I have been asked this question several times recently by people who know me and know how much an A4 costs..... so here is my explanation..... not so much for the masses of you that worship the power of the 4 interlocking rings, as I do.. but for those of you on this forum trying to understand why we do.

I began my search for a car with certain criteria:

1. Must look good, sophisticated and stylish.. but not loud and obnoxious.
2. Must have longevity
3. Big "fun to drive" factor... I am tired of SUV's
4. Economical... don't laugh, the A4 is!
5. Safe, but not an H2 or a box..... (sorry Volvo)

With these in mind, I set out on my journey. The question of style is really left up to you, individually.... in this I mean that what one person thinks is stylish, the next person may not. I know several people on this forum that were aghast at the B7's front grill.... but I loved it. That being said, don't buy a car that you look at every day and say..... "I should have gotten car X"..... you will be sorry! As for me, the B7 is a masterpiece... every time I drive up to the office, or go to visit a client, I hear "man.... that is one sexy car!" And it is! Look at is, the lines, the grill.... just magnificent!

Longevity..... Sir-Mix-A-Lot once said "I'm long, and I'm strong, and I'm down to get the friction on." Kinda what I was looking for in a car..... minus the long part I wanted a car that surpassed all of the shortcomings that most of today's domestic and Japanese car manufacturers seem to produce. For example, when you see a car that is 4 years old manufactured by Ford, GM, etc.. it LOOKS 4 years old... body panels loose and out of line, interior pieces creek and pop, engines sound loose and raspy. On the other hand, I have driven a multitude of AG cars 10 years old, that looked and drove like newborns... clean, tight and precise! God bless the Germans! Now, I know.. there are other quality automobile manufacturers out there, but why pay for a pig dressed in pearls when you can buy a thoroughbred? Audi makes cars with a fit and finish, according to Edmonds "unsurpassed in the automotive industry". Just sit in an Audi... old or new.... I had a good friend who has been practicing Law for 30 years stand outside my car and just open and shut the doors because he was so amazed! He has driven GM cars his entire life, but could not believe the difference..... counselor, I rest my case!

Now, the "fun factor"..... just go drive one! Especially the new 2.0T engine, man... what a piece of engineering! When you push an Audi with Quattro and then get into ANYTHING else, you will be disappointed.... they are that good. I drove Mercs, BMWs, Jaguars, Lexus, Infinity..... there is just no comparison. I know a lot of you say... "well, when I put new struts and springs on my IS300, it will out handle that A4"... but you just proved my point, you have to modify the car to get it up to par with the A4... should I say any more? Plus the options..

6MT: so smooth!
Quattro: never follow!
2.0T: F1 engineering for the street!
Brakes: B6 S4 brakes on an A4!

The list just goes on and on.. this is a proper saloon car with the pedigree of a sport coupe'..... A+ to the "fun factor"

Now, the one you probably laughed at... "economical". Let me explain. Look at your next car purchase from a "total cost of ownership" or TCO. The TCO of a car is deduced by figuring your payment, insurance, fuel usage and maintenance per year. Compare this to your current car... here is what I found:

I owned several cars, but my daily driver was an old Jeep Grand Cherokee. This car was paid for, so no payments.... but insurance was high (4x4) and it absolutely ate gas (14mpg AVERAGE!).. also, I was beginning to spend more and more money to keep it running (trans work.... more frequent oil changes... hoses... tires... brakes.. etc.). Then I looked at the A4. Yes, I know... going from no car payment to $350 month is a big jump.... but... now I have NO maintenance costs (Audi covers maintenance for the life of your warranty for those of you that didn't know), my gas mileage has averaged 28mpg (double) and 37mpg highway..... by my calculations, I will save over $3000 this year on gas alone (25k miles a year)! that is almost 9 months of car payments covered just in gas savings! Not to mention the money I am saving on insurance ($10 less per month) and maintenance (guessing about $40 per month).... so the car almost pays for itself in TCO vs. my SUV that was paid for! So economical... you bet!

Safety.... just review what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said, and why they gave it a Double Best Pick, which was also awarded to the A6.... and these are only the sixth cars to ever receive this rating! I have small children that ride with me daily, and to know that I am shrouding them in one of the safest cars on the market gives me piece of mind..... it also eases my fears when joy riding alone on the weekends. Remember, when you are in your car you are asking it to protect your life..... I have no problem asking my A4 to do that!

I hope you all can appreciate what I have said, and learn more for yourself. I spent many days test driving and comparing car specs online... I suggest you do the same. Figure out what is important to you, and then narrow it down to a handful of cars that meet all your specifications. The hard part will be when you get down to two or three cars.... I am glad I made my choice and wish you luck on yours!

See you on the road!

 

Amen, brother... amen...

My story is similar, with a twist or two. I had much the same criteria when I began my search but somewhere along the way I developed mid-40s testosterone issues and dropped into my local Ford dealer to order an '06 Mustang GT convertible. I sat on my order for two months, all the while dreaming about how much fun it would be to rumble around town with 300 horses in front of me.

After a while, prompted by the fact that Ford was continually unable to give me a build date for my car ("three to six months, that's all we know") I started to rethink my decision. Summer began to wane and I didn't see the point of taking delivery on a convertible in December, in New Jersey. I started to pay heed to the myriad complaints that new Mustang owners had about their cars (did you know that on 70% of all '05 'stangs you can't fill the gas tank? A flaw in the filler neck design prevents it.) and also began to worry about things like fuel consumption, overall reliability and winter traction. Eventually all this got the better of me, a little common sense set in and I cancelled my order.

When I got back into the market, I had a "short list" of candidates: the 325i, the A4, the Saab 9-3 Aero, the S40 T5, the Infiniti G35 Coupe and the Acura TL. I wasn't happy with what BMW had done to the styling of the new 3, so I crossed that off. There were no 9-3 Aeros to be found anywhere, so that one went away. I drove the S40 and liked it, but the funny sounds of the 5 cylinder and te weak exhaust note failed to appeal to me, viscerally. Cross it off. The G35 is nice, but the clutch pedal felt too much like I was going to the gym instead of driving and the coupe has a HORRIBLE blind spot that I couldn't get past. Basically the driver can't see anything that isn't in the mirrors and I had visions of horrific flaming wrecks on the NJ Turnpike caused by my changing lanes into some unsuspecting slow New Yorker. Scratch that one.

Between the A4 and the TL, I leaned strongly to the German engineering, liked the idea of owning a Quattro and was partial to the A4's styling. My wife was of clearer mind; she didn't like the TL at all. So I bought the A4. I love it.

My decision was reinforced last Sunday when I had a guy in a brand new TL get uppity with me on one of the lonely county roads that meanders throught the Pine Barrens down in South Jersey. There's a spot where it opens up to four lanes and we went at it pretty good. Fear of harsh criticism compels me to not reveal how fast we were going, but it was well into triple digits. We stormed down the road, side by side, until the first of a series of long, sweeping bends came up. He backed off, I didn't. I didn't have to. The Audi just stuck, accelerating through the turns the whole time. Eventually he gave up and turned for home.

It's a great car.

 

One thing that has surprised me since getting my car a little over a year ago is the extent to which people overestimate how much I paid. It's certainly not a cheap car to start with, but people perceive it to have higher value. Besides being a damn good looking car, I just love the precise engineering evident throughout. It's a blast to drive as well!

One of the first mods I did was installing a sub and amp, and found that I needed to do some major dissassembly to run the wiring to the rear (power cable on the passenger side along the floor, and line level signal from the head unit through the center console - I wanted to isolate the signal from the power to avoid interference). I've done the same in north american cars in the past, and found that there were plenty of holes and gaps to run as many cables as I liked. This Audi is so well engineered and assembled that it I ended up working until 3:00 AM to get it done rather than being finished by 9:00 as I had planned. Do you know that coming out of the rear of the console, across the hump to the back seat there is a cable raceway builtin? It's not something the casual owner will ever see, but it's nice that someone cares enough about cars to build them right.