Today I had to make a run upto West Yorkshire, approx 250mile round trip. Car was perfect and comfortable over this distance.. fuel consumption was 53mpg on the way up and 51mpg on the way back.. very impressive. Obviously still running in the car and time wasn't a factor today so didn't push things.. but keeping up with traffic. On a similar run, the Volvo couldn't hit 40mpg.. the Ford Mondeo estate 2.0Tdi might have been high 40's along with the Jaguar X Type 2.2
The service interval data is now starting to kick in.. with the oil change and service time now seems to correspond at the same mileage point.. about 18500 miles from now.
Monday, 27 October 2008
Saturday, 18 October 2008
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Admirer
Stranger things have happened... but somebody driving in the other direction flashed their lights and gave me the thumbs up at the car. I guess it must look good. Nobody ever did this with the Volvo XC70 :)
Other people have said it is an A5 (from front view). Looking at the A5, the A4 is actually a touch more aggresive in it's look and stance. The bonnet wraps over the lights in a more aggressive way and the bottom spoiler is also more pronounced.
Other people have said it is an A5 (from front view). Looking at the A5, the A4 is actually a touch more aggresive in it's look and stance. The bonnet wraps over the lights in a more aggressive way and the bottom spoiler is also more pronounced.
Sunday, 12 October 2008
New Audi A4 - Nice Interior Details
I am sure there are many little details I will gradually discover, but the first two are the following. Sunglasses holder built into the roof line is actually standard.. £30-40 Volvo option and it wasn't in a very helpful place being to the right of the drivers head. The audi is central so it can be accessed by the passenger also.
The next neat feature is the 12v socket in the central armrest. This means that you can drop your phone in the central armrest - (connected via bluetooth) and get recharged. Avoids have the cable around the front and also prevents being distracted by the phone when texts arrive. Simple detail, but makes a massive difference. I think there are 4 power sockets around the car, two at the front - one for rear passenger and then on in the boot.
The next neat feature is the 12v socket in the central armrest. This means that you can drop your phone in the central armrest - (connected via bluetooth) and get recharged. Avoids have the cable around the front and also prevents being distracted by the phone when texts arrive. Simple detail, but makes a massive difference. I think there are 4 power sockets around the car, two at the front - one for rear passenger and then on in the boot.
What is the procedure to remove the key ??
Pretty confusing system - the audi key.
With the Volvo XC70 you placed the key into the slot and it pulled it in.. and you then pressed the starter button. The engine would then start and stop with this button, to remove the key you just pressed it.
With the Audi key, pushing the key into the slot actually starts the engine if you have your foot on the clutch. To stop the engine, press the key again. However often the key can't be removed?? it is just stuck in there. If you press again without the clutch depressed it puts the car in ignition mode, if you press again with the clutch in - the car starts again. You continue this cycle until eventually the car releases the key.
I may be forced to read the manual !
With the Volvo XC70 you placed the key into the slot and it pulled it in.. and you then pressed the starter button. The engine would then start and stop with this button, to remove the key you just pressed it.
With the Audi key, pushing the key into the slot actually starts the engine if you have your foot on the clutch. To stop the engine, press the key again. However often the key can't be removed?? it is just stuck in there. If you press again without the clutch depressed it puts the car in ignition mode, if you press again with the clutch in - the car starts again. You continue this cycle until eventually the car releases the key.
I may be forced to read the manual !
Saturday, 11 October 2008
A4 Common Rail TDI Engine
Before I ordered the car I hadn't realised that Audi/VW were putting out some new engines into the market. I had already assumed that some form of common rail technology was used.
I have had several generations of Audi Tdi's.
My first was a 1996 A4 1.9 Tdi with a whopping 90hp. However it was a really decent motor and pulled very well, even on the autobahn it was pretty quick. I loved that car apart from the aircon never working. The engine noise was typically very dieselly.. with almost a hammering or nailing sound.
The next time with an Audi engine was a 2004 A3 with again the 1.9Tdi engine, but this time in a 105hp version. Very different sort of sound - more sporty and certainly an improvement. However still very much a diesel sound, particularly at low speed. Didn't match the smoothness of the 5 and 6 cylinder diesel engines.
Then in 2007 I had one of the A4's with the newer 2.0Tdi. This had something like 136hp (for tax reasons). It was decent, if a bit heavy on fuel initially and had these sudden situations of running out of oil. It's the only car I have had to drive with a bottle of oil tucked in the boot - since it would happen almost instantly.
Now the new A4 comes with this 2.0Tdi engine set at 143hp utilising a common rail. The engine is stunningly refined. You simply don't hear it. In fact what you tend to hear is the faint turbo whistle - as you remember from some of the first turbo cars.
What I find strange is to select the gears because you don't really know where the engine is in terms of performance. In some respects it feels a bit flat in torque and power low down in the rev range - yet when you start to accelerate from that point, the car is suggesting you select an even higher gear (for economy) and you don't think the car will be able to pull - but it does. The gearing is certainly better than my previous A4 which had a very short first gear and there was then a hole to 2nd gear. Now the first gear feels a bit longer and to a certain extent gives you a bit of a fright when pulling away from a junction - as if the car will bog down even in first.
Anyway, so far, loving it.
I have had several generations of Audi Tdi's.
My first was a 1996 A4 1.9 Tdi with a whopping 90hp. However it was a really decent motor and pulled very well, even on the autobahn it was pretty quick. I loved that car apart from the aircon never working. The engine noise was typically very dieselly.. with almost a hammering or nailing sound.
The next time with an Audi engine was a 2004 A3 with again the 1.9Tdi engine, but this time in a 105hp version. Very different sort of sound - more sporty and certainly an improvement. However still very much a diesel sound, particularly at low speed. Didn't match the smoothness of the 5 and 6 cylinder diesel engines.
Then in 2007 I had one of the A4's with the newer 2.0Tdi. This had something like 136hp (for tax reasons). It was decent, if a bit heavy on fuel initially and had these sudden situations of running out of oil. It's the only car I have had to drive with a bottle of oil tucked in the boot - since it would happen almost instantly.
Now the new A4 comes with this 2.0Tdi engine set at 143hp utilising a common rail. The engine is stunningly refined. You simply don't hear it. In fact what you tend to hear is the faint turbo whistle - as you remember from some of the first turbo cars.
What I find strange is to select the gears because you don't really know where the engine is in terms of performance. In some respects it feels a bit flat in torque and power low down in the rev range - yet when you start to accelerate from that point, the car is suggesting you select an even higher gear (for economy) and you don't think the car will be able to pull - but it does. The gearing is certainly better than my previous A4 which had a very short first gear and there was then a hole to 2nd gear. Now the first gear feels a bit longer and to a certain extent gives you a bit of a fright when pulling away from a junction - as if the car will bog down even in first.
Anyway, so far, loving it.
Friday, 10 October 2008
New Audi A4 Avant has arrived.
As expected, the Audi was delivered to my home.
Initial first impressions are good, certainly looks smart with it's meteor grey coat of paint. Also feels and looks a lot bigger than my previous A4 Avant.. though considerably smaller than the XC70. It is certainly a much prettier car than the Volvo. The front and nose clearly are inspired from the A5 and possibly the R8.
The car came with a half tank of fuel, and my first run out was to take the delivery driver to the station a few miles away. I was surprised that the average fuel consumption was 30mpg, since I was very gentle with the car.
The steering feels a lot heavier than the Volvo and Jaguar X type I am using at the moment. I guess this is just something to get used to. It reminds me more of the BMW I had in the past. The wheel is not as chunky as I thought it would be, in fact it is quite a large steering wheel. I suspect this is part of the dash layout. However coming to the dash, I have never realised how the speedo would be calibrated. Incredibly only the initial 1/3rd of the dash covers the legal speed limit in the UK.. the next 1/3rd covers the illegal speed that probably the car can reach.. and then the last 3rd represents both the illegal and unobtainable speed. I used to be impressed when a car said it could do 120mph when it's top speed was 105mph, but this is ridiculous. Also it's in increments of 20mph, so 30mph - a key speed figure for UK driving is hardly noticeable at 7pm on the speedo clock.
The bluetooth hooked up well, didn't need the manual for that. The delivery guy told me the code of 1234. However the iPod.. again Audi, the iPod. How can you continue to cock this up.
My previous A4 was bought with iPod as an optional extra system. However despite being able to directly plug the iPod into the cars music system, the functionality was next to useless - since no information could be displayed on the cars screen. This time, despite ordering the £200 RRP option of iPod interface - you need to go back to Audi and buy a connecting lead !!! How can it be the previous car connected, when I ordered the exactly same option with Volvo they manage to include a cable.. but Audi, well they just seem to enjoy pulling your pants down at the dealer. So trip back to the dealer (what was the point of having the car delivered) to buy the £30 lead. Yes £30 for a lead that costs at best £5?? At least I had the entertainment of listening to the service manage quote somebody for fixing a bumper that was scratched. He suggested a full respray would be needed, at a cost of...
wait for it...
£6000 !!
There was some quite colourful language from the customer at that point.
Not yet read the manual. Almost don't want to read it, to know about all of the options I didn't order with the car.
Initial first impressions are good, certainly looks smart with it's meteor grey coat of paint. Also feels and looks a lot bigger than my previous A4 Avant.. though considerably smaller than the XC70. It is certainly a much prettier car than the Volvo. The front and nose clearly are inspired from the A5 and possibly the R8.
The car came with a half tank of fuel, and my first run out was to take the delivery driver to the station a few miles away. I was surprised that the average fuel consumption was 30mpg, since I was very gentle with the car.
The steering feels a lot heavier than the Volvo and Jaguar X type I am using at the moment. I guess this is just something to get used to. It reminds me more of the BMW I had in the past. The wheel is not as chunky as I thought it would be, in fact it is quite a large steering wheel. I suspect this is part of the dash layout. However coming to the dash, I have never realised how the speedo would be calibrated. Incredibly only the initial 1/3rd of the dash covers the legal speed limit in the UK.. the next 1/3rd covers the illegal speed that probably the car can reach.. and then the last 3rd represents both the illegal and unobtainable speed. I used to be impressed when a car said it could do 120mph when it's top speed was 105mph, but this is ridiculous. Also it's in increments of 20mph, so 30mph - a key speed figure for UK driving is hardly noticeable at 7pm on the speedo clock.
The bluetooth hooked up well, didn't need the manual for that. The delivery guy told me the code of 1234. However the iPod.. again Audi, the iPod. How can you continue to cock this up.
My previous A4 was bought with iPod as an optional extra system. However despite being able to directly plug the iPod into the cars music system, the functionality was next to useless - since no information could be displayed on the cars screen. This time, despite ordering the £200 RRP option of iPod interface - you need to go back to Audi and buy a connecting lead !!! How can it be the previous car connected, when I ordered the exactly same option with Volvo they manage to include a cable.. but Audi, well they just seem to enjoy pulling your pants down at the dealer. So trip back to the dealer (what was the point of having the car delivered) to buy the £30 lead. Yes £30 for a lead that costs at best £5?? At least I had the entertainment of listening to the service manage quote somebody for fixing a bumper that was scratched. He suggested a full respray would be needed, at a cost of...
wait for it...
£6000 !!
There was some quite colourful language from the customer at that point.
Not yet read the manual. Almost don't want to read it, to know about all of the options I didn't order with the car.
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Car Expected Tomorrow Morning
Normally I would be pretty excited about getting a new car, however I am a bit ambivalent to this one. Yes it's a nice car, but is it really going to be something I will admire and enjoy to own. Not sure. To be fair I didn't even test drive it. Interesting point, nobody from Audi have ever called me back on this topic. I called Audi (Derby) for a test drive, thought I had arranged something - only to find when arriving at the dealership a sort of apathy and dis-interest in selling cars and offering test drives. I asked for a price, they just offered the catalogue price and even though I was in a position to place an order if I wanted to.. they were not prepared to give their lowest price unless I committed to place an order. This isn't the way I work. I didn't call them back and obviously they are far too busy to call me back. It's not the first time Audi dealerships have left me a bit cold. I was looking for an A3 last year for my wife, and almost the same story. They felt they had enough business to not particularly chase the sale.
The dealerships don't even have the cars in the showroom you are looking to buy. Audi Derby had 2 R8's, an RS6, A3 Cab, , A4 quattro etc. What happened to a simple A3 or A4 or A6?
So the car was finally sourced via a friend from Audi (Leeds). With a very significant discount that was supported by the dealer. The only point was that the car was already built and I couldn't choose any further options. There was a choice of colour and I went for the Meteor Pearl.
The dealer called today and talked me through the delivery process since it is coming to my house. It should have a half tank of diesel, so let's see.
The dealerships don't even have the cars in the showroom you are looking to buy. Audi Derby had 2 R8's, an RS6, A3 Cab, , A4 quattro etc. What happened to a simple A3 or A4 or A6?
So the car was finally sourced via a friend from Audi (Leeds). With a very significant discount that was supported by the dealer. The only point was that the car was already built and I couldn't choose any further options. There was a choice of colour and I went for the Meteor Pearl.
The dealer called today and talked me through the delivery process since it is coming to my house. It should have a half tank of diesel, so let's see.
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Audi A4 Avant 2.0 Tdi
My last car was a Volvo, it was the new XC70.
Full details of that car can be found here.
http://volvoxc70review.blogspot.com/
and also here
www.carfun.org
unfortunately the car didn't really live up to expectations, and after significant damage in flooding it was sent to salvage.
I had to find a quick replacement, and since my previous car was an Audi A4 Avant (last model) I went back to something I was both familiar with and also very satisfied with.
Full details of that car can be found here.
http://volvoxc70review.blogspot.com/
and also here
www.carfun.org
unfortunately the car didn't really live up to expectations, and after significant damage in flooding it was sent to salvage.
I had to find a quick replacement, and since my previous car was an Audi A4 Avant (last model) I went back to something I was both familiar with and also very satisfied with.
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