Audi A4 1.9 TDI

...the front has the famous Audi badge.

The windows are tinted, not over dark, but just enough to take the some of the glare away from the road and the sky.

The rear window does not have a wiper. It has a very efficient heating element.

One thing you will notice, is that there are no aerials on the car (I haven’t found it yet either!)

** Getting in **

When you press the button ...
...normal I queried it with Audi UK)


I always have it serviced at my local Audi dealer, they even changed the gear knob, "because it moved a little" (I thought it was meant to do it!!)

In summary, a really impressive car, and I will certainly get another when I wear this one out! (which as I love it so much will not be too long!!)

Thanks for reading this (or re-reading it!)

... more

I was really impressed when it was delivered, the lines were so smooth. I could have just left on the drive and looked at all day long!! But that won’t get me to where I want to be.

I have the 130 bhp model with sports pack option.

** Nice body!! **

Looking at the lines of the car, you can really see how a wind tunnel played a part in the design!! Smooth and graceful is how I would describe things. Everything is rounded, all the lines blend into one another really well. The phrase that jumps out at me is “quality engineering”. All the light clusters are moulded and curve round the front and back respectively. They are quite large as well. The front fog lights are at low level.

The finish is immaculate, I could not find a single fault with the paintwork.

The grill at the front has the famous Audi badge.

The windows are tinted, not over dark, but just enough to take the some of the glare away from the road and the sky.

The rear window does not have a wiper. It has a very efficient heating element.

One thing you will notice, is that there are no aerials on the car (I haven’t found it yet either!)

** Getting in **

When you press the button on the key, there is a reassuring click as the doors unlock. The indicators wink at you, and the interior lights come on. You then have about 2 minutes to open the door. If you don’t open the doors automatically re-lock. Locking the car is the reverse process!!

There is also a button on the key fob to open the boot (really useful if you don’t want to put things on the floor.)

The doors are actually quite heavy, so you need to be prepared for it! Also they don’t need much to shut them, so being gentle is the order of the day here (unless you want to wake the neighbours up early in the morning!)

One thing I have noticed is that the doors are actually quite big, so you do need to take care when opening them next to other parked cars.

Each front door has a door pocket where you can fit quite a bit of stuff ( I tend to be quite untidy and am surprised how much is in there when I eventually muck out!) I can easily fit the London A to Z, various notebooks, a digital camera and spare batteries and other assorted odds and ends in the pocket on the drivers side.

Also on the doors are the electric window controls, and on the drivers door the control to adjust the mirrors.

** Please be seated **

The seats are sports seats, so they have really good all round support (I could drive it all day long, and not feel it, and have done!). There is plenty of adjustment, both up/down, in out, and also the lumbar support, can be fine tuned to your own preference. There is also an extension under the front seats that can be pulled out to support you legs if they are too long for the seat.

The controls for the seat are found really easily by just putting your right arm (left if you are a passenger) down by your side. This is where you can adjust the lumbar support and the up/down movement.

Reach forward between your legs (ooo err!) and you find the forward/backward adjustment, and the extension adjustment.

I find the there is plenty of leg room and head room in the front (I like to have my seat quite a long way back. In the back there is enough room for 3 reasonably sized people. As I mentioned I do like to have my seat back, and a six footer has no problems sitting behind me. The head room at the back is very good. I have had nobody complain! I’d like to say that I have plenty of room in the back seats, but I don’t want you getting the wrong idea ;-)

One thing you really notice is how low you are sitting. The combination of the sports seats and the lowered suspension really gives you the impression you are in a racing car!! Especially if you go in another car afterwards, such as a Peugeot 307!
This is really noticeable if you on say the M25 where the are quite high concrete barriers.

** What can I reach? **

From the drivers position you can quite easily reach the glove compartment (which has the CD player in) THIS SHOULD NOT BE DONE WHILE DRIVING!! The glove compartment has a lot of space (even with CD changer in) So you can lock some quite large valuables in. Such as an SLR camera, or something of that size, there are also a couple of small shelves, which I have found quite useful for things like spare bulbs etc.

The steering wheel is height and length adjustable, so you can configure it to your own requirements.
The lights are controlled from a switch to the right of the steering column; this can be seen quite easily when driving. It also doubles up as the front/rear fog lamp switch (you pull it out once for front fog lamps and twice for rear)

Just to the left of that, and slightly hidden is a switch to adjust the angle of the headlamps (I have never used this)

On the steering column are two sticks, the left one does the indicators and main beam. This is a fairly standard indicator. The one on the right does the window washers/wipers. There is an intermittent wipe (adjusted by a switch on the stick from slow to fast) and 3 other speeds. Pull it forward and the washers start. One nice touch is that when you wash the windscreen the wipers automatically start, for 6 wipes, they then carry on in intermittent mode for 3 wipes to ensure no dribbles are left!

The dials on the dashboard are all illuminated by red lamps (gives the inside an eerie effect in the dark!) There is a speedo, marked upto 160, a rev counter up to 6000 rpm(red line at 4500 rpm) in the middle is a digital display which indicates any problems, also which radio station or CD track you are listening to.

Also there is an indication of how many miles you can do on the fuel left in the tank. (you get a warning picture of a petrol pump if it gets down to 50 miles left)

Just below this is a button which tell you how many miles to the next service (generally about 20,000 apart)

Across to the left are the Audio controls and the air conditioning controls. These are really easy to operate. The air-conditioning can have different temperatures set for driver and passenger. It has economy where you can use the outside air to cool the car. You can also put it into re-circulation (If you know you are about to pass the sewerage farm!)
I find the air-con really efficient; it doesn’t seem to put the revs up on the engine too much. It gets the temperature down quite quickly. So I don’t have to suffer the heat too much.

Under the air con controls is a well, which has an ashtray (never used by me) and a storage area.

There are nice touches, like the sun visor covering the gap above the rear view mirror

The interior has, to my mind been really well though out, the all round vision, and feeling of light and space around me. It certain makes me feel safe when driving, as I haven’t noticed any blind spots.

For the passengers in the rear there are two interior lamps, these are indicated by a red glow at night. They turn on quite a powerful spot lamp, which is directed into their laps!

** What can I get in it? **

The boot space is a nice size. The boot actually opens vertically, so it actually saves space. The boot area is quite large, and goes under the rear parcel shelf and seat.

On the left and right of the boot space are two wells, which can be used to store things. The spare tyre is under the boot floor, so if you need to change a tyre, you need to empty the boot. The spare is a full size tyre.
It is actually surprising how much fits in this space.

One point you do need to be aware of is that split rear seats DO NOT come as standard, so if you need these, they have to be ordered with the car!

** Are we there yet? **

The acceleration of the 1.9 TDI engine is really impressive, and it allows me to safely get past slower vehicles when I need to. I’m not too sure of the published 0-60, but I don’t think published details are that important. What is important is the fact that it does accelerate VERY quickly. I find I can beat most cars of the line (not that I race on the road) and leave myself a very healthy margin.
One thing I have found is that if I accelerate too quickly, some of the contents of the storage area under the air con controls come out to meet me!

Recently I had to drive to Germany, so had the chance to see what it would do, I got 135 mph out of it no problems. At that speed the car felt very, very safe, I had no judder from the steering, and the car held the road extremely well.

The tyres I had fitted are 205/15 so they have a really large road holding area. I find I can literally throw the car around corners with total confidence knowing that it will stick!

Also as part of the management system is traction control. Automatic sensors detect if the wheels are slipping or spinning faster than they should be. If this is detected, the traction control kicks in. You find that using this you can drive across some fairly slippery surfaces (wet greasy roads)
.
** What about the sounds man? **

I had the 6 CD system fitted, and the sound quality is second to none, and you don't need to turn it up when driving at speed, and there is hardly any background noise. I have never had the CD jump (and I’ve been over some rough roads!) There were 8 speakers fitted with the system I got.

The radio has RDS, so it automatically changes frequency to maintain the best sound. It has the standard TP (traffic program) so that any traffic information bursts over what you are listening to (only works on FM radio frequencies)

The radio picks up the channels very well, and I have hardly ever “lost” a programme I have been listening too through poor reception.

** Fill it up! **

To fill the tank cost about £45 in Sainsbury’s (£1.79/litre)

The car is really economical, I get about 45 miles to the gallon (Most of my journeys are long distance motorway) I’ve never really checked it on the urban cycle, so cannot give figures for that.

On a full tank I can generally get around 600 miles

The washer bottle holds about 3 pints of water.

The only real work you have to do, is to check the oil levels weekly. This is due to the way the management system works, and the low maintenance engine. I find I use 1 litre of oil every 2 months (this is normal I queried it with Audi UK)

I always have it serviced at my local Audi dealer, they even changed the gear knob, "because it moved a little" (I thought it was meant to do it!!)

In summary, a really impressive car, and I will certainly get another when I wear this one out! (which as I love it so much will not be too long!!)

Thanks for reading this (or re-reading it!)

Larry
 

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