How do you improve on the brilliance of the new Audi A4 without giving the conservative styling a major upgrade? Just give it more space.
AND IT DIDN’T. LIKE THE SEDAN, ITS RIDE IS MORE COMFORTABLE THAN THAT OF ITS PREDECESSOR, ITS HANDLING IS BETTER BALANCED, IT’S DEMONSTRABLY QUIETER INSIDE AND IT’S A LOT LIGHTER. PLUS IT’S TOTING ALL THE SAME IN-DASH TECHNOLOGY AUDI ROLLED OUT IN THE SEDAN.IT JUST CARRIES MORE. TO BE FAIR, NOT THAT MUCH MORE, BUT NEITHER DOES IT LOSE ENOUGH OF ANYTHING TO FEEL LIKE IT’S COMPROMISING YOU TO CARRY AROUND ALL THAT EXTRA ROOFLINE FOR THOSE FEW TIMES YOU MIGHT NEED IT.THAT’S WHY SOME OF THE A4’S EUROPEAN MARKETS ARE 80 PER CENT AVANT AND EVEN THOUGH WAGONS ARE STILL CULT MACHINERY IN THE US, AUDI STILL SOLD TWICE AS MANY A4 AVANTS THERE THAN BENZ SOLD C-CLASS WAGONS OR BMW SOLD 3-SERIES VERSIONS.IT GIVES A NICE, METRE-WIDE MOUTH AT THE BACK, WITH A LOADING LIP 63CM OFF THE GROUND AND A STANDARD STAINLESS-STEEL COVER TO PROTECT THE TOP OF THE BUMPER AND THE LOADING LIP.
You can tick the option so the tailgate can be opened (and closed again) by a kick under the bumper bar to reveal 505 litres of luggage space. That’s about 100 litres less than a Skoda Superb, but Audi insists they’re not competing in the same segment so it’s not a relevant comparison.
It goes further by lifting up the luggage floor to reveal its complex, heavy-duty system of straps, extruded aluminium retaining barriers and nets. Skoda uses a couple of pieces of bendy plastic with Velcro at the bottom.
Fold down the 40:20:40 back seats and the A4 Avant gives up 1510 litres of luggage space – plenty but not quite class leading. There are other negatives, including the power operation of the tailgate being optional (in Europe at least). Also, you can’t separate the operation of the tailgate and the cargo screen – they’re married to each other.
But the rest of the car is very convincing. For starters, there will be three petrol and four diesel engines at the start of the A4 Avant’s life, including a ripper V6 TDI and a fuel-sipper of a 2.0-litre TDI Ultra.
We drove the range, but chose to focus on the Avant sport 2.0-litre TFSI quattro, given that it delivered the quattro all-wheel drive technology and one of the nicer petrol-powered four-cylinder engines going around.
Coupled to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the inline four sits lengthways in the engine bay, working to deliver 185kW between 5000-6000rpm. It also reaches down to 1600rpm to bring 370Nm which it hangs on to until 4500rpm.
Those figures read like an engine that starts working down low and keeps a flat, muscular delivery through until 6000rpm. And that’s exactly how it happens.
Think of it as a diesel engine without the sticky fingers, stinky shoes and low revs. Its strength isn’t quite as high as the diesel 2.0-litre TDI variants, but what strength it has arrives about the same time. Then it spins out to 6500rpm with no complaints, warbles or vibrations.
It feels like it spins willingly and it shows a lot of spirit, ready to punch from low in the rev range all the way up to the redline. It will hit 100km/h in a neat 6sec and is limited to 250km/h at its top end.
It manages all of this while posting an Euro Combined figure of 6.4L/100km, for 147 grams of CO2/km.
It’s a complex engine (and one that avoids any Dieselgate suspicions by sparking its fuel rather than squashing it), with direct and indirect fuel-injection and both variable valve timing and variable valve lift.
Complex, yes, but it never feels that way. Its quiet on the road (indeed, the Avant equals the interior noise levels of the A8 at highway speeds), sounds crankier when you ask for crankiness and even tops out in Sport mode with a nice, metallic song at higher revs.
Whilst it’s a key to the Avant’s behaviour, another is the transmission. Yes, some people are like Bobby Bouchet’s mum and a dual-clutch transmission is the devil they forbid you from seeing. For the rest, the understanding that technology evolves and most people would welcome a gearbox this comfortable.
It’s a quiet, calm companion in urban situations, with enough light-creep to feel more like a torque-converter transmission than before, then it becomes a snappy, sharp operator, predicting most of your demands perfectly in Sport mode. It’s even respectfully quick in its paddle-shift manual mode.
One key area where the B8 is streets ahead of the B7 is in its athleticism. No, you’re probably not going to mistake the chassis for a 3 Series in winding corners, but it’s a long way more nimble, and calm, than its predecessor.
Mid-corner bumps don’t upset it, the steering is far more precise (but still imperfect) and even has some feedback now. And, with help from sending 60 per cent of the drive to the rear axle in most situations, the Avant changes direction with the enthusiasm of a smaller machine, all while draping a sense of calmness over every seat in the car.
That’s helped by a body that’s 120kg lighter than it was, then underpinned by a five-link rear suspension, plus 19-inch 245/35 tyres.
Just because the bodywork makes a Tony Abbot haircut look radical, doesn’t mean the technology isn’t there. The waistline crease, which runs the entire length of the body, is so sharp that its inner radius is just 1.8mm. Other (German and British) carmakers have privately wondered how Audi manages to press metal that sharply, in volumes.
We’ve written at length about the new A4's instrument cluster and dashboard
, both of which are directly carried over here from the sedan, including its single-piece, one metre-wide air vent that is so quiet it proves aerodynamicists don’t just work on body design.
It is a special place to be. It was not conceived to be as flashy as the C-Class’s cabin, but everything in here fits precisely and looks expensive, right down to the all-digital Virtual Cockpit instrument cluster (that is standard on this car, but optional on the entry-level four-cylinder models in Europe) and the very high-resolution multimedia screen.
And the quality of the materials and the sound and feel of the switchgear should leave a 3 Series with its head drooped in embarrassment.
You wave your fingers at the ventilation controls and the screen above the buttons brings up each menu. Same with the interior lights. Wave your hands at them and they come on, do the same and they switch off.
It has always been a standard setter in interior design, trim quality and feel, which Audi built on even more with this car, and it’s safer, both in crash and in crash avoidance. It has at least 30 sensor-based safety features as at least options (more than the Q7).
A head-to-head with the C-Class and the 3 Series wagons is inevitable, but the two existing premium German wagons will need to be at the very top of their game to tackle the A4.
2015 Audi Avant 2.0 TSFI pricing and specifications:
Price: $TBA
Engine: Turbocharged 2.0-litre direct-injection four-cylinder
Output: 185kW/3700Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual clutch
Fuel: 6.4 litres/100km
CO2: 147 grams/km
Safety Rating: TBA
