2007 Audi A4 Review

Specifications

Sometimes I just run out of superlatives. Sometimes, they’re just not … superenough. I’m not even talking supercar here, just a relatively simple but stylish wagon that does everything so well that supercars and their scissor doors and exposed engines and bizarrely placed trunks begin to seem silly. Not that I wouldn’t want a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, but I know I could never live with one day in and day out without complaints starting to creep into my mind. And if I could imagine living with only one car, capable in all four seasons, year after year without complaint and meeting my limited demands for passenger and cargo capacity, this might be it … the A4 Avant. Okay, who am I kidding, it would be the RS4, but that’s a $70K car, and so far over my budget I shouldn’t even be dreaming about dreaming about it.

But this A4 Avant, this is no dreamer’s car. No, it’s a practical car with ample room for 4 adults and a spacious cargo hold that can handle minor antiquing excursions and basic home-reno shopping-trip duties, so long as you’re careful not to scuff the interior. Across the line, the Avant cuts a stylish profile with strong shoulders and an angled tailgate window that hints at its speed. At this point, I could never go back to Audi’s former two-part grilles now that I’ve fully adjusted to the yawning trapezoidal grille and sculpted headlights of this B7 generation A4. Audi carefully balances a strong corporate identity both through the slightly foreboding grille (best when seen approaching at high speeds) and a similar aesthetic throughout their range, but it is easy to see the differences between current wagon models, with the A6 sporting an even more aggressively swept tailgate and the A3’s size limiting the amount of detail that could be applied to its compact shape. The A4 is a study in understatement, but I’ll come back to its styling once I return to the particular details afforded by the S-line and Titanium trim.

As much as I admire the A4 in all its forms (Avant or otherwise), it isnot just any A4 Avant that my heart desires, although it would surely please me in any of those forms. No, this is The One. The one with the 3.2-liter V6 that makes 255 horsepower as it climbs to 6,500 rpm on the tach, but is flush with 243 lb-ft of torque from as early as 3,250 rpm. Some would denigrate me for not aspiring to the S4 Avant, but I’ve spent my share of time in various S4s, and the 3.2 gives up very little in terms of pure pull, balance and audible expression. While the S4 edges it out in most categories, the 3.2 manages almost all the fury for thousands less on purchase and even more saved over the long run in fuel consumption. In its own right, the 3.2 builds power smoothly and launches with tenacity by virtue of quattro all-wheel drive splitting torque equally to the front and rear axles through the traditional Torsen center diff. I admire the 2.0T for its ability to motivate this rather heavy vehicle, but it takes the ease of power offered by the 3.2 to really inspire and elevate the A4 with its AWD equipment and luxury fittings to levels of performance that would make me feel slightly guilty about the wear when pushing the 2.0T to its limits.

The second requirement met by this 3.2 Avant was the transmission—astraightforward and ideal six-speed manual. The clutch is dutifully firm and the gates are tight and a touch grabby, particularly second, but it’s the kind of gearbox whose nuances you can learn over time, gradually becoming a well-oiled tandem the match of any automatic. Shifting gears is an object of study, an aspect that adds to the complexity of a vehicle’s operation but also presents a reward in each shift, ecstasy in every fluid clutch drop trying to skim a proverbial tenth off every sprint.

Another reason this particular A4 comes ever so close to matching the S4 is the upgraded suspension, which includes firmer springs and dampers included in the S-line package. Its variable assist steering is light when starting off and firms up at higher speeds, but never lacks for a delicate feel of the road, always translating how the tires are coping with the car’s balance at any point in a gradual curve or in tight turns. Despite an aggressively tuned suspension devoted more to communication than isolation, the firm ride still muffles and absorbs casual road irregularities and dampens theeffect of severe pavement traumas. Your backside will still get a good spanking from devastated roads, but the car’s composure will stay even-tempered until you find a smooth, curving stretch of road, where you will be reminded why you upped for the sport suspension. While the A4 featuring the S-line package firms and tightens everything from spring and damper rates to steering response, it also adds a little bit of visual flair in a tasteful body kit with extended side sills and lower front fascia with slivers taken at the very bottom lip to improve and manage airflow. Similar, but less obvious modifications exist at the rear, working together with the roof top spoiler to keep the car planted as speeds grow.

While the S-line package guarantees all the necessary performance requirements are met, the Titanium package from quattro GmbH nails the visual expression of this stealth performance car. On the one hand, it’s a tasteful, reserved wagon, seemingly innocent in its crisp white paint, but the wheels are like black holes that swallow light the faster they rotate, and the front grille in all black with matte polished frame is like a yawning pit of despair flanked by futuristic projector lamps that leer menacingly like a pair of cyborg eyes from which all cars should immediately flee. Look closely and those 18-inch alloy wheels are a dark gray that Audi calls, you guessed it, titanium, but the hub fans out into 15 delicate spokes and small S-line badges decorate the grille and rear door. Pillars between windows are blacked out so the whole greenhouse is one long black cutout, while the roof rails are finished in matte black like the grille frame to give it a look that implies a wicked streak on an otherwise muted modernist design.

The interior, too, gets a taste of Titanium, with an all-black headliner and piano blacktrim replacing the usual aluminum, wood or carbon-fiber you would find on dash, door and around the shifter gate. In other words, the interior is a sea of black, with varying degrees of gloss and texture. Aside from the super-glossy black trim, the cabin is the usual Audi perfection of materials that I would gladly sleep on or wrap myself in if I could afford to decorate my home with this kind of budget. Soft-touch matte plastics, grippy little buttons, smooth, low-gloss leather on the seats, perforated leather on the three-spoke steering wheel and thick, dark carpets underfoot that made me feel guilty every time I tread dirt into the footwells.

The seats are infinitely adjustable (okay, really only 12 ways) with memory settings, and the steering wheel adjusts for rake and reach, making an ideal position easily and quickly attainable. As usual, every button and knob lights up with red back-glow at night and a soft, warm red LED floodlight illuminated the center console, making it easier tonavigate the wide array of electronics at one’s disposal. I won’t bore you with details of its superb Bose sound system, automatic climate control, front and rear heated seats or its navigation system and multimedia interface because surely you’ve already read of those in previous stories about Audi’s top-flight equipment options.

I also won’t bore you with the list of safety equipment and solid structure that earned it the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick in the midsize sedan class, but it’s clearly not a vehicle to shy away from for safety concerns, especially considering it is infinitely more controllable on the road than your average lumbering SUV or even crossover compromise. Space-wise, it doesn’t offer the same kind of rear legroom as those types of vehicles (or even space-conscious small cars like the Nissan Versa or Honda Fit), but occupants are rewarded with comfortable contoured seats and adjustable headrests that will win over anyone from about five feet to over six. Of course, for each option box ticked off and each gadget or necessity factored in, price can become downright menacing, so it’s not for anyone who thinks luxury is measured in size or expects that all the toys should be included in the base price.

But if you’re in the A4 3.2’s driver’s seat, you’ll be won over by the sinister roar of the V6 on startup with the soul of a V8 and aturbine-whoosh as you drive it into the far side of the tach. Forget about the Audi’s faultless interior (colorless, too, and almost soulless in a Mephistophelian sort of way), focus on the road ahead, the decreasing radius of the onramp and the dry line through the wet shoulders and feel every inch of rubber eating up pavement as you attempt and fail to push it even a micron out of line. And you will, because the power is wonderfully apportioned through quattro’s 50:50 front to rear power split, and the winter tires grip like pit bulls locked onto their prey, frenzied by the taste of flesh, sucking the black right out of the pavement and bleeding it out through the wicked Titanium wheels. The look is right, the balance is right, the feel is right, the power is there and the connection resonates through feet and hands to engage every part of body, mind and speed. It just gives me that warm, fuzzy and slightly evil feeling all over, and when you feel that, you know it’s right.