Audi A4 3.0 TDI Quattro SE manual

Audi intends its new, bigger A4 to take sales in the hard-fought compact executive market from arch rivals BMW. It aims to offer improved handling boosted by an increasing range of engines, gearboxes, and driver aids.

On sale: from March 2008
Price from: £30,290
Consider: Alfa Romeo 159 2,4 Q4

Audi’s new generation A4 saloon has turned out more handsome than the A5 Coupé.

The two cars are virtually the same mechanically, but the saloon has better attention to detail and benefits from subtle nuances that the coupé lacks. Launching the Coupé first, and not badging it the A4 Coupé, presumably lets Audi’s marketing experts charge more for that car’s greater prestige.

Saloon Audi A4s reach UK showrooms in March with Avant estate versions following later on and expected around July.

The Audi A4’s a car of more surprises than are evident immediately from pictures – including the fact that it has grown in nearly every direction. The distance between the front and rear wheels has also shot up by a significant 168mm. This increase is such that rear seat space is now much roomier, and the car is 118mm longer and 56mm wider, though 4mm lower.

First impressions were that it felt big, despite the power of the top-of-the-range 240ps 3-litre V6 TDI diesel, and Audi’s latest thinking on its Quattro four-wheel drive system. It’s the same 3-litre diesel engine as in the current A4, but tuned to give an extra six bhp (now 238bhp) and more torque, up 37lb ft to 369lb ft. The quattro system splits the power 40:60 front to rear – only 20 years or so after others kept moaning how the cars wanted to plough straight on (a condition known as understeer) at corners with the original 50:50 split Audi insisted was best.

By also moving the engine rearwards and the front axle forwards, which is more difficult than it sounds, Audi has reduced the nose-heavy feeling, and the car turns into bends with more enthusiasm.

The dashboard and instrument panel area is now getting so cluttered that they looked like part of the music system or heating controls. The buttons were attached to Audi’s optional Driver Select system which lets you change the accelerator pedal response, power steering assistance, shock absorber stiffness, and automatic transmission gear shift points. Select the sportier end of the three presets and mama mia!

The car seems to shrink around you. Being able to dive into corners squeezing on the power sooner and sooner, weight transfer and the quattro power split keep everything together. With an effortless forward thrust from just 1,500 to 3,500rpm, then you seem to be able to make almost anything quickly turn into a small dot in the rear view mirror. To top it all was that all of this happened to the accompaniment of a deep, satisfying growl – and that was from the engine! The six-speed manual gearbox didn’t have the slickest change, though most high-end buyers will choose the six-speed automatic or the forthcoming DSG which is expected in 2008. The Audi A4 is so similar to the BMW 3-Series. Good news for Audi, because it’s obvious to anyone just who Audi is gunning for when you look at various other changes that have been made to the new car. Engineers have relocated the car’s battery to the boot to achieve the more neutral 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution that rival BMW is always banging on about. Even with all of these changes, the steering feedback remains better from a 3-Series, and the vastly improved new Mercedes-Benz C-Class, but that’s often the case when you add 4WD on to a car.

On a specially created slalom at 50mph, an Audi A4 without the faster steering set-up was a handful – especially once you’d breezed through the markers with a dynamic steering set-up. The way this £1,000 option helped keep it straight under very heavy braking on a split grip surface showed its safety benefits, too. The dynamic handling package, which lets you select suspension settings, is another grand, but Audi will do you steering and handling as a job lot for £1,700.

An advantage of the handling pack is that even with the larger wheels on the test car it improved the ride comfort compared to other A4 models, which felt some way adrift of other German rivals.

Apparently 17-inch wheels are standard for SE versions, which take most UK sales but 18-inch and 19-inch wheels are options.

BMW’s sales success in the UK has niggled Audi for years, and the recruitment of some previous top BMW engineers seems to be letting Audi’s cars get closer in dynamic terms without losing their Audi character – or the traction benefits, if you need them, of all-wheel drive. It’s the smaller engines that make the most sense, but the bigger ones are more fun to drive than they were.

The 3.0-litre Quattro won’t be where the biggest sales of the A4 are seen. Neither will the 2.7 engine. However, the new A4, equipped with the Audi drive select system, reduces the gap between the handling characteristics of the A4 and the 3-Series. This perennial battle, should see more 3-series drivers ready to try the Audi and the extra room inside and especially in the rear, should see more reason to move to the Audi. As far as all-wheel drive is concerned it's blistering fun and a vast improvement.

Key Features of the Audi A4 3.0 TDI Quattro SE manual

CO2 EMISSIONS: 186/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 6.1s / Max Speed 155mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 40mpg

Similar Models to the Audi A4 3.0 TDI Quattro SE manual

BMW 3-series / Mercedes-Benz C-class / Alfa Romeo 159

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