Audi A4 2.0TFSI (B8 facelift)

[excel monkey]

This is our new(ish) Audi A4 2.0TFSI, bought as an ex-demo a couple of weeks ago. Petrol engine plus unfashionable automatic transmission is probably not a great combination for resale, but we plan to keep the car for a long time.



My wife is the main driver of this car, and as an Audi fangirl, she is happy returning to the Audi fold after owning a couple of BMWs.

First impressions are:is

• The 2.0TFSI engine is a great engine – powerful, flexible and reasonably economical. Ours is a FWD car, and we have not experienced any of the torque steer problems that some reviews have mentioned, although maybe I should reserve judgement on that until the winter. Coming from a 320d, it’s nice to be back in a petrol car, and this feels like a step up in performance.
• The Multitronic (CVT) gearbox is OK. Well aware of the problems with the early iterations of this gearbox, but it’s great for my wife’s stop/start commute across suburban West London, and I understand that most of the problems have been ironed out. The CVT gives very long gearing on the motorway, so cruising is very relaxed.
• The ride quality is OK (our car is an S-line on 18” wheels), and certainly no worse than the E90 3-series (on 16” runflats). Definitely not “teeth shattering” as some people describe it. I understand Audi retuned the suspension for the 2012 facelift of this car.
• Some of the styling bling is a bit lairy for my taste, but my wife likes it. We both like the dull dark grey colour.
• While the quality is good, the interior feels quite old fashioned. I’m not an Audi expert, but I’m sure the A4 interior hasn’t changed much in the last 10-15 years. On the other hand, my wife sees it as a positive and felt immediately at home in the car, having had A3s and A4s as company cars earlier on in her career.
• After “managing” to cram all our baby/toddler junk into a 3-series saloon, it’s nice to have the extra space of an estate car. The size of the boot in the 3-series was adequate, but the narrow boot aperture made access tricky.
• The deal we negotiated (including a good price on our old 3-series) was OK, but the handover was rubbish, and our experience with the sales staff wasn’t great.

Edited by AudiWurst on Monday 12th January 16:37

[philmots]

Nice to see a petrol one.

[excel monkey]

philmots said:

Nice to see a petrol one.

If/when I trade it in against a new car, the dealer won't say the same thing!

[mwstewart]

Nice objective review there. It looks much better in a darker colour, though I'm probably just tired of seeing them with the drug dealer pack (white paint, tints, and dark alloys).

I despise Diesel engines, they really ruin a car. It's always nice getting back into a petrol.

[LA167]

excel monkey said:

*The deal we negotiated (including a good price on our old 3-series) was OK, but the handover was rubbish, and our experience with the sales staff wasn’t great. Not going to name and shame the dealer, but we won’t be going back there for servicing.

What made you buy the car if you didn't get on with the sales staff and the deal was only OK? Just the right car?

[excel monkey]

LA167 said:

What made you buy the car if you didn't get on with the sales staff and the deal was only OK? Just the right car?

Car was right for us, and maybe describing the deal as only "OK" is a bit uncharitable. We got nothing off the screen price, but got a few extras thrown in and got a strong (£500 above WBAC estimate) price for our P/X.

The sales staff were good, right up to the point where they took our money. It was the handover that was rubbish. Kept us waiting for over an hour (they were clearly very busy on the day), parcel shelf was missing (which we pointed out when we put down a holding deposit), hardly any fuel in the tank. It's all sorted out now, but it's a shame we had to chase and nag people to get a response.

mwstewart said:

I despise Diesel engines, they really ruin a car. It's always nice getting back into a petrol.

I don't feel quite as strongly as that! Our previous E90 320d was a good car, and saved us a lot of cash while my wife was doing a lot of miles for work. She did less travel when she went back to work after maternity leave, and running a diesel car on a short commute didn't make much sense. I don't miss the clatter on startup, but I will miss the tank range.

Edited by excel monkey on Wednesday 11th September 17:56

[AudiWurst]

Update: car is being sold back to the supplying dealer later this week, after only 17 months of ownership. We put 8000 miles on this car, and averaged 27mpg (accurately calculated) in that time.

Looking at Auto Trader when pricing the car up, I found the diesel/petrol sales mix to be even more skewed towards diesel than I expected. Excluding the S/RS models, there are hardly any petrol A4 Avants.

My wife is the main driver of this car and is the big Audi fan in our house, but even she couldn't learn to love the Multitronic gearbox. Having two young children, she actually prefers our high mileage beater 2004 CR-V for local trips, as it's easier to get kids in and out of car seats, and (like a lot of women) she likes the high driving position and good visibility. So we're going down from two cars to one, getting rid of the Audi and upgrading the CRV to a newer model. She's looked at a Q5, but didn't like it.

Will miss this car, particularly the strong engine and excellent stereo, but it's just not right for us at our stage in life with two young children. Maybe we'll come back to Audi some other time in the future. Re-reading my initial comment on this thread "we don't care that's it's petrol/auto because we're keeping it for a few years so resale doesn't matter so much", we obviously didn't plan to keep this car for such a short time, but we decided it made more sense to bite the bullet, take the depreciation hit and get a car that suits our needs, rather than putting up with the Audi and its flaws with for 3-4 more years, just to complete some arbitrary ownership period to make the annual depreciation numbers look better.

Edited by AudiWurst on Monday 12th January 16:35