Introducing the new Audi A4! When it comes to upmarket, family-friendly saloons, it’s one of the most popular on our roads today. But is it worth considering over the recently crowned 2019 carwow Car of the Year, the new BMW 3 Series? Join Mat Watson for a closer look in his latest in-depth review, as he critiques the interior, infotainment and drivability – and, most importantly, pokes it with a stick!
This is the new audi a4 now saying new it’s not strictly all-new it’s more as though out has been reading a self-help book and they’re taking a good long hard look at the a thought and figured out how they can improve various bits of it to make it more appealing to people it’s got a slightly tweaked design slightly revised interior some new engines and some added
Tech but it’s still effectively the same car underneath now this revised rda for it starts from 30,000 pounds there you can save an average around four grand off on through car while so if you want to see how much money you can save on this car or any new car for that matter go to car way you can do that by clicking on the link just up there or following the one
In the description of the video go check it out – offers you can get from a trusted dealers let’s kick off this review by talking about the a fours design generally looks the same as before and it’s a smart looking vehicle there are some updates for instance the design of the lights which are all aad and now you get this strip that joins them the bump is slightly
Tweaked as well and the exhausts on s-line cards you have silvery bits of trim to make it feel more expensive lesser cars don’t have that though as we move down the side there’s a really significant change so when they facelift cars they only normally just mess around with the plastic key bits the bumpers but they’ve actually changed the body panel so you’ve now
Got these creases here in the rear haunches that going to the doors that looks very smart and it follows on from the a6 similar story here at the front as well it is unusual that the front you have completely new lights and they’re all led redesigned from bumpers and the thing that i’m really not sure is this then tear it looks sporty and it works on the a1 but on
This more sophisticated more grown-up a voice just a little bit out of place it’s like a 50 year old wearing converse trainers like the color though colours awesome because it’s car by blue so of course i’m going to like it overall a successful update a pot from that bit there here in the front the revised a4 is pretty much identical to how it was before which is
Not a bad thing really because it is a nice simple clean design quite as good as well so squidgy here squidgy here soft materials here here solid centre console it’s even nice material here on the door bins lovely steering wheel controls all nicely damped i do like the way that they have the controls for the climate there in the dials as well it’s really nice the
Main differences are here so you’ve got piano black plastic instead of kind of matte grey looks good but it does scratch easily mmm there’s a new compartment here because there’s no swivel wheel because the infotainment system is new and you’ve got this massive screen here on the dash and that brings me onto this car specs the a full range kicks off with a technic
Model and it gets a 10 inch infotainment screen and a 12 inch digital drivers display three zone climate control normal cruise control with auto emergency braking and pedestrian detection all around parking sensors and a reversing camera four-way adjustable lumbar support and heating for the front seats though the seats are just made out cloth and of course automatic
Lights and wipers yeah next up is a sport model which has some sporty exterior styling including 18 instead of the normal 17-inch alloy wheels interior ambient lighting and let the sport seats next up is sli model of which gets some posh badging it’s an improved sporty exterior styling and lowered stiffened sport suspension and sports seats they’re both part leather
And part alcantara now you can actually get a black edition car which is essentially the s-line but with some more black bits of trim a sporty steering wheel with a flat bottom finally there’s a range topping vorsprung model which has adaptive matrix led headlamps which can plug apart their beam so you don’t dazzle oncoming drivers fully adaptive cruise control
Which can brake the car to shunt along in slow-moving traffic and will steer it to keep you in lane a sunroof adaptive suspension electrically operated front seats heated rear seats and a 360-degree camera alright let’s continue this review by talking about this infotainment system it’s just a touchscreen there’s decent icons large enough size so you can press them
Quite easy and it makes a clicking sound you hit them although unlike the infotainment system that you get on the a6 the very latest out is doesn’t vibrate to let you know that you’ve actually hit the right button so that is a bit harder when you’re driving the system itself is pretty high resolution to look at it’s nice and responds reasonably quick enough it’s
Not as fast in terms of scaling as your mobile phone but i can’t fault that resolution it’s pretty bloomin nice and it’s all pretty logical as well you’ve also got some voice commands with it but they are not the best they’re quite limited what they’ll do the good news is though android auto and apple carplay i would use that satellite navigation system over out
Is although as one is pretty good it’s just better to use waze or google maps with all the live traffic information the only problem is is that you can’t have the mapping from ways or google maps on the digital dolls and this digital drivers display is one of the very very best in the business you can change the view if you wanted to make the door smaller and
Switch through all the functions that you can control through the main screen just on the steering wheel and that is what i do i think it’s brilliant superb system and overall how does infotainment system is good though it’s not quite as good and you know it guys you know i’m gonna say as everybody together come on bmws idrive and if you click on the pop-out banner
There or follow the link below the video you can watch my in-depth video review of the new bmw 3-series now let’s talk about connectivity so you’ve got usb input here your 12 volt socket there if you need to charge them other devices there’s a wireless charging pad under here and a usbc import which i will never use because i never have the connector under there
As well you’ve got some extra storage here little place for your glovebox is what i would call a maroon nice size no the door is look large bottle fit easy entered or been there’s some extra storage here for some other bits and pieces that go back a long way and then you’ve got some decent sized cupholders know if you have toilet bowls they do start to get in the
Way of these buttons but really it’s not too much of a problem as for the driving position absolutely lovely sixth in the seat base out there first of all under thigh support jack it up quite away because there’s a decent amount of headroom if you’re sure to get nice and low get tall and if you’ve got really long legs look at that i can’t even reach the pedals now
Obviously the people building haven’t a true lots of adjustment in the steering wheel voila it’s a very practical car in the front now let’s go check it out in the back so one of the good things about the a4 is the rear doors open nice and wide it’s not quite as easy to get into as an suv such as a q5 because you have to flop down into it but it’s still not too much
Of a problem really as you can see i’ve got plenty of space in here new rooms really really good headroom is just about fit a whole hand under there this is recess the roof is so people over 6 o’clock will be more than happy back here if you need to carry three people at once the center seat is comfy enough but there is this hump in the floor look like monkey logs
Over along and then he’s sitting a bit higher so headroom isn’t quite so good but once again i can just about get away with it there’s lots of space in the foot wells for everyone’s feet the only slight problem is is that the body it’s kind of wide but it’s not the widest in class there are a few bit of cars were coming three people across the back at once such
As a volvo v60 or s60 and you can see my fault in depth video review of one of those cars by clicking up there or following the link below the video let’s move back over here because i want to show you some of the practicality aspects net edge so right up to sankey the door bends low and behold are big enough for a large bottle that windows nice and big so you get
A good view oh it’s just a bit of a shame they don’t go all the way down for leading out purposes but most people don’t do that kids are generally just on their ipads anyway speaking of which back here there is only one point to charge stuff so you can leave all those little 12 volt socket adapters with two usb ports so you can charge both your kids ipad so that
They’ve consoling prattle on when you’re driving down and i won’t go through nerves there’s an armrest here with some point of storage under there funny probably fit a small tablet in there and a lot is the season in new design for the cupholders in here look at that it just gets better and better that’s so very very german possibly slightly over engineered and
If you need to carry longer items look for this down and carry things through here such as some skis i always say skis probably neverest skis is more like to be some kind of like long lump or a piece of timber for diy if you need to carry really young people then it’s dead easy to fit a child sitting here that eyes fixed covers are removable so you might lose
Them but the actual points the anchors are very easy to get to and it’s simple to fit a child seat and you can fit a rear-facing seat even the big ones without having to move the front seat forward and there’s just about enough room to squeeze a human being in between two so you could take someone along with two kids in the back if you absolutely had to for short
Journeys let’s check out the boot then so in absolute outrightly to reach capacity it’s 480 litres which is as big as it gets for this class of saloon car and the best thing about the audi’s it’s a nice square boot so it’s dead easy to pack for there’s a bit of a load lip but you know for a saloon that is nothing it’s dead easy to get things in and out of here as
Well plus you’ve got some useful things like tie-down points is nicked either side you’ve also got a 12 volt socket hidden in there so you can charge bits and pieces if you need to and look at this a little hook we can hang you shopping bags off so all your produce doesn’t roll around the place when you’re going on the roundabout underneath here there’s a bit more
Storage kind of where you could squeeze stuff in and all fits around the battery for the mild hybrid system and if you need to carry even more stuff what you can do is fold on the wrist seats annoyingly you can’t dip them in the boot that you can in some of the cars so don’t spill over you have to do it from here but the seats as you can see do lie reasonably flat
So yeah and the cabin is quite large as well so how much stuff can you fit this car boot well with the back seats folded down you can fit in two large boxes three small boxes three more small boxes two large suitcases and two small suitcases with the seats up you can fit in two large suitcases and two small suitcases plus a baby buggy or a set of golf clubs there
Is one thing i forgot to point out is this look i like how even though you haven’t got an automated tailgate it’s so nicely damped that he doesn’t chin you when you open it like it does on some other cars however it’s not all good here’s five annoying things and then the audi a4 well it’s nice to have a certain area unfortunately it doesn’t particularly open very
Wide what you expect on a modern car the resolution the parking camera just isn’t up to the actual quality of that infotainment screen waste they should have updated this as well in the past with iot used to be able to fit pretty much any option to any model of car no matter how basic it was not anymore though for instance you can’t get the matrix led headlights on
Lesser models than the vorsprung the reason is due to the way they have to report the emissions of the car and extra options do increase the admissions yeah it’s all to do with regulation and a little bit annoying for the customer oh look it appears the space for a spare wheel but actually you can’t fit one at all because of the mild hybrid technology that means
It’s only tire sealant so yeah if you get a punch-up you’re gonna have to call the breakdown service to help you at the invitation screen gets covered in fingerprints which you really notice when the screen is off mean thank god the audi’s provided this branded cloth to wipe it all off with yeah my job better added about 20 quid to the cost of the car it’s not all
Negative though here’s five good things about this car eugenie mild hybrid technology fitted to some versions of the a4 means that when you lift off the accelerator when you’re driving the engine will curtain you’ll just coast and that helps save fuel there are two coat hooks in each side of the rear seats so it means that everyone can hang their coat up or you can
Hang up your four coats if you’d like to wear full coats the cars navigation system is constantly working in the background and it can tell when you’re about to reach a roundabout or a junction or if there’s traffic ahead and they’ll tell you to just back off the throttle just slow down and coast to help save fuel all very clever okay you have a little lock on the
Seat backs which means you can lock them in place and you can also lock the ski hatch as well which means that if someone breaks into the car they can’t they engage your boot to steal all your valuables petrol versions of the a4 have real exhausts yes there’s a big surround but the exhaust within does pass the car while stick of truth now mention anything about
The other vents on this car noise i’ll have to include this in the bad section i’m running out good so right okay then it’s time stock engine stay with me stay with me i’ll keep it brief so the main state of the range are 2-liter turbo petrol and 2-liter turbo diesel’s with different states of performance if you click on the pop-out balanced up there in the top
Right hand corner of the screen you can go to color for the exact details on our specs pages but the one you really want is the one in this car so it’s the tfsi 40 so it’s got hundred nine horsepower so decent performance is alright economy and it’s quite a decent price as well it’s also got the s-tronic gearbox you can have a manual i wouldn’t i love the s-tronic
Automatic gearbox and certain models you can actually get with quattro all-wheel drive which isn’t necessary anyway so i put the details of this forty tfsi with s-tronic with a slide into the car configurator and it should only cost just over 37,000 pounds but i’ve got an offer back for just under thirty two thousand pounds so saving of over five grand really good
So you click that link or the one below the video to try out our configurator nice time to see what this a4 is like to drive and start in town the suspension is really good over bumps this is the s line it’s supposed to be sport here but that’s all good you can actually get it with adaptive dampers but don’t think you need the standard setup i’ve gotten this car
Is more than adequate just smoothing out the bumps the turning circle is all right it’s not the best in the world it’s okay though i like it also the brakes they’re pretty sharp and they’re not too grabby it’s all pretty bloomin good actually now let’s see what this car is like to park here we go is a space this will highlight one of the issues i have with the
A4 the automatic gearbox the way it works means that it’s a little bit jerky when you’re just pulling away so you have to be quite careful visibility in the car is decent the reversing camera is nice and large and the definition isn’t the best on the stiffening end of this space it’s really handy the way the door mirror automatically tilts down i’ll do once again
This is gonna be a bit awkward i don’t in the car in front the gearbox just isn’t quite as smooth especially for parking as that that you get in a mercedes c-class and if you click on the pop out banner up there you can watch my fault in depth video review of that car it’s not all for it’s just something to note when you’re driving along at normal speeds the gearbox
Is fine it’s just maneuvering and that’s it for that when you got on the motorway this a four is predictably good it’s relaxing it’s quiet you can do lots of miles in this thing and it’s reassuringly stable at speed the gearbox and the engine worked very well together as well so i’m cruising at 50 miles an hour i’m in comfort mode i need to overtake floor it off
We go gearbox to respond as well and the engine is nice and smooth nice and quiet that is good that’s for the economy 30 miles per gallon not bad for a turbo petrol this 2-liter 190 horsepower engine is pretty impressive the question is though how does the audi perform on twisty road because obviously it’s gonna be sensible right so probably not much fun i’m just
Gonna put it into dynamic mode sharpen up the way of the steering and make the throw response a little bit snappier put it into manual mode for the automatic gearbox here’s a corner it just seems to go round the steering isn’t exactly sharp all that but the car just grips once again goes around unflappable it’s actually really good you don’t think it’s kind of even
It just grips and does its thing just get on with business it’s not fun it’s not sporty it’s not my diet ii i can have for a mayor julia in fact if you wanna see my in-depth video review of that car you can click up there but really for most people most of the time it does all you need to do and you’re probably keep up with a julia this is despite the fact this
Car is front-wheel drive the dealer’s rear-wheel drive which is a more sporty setup though of course you can get this id with four-wheel drive if you need some added grip that is impressive i felt like it shouldn’t be that good but it just is so then what’s my final verdict on the revised ld8 for sure do avoid it should he consider it should he shortlist it why
Am i laughing at my own jokes that aren’t even funny or should you go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the a for it’s a really lovely family car feel super posh the updates are good but it’s no longer the very best in class finally there’s the range-topping it’s only wrong topping finally there’s the range-topping voice pro model which has
Led matrix finally there’s the range-topping voice berg middle model in a model finally there’s the range-topping the matrix at noon
Transcribed from video
Audi A4 2020 in-depth review | carwow Reviews By carwow
