2008 Launch: Audi A4
WORDS Niky Tamayo  | 3 April 2008

Photos by Ken Tamayo Over the past two decades, Audi has managed to build a name for itself in the premium luxury market. After struggling to match the cachet of older, more storied premium brands, Audi, through the combination of its “vorsprung durch technik” philosophy (progressive dancing techniques, or something like that), the ability to offer sumptuous luxury compared to the competition, and aggressively smart marketing, has achieved a high spot on the German triumvirate of premium manufacturers. The A4 is central to that success. Though it comes from more humble roots than the storied BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-Class, the A4 has formed a solid foundation upon which Audi has built its success. It's the Corolla of the premium class... not as sporty as some, nor as solid as others, but offering the buyers exactly what they want... comfort, luxury and understated style. Well, perhaps too understated. The A4 is starting to look a bit... dated. With the trend towards jewel-like lights, mass-disguising body sculpting and more daring, sweeping designs, the old A4's slightly frumpy, soapy shape and long overhangs are just not hip. It doesn't help that the BMW 3-series, the perennial class leader, is bigger and better than ever. It's still got that sporty edge, doesn't suffer from the ridiculously harsh ride of earlier run-flat tired cars, and it actually has a proper back seat now, because it's bigger. But this year's dark horse is the revitalized Mercedes C-Class. Not long ago, the C-Class was suffering from its own un-hip phase. But it's back now... with ultra-sharp styling, a renewed sense of self-confidence, and a whole lot of stuff underneath that spiffy new sheet metal to be confident about. And it's bigger than the bigger 3-series, too. So... what does the Audi do to make the new A4 competitive? Of course... make it the biggest of the lot. Seeing the A4 debut at PGA Cars' showroom last Thursday, I was struck speechless by its size. The new A4 is a startling 4.7 meters long. Not long ago, these cars were premium compacts, the size of your average Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic. While new car models naturally migrate to a higher niche on the food chain, this new A4 could almost poke through the ceiling into the next size-class. But thanks to good design, it doesn't look like a whale... in fact, the new A4 looks tighter than the model it supersedes. The next thing you notice are those wonderful headlights. They're beautiful. They're sculptured pieces that incorporate LED running lights (a la Audi R8 supercar) molded around a dynamic, free-flowing character line. It's calligraphy in chrome and glass. Oh, and the rest of the car isn't too shabby, either. The new rear lights are merely an upgrade of the old ones, but they work well, as do the pencil-slit turn signals on the side mirrors. While the overall design is roughly similar to the old car, it comes across as more athletic, more purposeful and... well... better. It's no clean-sheet revolution, like the Mercedess C-Class, unfortunately. It's more like the evolutionary jump between the E46 and the E90 BMW 3-series. But then again... who cares if it's merely an evolutionary change? It looks good in the metal... and even better on the inside. Once again, Audi's sumptous interiors trumps the competition, with better leather, fabric and plastic and more thoughtful color combinations. Everything feels solid and hefty, from the chunky mechanical gearshift to the console buttons and MMi click-wheel. The console buttons all go clickety-click, like good buttons should. It's like the difference between an Apple MacBook and an Acer Aspire. They're both good laptops, but the Mac feels expensive. That's an important distinction in this market. Audi's MMI (multi-media interface) controller is about as intuitive to use as a Mac, too. While BMW's i-Drive isn't as hard to learn as people would lead you to believe, it's needlessly complex compared to the simple rotating MMi knob, which is commendable for its quickness and simplicity. The seats themselves are nice and supportive. The rear seat is still a little too tight for the A4 to count as truly spacious, but it's unobjectionable otherwise. In front, despite the large transmission tunnel, driver ergonomics seem top notch. Too bad the drive itself will be a while coming. The showroom unit is straight out of Europe, complete with European SatNav and snow tires. Evaluation units in local trim are still forthcoming. Hopefully, they'll look much like this. The A4's interior looks and feels like it was done by an actual interior designer. One who agonized for hours over thousands of leather and fabric samples. It's not something done by some humorless engineer whose idea of style is a black on black. It's nice enough to put in your house. And considering that the price of a fully-kitted model could probably buy you a small house, that's appropriate. But this car promises to go down the road much faster than your house can. Audi's TFSi, FSi and TDi engines promise to deliver a combination of great performance and fuel economy. The FSi V6 in this Quattro demo model looks particularly promising. But whether this new Audi drives as nice as it looks remains to be seen. In the grand scheme of things, though, that may not matter. Audi's focus has always been to sell itself on first impressions. Once you get the customer into the car, especially if it's this particular car, you've won half the battle. And, sure enough, as we walk out of the PGA showroom, “SOLD” signs are taped on many of the old A4 units still on display. Somehow, I don't think PGA will have any trouble selling this new car, at all.

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