Audi A4 3.0 TDI Car Review

Overview

The LCD screen has incorporated the radio and the 6 disc CD player functions with the navigation and TV tuner. The TV tuner was a nice addition to see come to the Audi A4 3. If you enable the route guidance option through the satellite navigation system, the directions and distance will be displayed on this screen. The sound system that you can get with the Audi A4 3 is absolutely fantastic. Forget massive power assistance, the Audi's steering is quite heavy. The Audi A4 range features ten different models to choose from.

Details

Over the years Audi has been known as the reliable alternative to the luxury cars made by BMW and Mercedes. With that said, they entered a pretty fierce and competitive market. The standards have to be set pretty high if you are trying to compete with most well known luxury vehicles. The Audi A4 3 set out to keep the manufacturers name in good standings. Audi has said that the new 3.0 liter Diesel V6 engine is the most powerful of its class. These claims lead me to be quite excited to check this model out.

The sound system that you can get with the Audi A4 3 is absolutely fantastic. It is optional, but for $1,100 you get a BOSE sound system that is well worth the price. The clarity it provides is quite astounding, while the bass hits deep and the incredibly sharp treble push out your favorite tunes. The system is at least up to par to the Mark Levinson system found in a few Lexus models, but in my opinion it is even better.

The TV tuner was a nice addition to see come to the Audi A4 3. The TV tuner uses analogue waves to stream the picture just as a normal TV would do. The downside to this is that the reception can go from great to horrible when you are in a city like area. To fix this problem though, Audi is said to be adding digital tuners in the future. This will increase the quality, but without a much more powerful antenna the problem of losing the picture will not go away.

There are several options available to be added to the Audi A4 and one of the best is the Navigation Plus with a TV Tuner. Though it does add a hefty $8,500 to the price, it comes with an LCD screen built with Audi's MMI logic technology. The LCD screen has incorporated the radio and the 6 disc CD player functions with the navigation and TV tuner. The CD player can be found at the top corner of the glove box, providing quick and easier access. If you press the flip-down button, the LCD screen will rotate 90 degrees, and a DVD slot and two SD slots will become visible. The SD slots can be used for memory cards that are filled with MP3, WMA, and other audio file types.

As far as the satellite navigation system goes, it works very well. However, it can be a bit time consuming and isn't very good when you are in a hurry to enter your destination. A single knob controls the main functions of this system. You can rotate the knob clockwise or counter-clockwise to browse through the functions. Once you are ready to choose one, all you have to do is simply push the knob in to select it. The only way this system could be improved upon, is if they incorporated a touch screen LCD instead. That would make using it a lot more practical and much easier.

Driving the Audi A4 3 is definitely more enjoyable than it is a task. The driving position is absolutely perfect and provides you with an ample view of your surroundings. Thankfully, the dashboard doesn't appear cheap like most, and it maintained a sturdy and firm feel to it. They were definitely going for a long lasting setup when they designed it. With the wood grain trim and the Quattro badge, it was also quite pleasing to the eye.

The steering wheel comes with the much appreciated set of steering wheel controls. These make controlling the radio a world easier and safer since you don't spend any time fumbling around the options to change the track or radio station. Along with that the steering wheel features paddle shifters that active instantly when you select them.

The exterior of the car is astonishing in looks. The very slick design with the four ring emblem of Audi makes it one awesome looking vehicle. The dual exhausts that can be found under the bumper are quite a sight by themselves. If you look at the side of the vehicle you will see the 17 inch alloy wheels, with a sporty 9 spoke design. No matter what angle you are viewing this car from, you are sure to be pleased with its appearance.

One feature I enjoyed is the multi-functional screen located in between the tachometer and speedometer. If you enable the route guidance option through the satellite navigation system, the directions and distance will be displayed on this screen. This was a very nice addition since you no longer have to keep looking back and forth at the LCD screen. You can also see the outside temperature and trip computer displayed through this same screen. With a high resolution and top quality display, everything is easy to read and you shouldn't have any problems using it.

Unfortunately, the interior is nothing spectacular to look at. It isn't ugly or terrible looking, but it isn't quick to impress you either. If you are sitting in the front then the amount of room to move around is quite nice, but passengers in the back can get a little cramped up. Seating three adult passengers in the back is nearly impossible and even if you did pull it off, chances are they are not very comfortable. The back seat seemed to be the only place to take a hit space wise. The trunk of the car is very decently sized and comes with a handy full-sized spare tire.

If you are looking for more features to add on to the Audi A4 3 then you may want to opt for the Xenon headlights with an adaptive light feature. It adds $2,990 to the price, but also adds directional motors to increase the level of light produced from your headlights when taking corners. The motor conveniently moves up and to the sides to give you a much better line of sight. It may not be the most noticeable feature on the car, even when it is in use, but it is worth having if you do a lot of driving at night.

The Audi A4 range features ten different models to choose from. The most of expensive of these ten is the A4 3.0 TDI. The base price of the Audi A4 3 is set at $86,700 but if you opt for the optional goodies you will end up with a price closer to $100,000.

There is one issue with the handbrake, and its only because the passenger and driver armrest is always in your way. With an obstacle in your way, it makes it pretty difficult to lift the handbrake. This flaw should have never made it out of the design phase and I am not sure how or why they released it with this issue. Also, the center console could have used a little more room for storage. However, the glove box has sufficient space to store your goodies. So as long as you don't have a lot to store away, this shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

Turn the key and this truck-like torque-monster comes to life with a burble that can only mean one thing-Diesel. One of the first things I noticed about this car was the weight of the steering. Forget massive power assistance, the Audi's steering is quite heavy. It almost feels like there is no power steering on some occasions. This isn't always a bad thing, it gives the driver a chance to man handle the car, it almost feels more satisfying when pushing the A4 through the bends.

In conclusion, I am very impressed with the looks and performance of the Audi A4 3, but the price tag has me a little hesitant. Sure, the engine is absolutely wonderful and the few features that are available are great, but at the same time I am not really sure the car is worth paying over $90,000 to own. The feature list isn't as long as I would like for a car in this price range. If you don't mind getting a car with very little features then you may want to consider this Audi A4, but if you like all the bells and whistles you should take your business elsewhere.