RE: Audi A4 revealed

[Buzypea]

I wonder what the A4 will look like in the year 2035? Oh hang on, forget I said that.

Unfortunately the sheeple will keep on buying these snoozemobiles to impress the neighbours.

[blearyeyedboy]

Tsk. How derivative- it looks like an Alfa Romeo.

[groundcontrol]

celicawrc said:

If there is a car that shouts 'i have no interest in cars whatsoever'....it's this one.

I find this lack of interest also influences me. If I ask someone what car they have and if they reply 'Audi' even my pretty hearty interest in cars wanes and the conversation doesn't even get as far as 'which one?'.

Edited by groundcontrol on Monday 29th June 21:36

[Poopipe]

In defence of audis design dept.

They really nailed it with the first a4 - the same can be said of the tt and to a lesser extent the a5.
The changes at each new generation are small and sympathetic because if they weren't itd cock everything up.

If you took a mk1 and put it next to the new one youd see a marked difference.

Im sure i dont need to point out the parallels with a certain rear engined ph favourite..

• The a6/7/8 are just scaled up versions of course so dont count.

[MrBarry123]

PH article said:

... with design changes showing all the evolutionary development you could expect to find taking place in a pond over lunchtime.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

[anonymous-user]

swimd said:

I guess Piech knew why he left.
Audi can't ride their "aspirational brand" image forever and car designs like this are embarrassing when even the cheaper in-house competition looks much sharper and modern. (Skoda Superb looks miles better than this IMO)

I do wonder about this "aspirational" bks. How can you remain "aspirational" in the long term when practically everyone who wants one of yours cars has one? It seems unsustainable.

[jakeb]

that stuck on monitor......... 3 series implementation is nicer imho

Looks like they found a use for amaretto bottle tops on the gear knob

All you never wanted to know here
http://www.audi.co.uk/content/audi/about-audi/late...

[james_tigerwoods]

Could they not have made the gear lever any bigger? (!)

[georgeq]

Audi is doomed... one should think. Then you look at the quarterly reports of VAG and shake your head.

[lufbramatt]

Ian974 said:

article said:

the bonnet is a single clamshell, one of the biggest and most complicated metal stampings ever fitted to a production car

Things like this I usually appreciate, and its not that the Audi is a bad car, but they've gone to the bother of making even the bonnet more complicated and presumably expensive to repair/ replace if it gets dented, yet it looks exactly the same... It's almost reverse cost engineering

So in 5 years time, a tiny car park ding on the front end will write the car off. Madness. When Citroen are putting air filled bumps on the side of their cars to avoid stuff like this, Audi have gone completely the other way and made you replace the whole front end of the car, for presumably thousands, if you scrape an arch on a bollard.

[Guvernator]

lufbramatt said:

So in 5 years time, a tiny car park ding on the front end will write the car off. Madness. When Citroen are putting air filled bumps on the side of their cars to avoid stuff like this, Audi have gone completely the other way and made you replace the whole front end of the car, for presumably thousands, if you scrape an arch on a bollard.

Funnily enough this was actually my first thought too. They've lowered the drag co-efficient by 1.2 to save the planet but having a front end scrape means replacing the whole front of the car!

[dazwalsh]

Hang on, so the ENTIRE front end is one piece? im sure i can see a separate wing and bumper.

design wise i rather like it, yes its evolutionary but at least it hasn't gone down the road of Mercedes and gone over the top with numerous creases down the sides, or vents everywhere that serve fk all purpose apart from to look "sporty"

the images on the Audi website above give you a closer look at the details.

Edited by dazwalsh on Tuesday 30th June 10:03

[lufbramatt]

Actually I think the text is slightly misleading- I think the join between the bonnet and wing has been disguised by the swage line coming off the corner of the headlight. I don't think it's a full clamshell like a Triumph Vitesse or Alfa GTV.

[EricE]

I think the bonnet construction is likely similar to the Macan

[Pablo16v]

I think this is a pic of the 2016 A4 engine.

[Triumph Man]

Pablo16v said:

I think this is a pic of the 2016 A4 engine.

Except that's transverse.

[underphil]

Triumph Man said:

Pablo16v said:

I think this is a pic of the 2016 A4 engine.

Except that's transverse.

Isn't the new one transverse?

(if not why not?!)

[Oz83]

I honestly don't know why people are so obsessed/opposed to the fixed tablet style screen. When you are in the car and driving it's exactly where you need it to be. When you're not in the car, well, you're not in the car are you?

As for people saying they will become obsolete, the technology will age etc. Just like the rest of the car and it's tech then.

As a current A4 owner I have to say I'm pretty underwhelmed with the new car, but also pretty pleased as I don't feel any urge to upgrade whatsoever. I remember when the current A6 was released I was pretty excited by the looks, and whilst being an evolution, it still managed to look new and fresh. The new A4 has been styled to look similar to the current A6 whilst being an evolution of the A4, but to my eyes this has made it look already dated.

[Guvernator]

Oz83 said:

I honestly don't know why people are so obsessed/opposed to the fixed tablet style screen. When you are in the car and driving it's exactly where you need it to be. When you're not in the car, well, you're not in the car are you?

Err because I want it to look likes it'been properly integrated into the dash and not look like it's been stuck on top of it as an afterthought with some 50p sticky pads, especially when I'm being charged £1.5k+ for the privilege.

[Slinky1989]

mikEsprit said:

Nobody was confused about which was the Jaguar between an X-Type, S-Type, or XJ. They were all instantly Jaguars to anyone with any sense of caring at all. The X-Type and S-Type just weren't very good looking cars. Russian doll design is easy and doesn't turn off enough people to make it objectionable, apparently. Personally, I hate it.

Yes that might be the case for you, but for the general public it's not.

You've got to remember that those of us on Pistonheads that take an active interest in cars are not the majority.

It's why Jaguar cars now have to have "Jaguar" written on the back and not just the leaper logo, because in customer focus surveys, when shown a picture of an XF with no clues and asked "what car company makes this car?", less than 10% of people gave the right answer.

They all said that the car looked great and was a good design, but there's no point if nobody knows what it is.

It's all very well saying that the russian doll design isn't right or is lazy, and that's fair enough, but when you're creating a design DNA, a brand image, it's (to a point) what you have to do. You can't have incoherent or dramatically differing designs just for the sake of variety because it confuses people and doesn't give people a clear picture in their head of what an Audi/BMW/Jag/ whatever car "is".

Ask anyone on the street what an Audi looks like and they'll instantly be able to describe the look of an Audi, same again for BMW and that is something very valuable to any car company, and it helps sell cars because it's about having that brand in the minds of people.

There's a reason why AUDI and BMW are 2 of the biggest selling car brands in the world, and Jaguar is just trying to emulate that.