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Sedans Audi A4 Audi A4 2005+
1365 messages, Last post on Jun 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM
You are in the Audi A4 Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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...MiC, I agree about the hp gap and its affect on sales. BMW has certainly raised the bar with the new 335i. OTOH, I suspect that only the lunatic fringe  will be nit pickin' their future vehicle purchases on whether the car is FWD or RWD. I would like to see Audi bring over the new version of the 2.0t engine that is currently intended for the S3, which we will not see in the States. That particular 'four' is supposed to be good for 265 hp, which I believe would produce enough speed thrills for most of us (along with respectable mpg). While we won't see the S3, I doubt that we will even get the pumped up 'two' due possibly to emission issues and 93 octane fuel requirements. I hope that I am incorrect on these points. But that new 335i sure is tempting. I ain't gonna allow myself to drive it (well, maybe). BTW, just came back from an unscheduled oil change (I have it changed every 5k miles) and got to speak with Fred Baker, who owns FB Audi. He said that he set a new lap record at Mid Ohio last spring. I watched that race on Speed TV and it was a good day for Audis and a not-so-good day for BMWs. Byron
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Replying to: byronwalter (Sep 22, 2006 10:39 am) NO A6 FWD's and NO A4 FWD's have been sold, so says the sales mgr here in Cinti -- at least since 2004. Maybe this is so. In any case I can hardly imagine anyone considering an Audi FWD, but I can see people considering both AWD and RWD BMW's all day long, espcially since our Bimmer dealer say that 60% of the BMW's he sells are RWD -- although he thinks this will change somewhat once the 7x becomes available. Of course that will have a modest impact in units sold, one would imagine. I priced out a 335i sedan, 335i coupe, 328 sedan and coupe and both in X drive and RWD. The net seems to be that RWD to AWD will add exactly $1900 to the MSRP of a comparably equipped version. A well optioned 335i with the $1900 added to see what the final number would be (and this includes iDrive and Sat nav and Sirius sat radio and everything identical between the two cars as evidenced by the 328i and 328xi) was configured by yours truly. The envelope please: Including shipping, the figure was $48,065. The performance, if not the price, was in the S4 league. You can "mostly" get an S4 for that much money -- stripped. Comparably equipped, as best as I could come up with it would seem that the S4 would be about $7K more than a 335xi both with all the toys on them. The S4, one would imagine (and I would hope) would be a hotter performer. Only you can determine if the $7K premium is worth it. On the other hand, an A4 3.2 would be just under $45K -- roughly the same content level and seems to be closer in performance to the thousands cheaper 328xi. This, IMHO, is a first. Usually the BMW is thousands more than the Audi. A few years ago a fully loaded 6 cylinder 5 series was about $500 less than a fully loaded Audi A6. Of course the A6 in question was a V8 and had quattro. Reversal of fortune, in some ways. The 335 is, in this light, almost a gift from BMW to the US customer. The A4 3.2 with SLine and all the option boxes checked actually would, or could, cost more than the 335 sedan. Trouble in Ingolstadt, indeed. |
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Replying to: markcincinnati (Sep 22, 2006 11:36 am) O boy, Sound's like some people need to hear Mr. Shipo's "winter tires are better then awd speech" That is just hard to imagine. Granted Audi has hung it's hat on the "unfair advantage of Quattro" Although now everybody's doing it.. One of my biggest issues of Fwd ( and I have a few) is torque steer. And Audi/VW do the best job on that. My TDI with Gobs of torque at 1900 rpm has none. I hear it has to do with this new electro mechanical steering. Honestly I dont care what the "why" or "how" is, long as it works. To me Audi allways meant Value, which right now has me scratching my head...  DL |
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Replying to: markcincinnati (Sep 22, 2006 11:36 am) I believe that with the A3 you still have to pony up for the six cylinder engine to get a Quattro-configured car, which makes the A3 nutty expensive, considering that you are now close to the price of an A4 with the two liter and a Torsen AWD setup. The two liter A4 isn't very far from the six cylinder A3 in acceleration, gets better fuel efficiency, and has a nicer interior. The A4 also handles better, based on road tests that I've read and my uncalibrated butt-o-meter. But then, as you say, BMW has changed every thing with the new 335i series. To counter this Audi is going to have to bump up the base engine to around 230 - 250 hp and perhaps swap the 3.2 liter for the 3.6 liter VW engine. This would at least keep Audi in spitting distance of the new 3xx series (assuming Audi keeps the price point from drifting too far up). And this would be a great opportunity to slap that new 265 hp four into the A4. But I bet that BMW's first targets were the current Lexi & Infinitis, which seem to have initiated the hp war. Audi has time before the release of the B8 A4 to reconsider the engine configurations. I bet that Ingolstadt will 'get it'. Last year when I drove a number of cars (from a Subie STI to an Acura TL), I nearly bought a BMW 330. And now with the 335i, I think that Audi would probably come in second. All that extra hp would really help on my 18 mile round trip to work. My usual average trip speed is a blistering 30 mph Byron |
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Replying to: byronwalter (Sep 23, 2006 6:28 am) The problem here is that the VW 3.6 won't fit in an A4 (or even possibly the A6) due to its length. The A4 and A6 engine bays were designed for a longitudinal engine mount and as such require shorter/fatter engines, on the other hand, the Passat (which can accommodate the VW 3.6 liter mill) was designed for a transverse type of engine mount allowing a thinner/longer mill. Best Regards, Shipo |
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Replying to: shipo (Sep 23, 2006 8:35 am) 
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Replying to: shipo (Sep 23, 2006 8:35 am) Thanks for the insight on the A4 engine bay limitations. Byron |
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I am considering purchase of a 2006 A4 that has a 2.0 T engine. I have a '98 A4 with the 6 cyl. engine. Can anyone give me some thoughts on: 1) Reliability of the Turbo (have >100K on the 6 w/no Probs.) 2) Whether Premium gas is REALLY required 3) Performance with an Auto Trans. compared to the 6 cyl. 4) How the 4 cyl compares to the 6 in MPG Thanks
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Replying to: 63jag (Sep 25, 2006 12:01 pm) Premium is required, but I know the story about the engine management computer and its ability to retard the spark enough to prevent pre ignition and other nasty side effects. But, using regular costs more, that using premium, so apparently you WANT to spend more money, which confuses the heck outta me. Performance with the Auto compared to the 2.8 V6? Or the 3.2. I have driven all three plus the 1.8T (with both transmissions.) The 2.0T does have decent HP and torque and very little lag. But the 2.0T, IMHO, begs for the stick for power and performance. But it is better than just OK even with the auto. The 4 is a sipper compared with the 6. Were you to use 1000 gallons per year: Regular $2500 Premium $2700 I know it is $200. But it is a relatively small amount for the gains in both mileage and performance. At $3, well: Regular $3000 Premium $3200 And, gulp, at $4, well even less: Regular $4000 Premium $4200 So the markup is $200 for Prem vs. Reg. The probability of "below $2/ gal regular for a prolonged period of time" -- your guess is as good as mine. I think we're not likely to be too shocked at $3/ gallon returning "in the near term."
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Replying to: markcincinnati (Sep 25, 2006 12:48 pm) |
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