like a great community and I appreciate the intelligent and helpful advice everyone is sharing.
No a quick plug: if you are in the DC area and are looking for a car, check in with Jessica at Audi Tysons. The whole process was no pressure and solid service (which is far than I can say for some other dealers in the area).
Cheers,
JorgeGortex
Last edited by JorgeGortex; 08-03-2017 at 09:44 AM.
Reason: grammar correction
Welcome, agree that it's a bit tricky to get out of the car with the low ride height. I've been driving it for a month about 1k miles. If find the power adequate but sometimes I wish it had a bit more oomph.
Ride quality and road noise is superb, you really can't tell your going 80.
I am annoyed at the sound of the transmission at slow speeds, it's almost like a gargling sound. I also wish the car was a bit more agressive in the dynamic/sport mode.
Congrats on the new wheels. The A4 is very solid. 115 mph on the autobahn was as smooth as 85 mph.
My car's been stateside for 5 months. Just had the 10k service done.
Yes, awesome car in all respects. 5800 miles and no regrets. Let the B&O system break in a bit. I think it is outstanding. I love the car as much if not more than the day I got it!
I've had my Prestige about two months and love it. I've taken it on two road trips and it was great. But I did enjoy the 2nd better since I used a small pillow on the seat bottom.
For music I like to either use SiriusXM or plug my iPhone into the USB port and play songs via the iPhone. I have not tried the SD card method but I'm guessing it's easier to navigate my music library directly from the iPhone.
If you don't mind asking what was your MRSP and discount from Audi Tysons. I am currently shopping around in the Northern VA area.
You should consider Audi Chantilly as well. I took my first test drive at Tysons Audi. The salesperson (not the one mentioned earlier) was great, but they weren't willing to deal much back in May 2016 when I bought my car. Also, it's a bit of a PITA to get there through Tysons and the dealership itself seems a bit congested.
After Tysons, I went to Chantilly. It is a modern dealership that is a lot more relaxed than Tysons. I dealt with Mort there, who was great. I wound up getting 6.5% off the MSRP, which was probably a good deal at the time. You may be able to do better now, though the discounts in the Northern VA area are not as big as in other parts of the country according to Truecar.
Interestingly Audi Tyson and Chantilly are both part of the same company. Its a Penske owned group. Chantilly is near the Audi corporate HQ too. I've heard that there is the possibility of corporate cars being sold through them as Pre-Owned, so they get well looked over. That said, at the time I was looking I saw the car with the features I wanted and it was in Tysons. Being that I connected via the internet it was pretty painless. I agree that getting to it can be a pain and I'd not be a fan of test driving in this area unless I headed west on Rt. 7, but I had already test driven a car.
FWIW I only got 6.5% off MSRP too. This forum clued me to that being the case. In any case, I agree, they know DC area has the $$$ so they aren't worried about moving cars.
I'm still working out the exact positioning for the plate mount. In one position, rotated 180 degrees, it was setting off the low-speed hazard sensor (i.e. don't hit that pedestrian sensor) every time I came to a stop or was rolling at very low speed. The Cravenspeed guys have been really cool exchanging ideas via email and sending me parts at no cost (all at their suggestion) to try to correct the issue Although the positioning in the photo corrected the issue (my idea), the Cravenspeed guys are not fans because of how close the mount is to the bumper. They want me to try the new parts when they arrive. I'll keep people posted on this. Again, love the customer service.
The intake was easy to install and was done at the same time as the ESC extended air scoop. Not sure what it's going to offer me if anything in terms of performance, but it does add a bit more growl to the engine without being annoyingly loud. It was also just fun to get under the hood and work on the car.
08-03-2017, 09:43 AM
First Impressions
