Audi A4 2.0 TFSI quattro 2009 Review

Road Test - Audi A4 2.0 TFSI quattro

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.0/5.0
Safety: 3.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 2.5/5.0
X-factor: 3.5/5.0

There are some cars that, for all their 'mod cons', can't help but remind you of a car from a long time ago. Such is the case with Audi's A4 2.0 TFSI quattro. The earlier car in this case was also an Audi... the 20-valve 90 quattro from the late 1980s.

The A4 has the same (relative) lack of bottom-end urge, the same high level of grip and the same driver-oriented packaging. All it's lacking is the 90 quattro's offbeat five-cylinder engine, but it makes up for that lack with a turbocharged four -- an engine with its own brand of charm.

It's a sporty screamer of a powerplant, but refined and driveable enough at lower revs around town. To get the best results from the engine, it needs to be hitting a minimum of 3000rpm before turbo boost weaves its magic. When that happens, the engine's quite willing to charge hard up to the redline -- and keep going beyond that. But without that, there's turbo lag, something particularly noticeable from a standing start.

Yet the Audi can launch well. You just have to crank up the revs enough for the turbo to be on boost in anticipation of sidestepping the clutch. As long as you do so and keep feeding the throttle into it, the turbo 2.0-litre A4 will scoot away pretty quickly.

With so much grip from the quattro drive system and the tyres -- allied to the engine's peaky nature -- you're not going to get effortless rubber-burning performance from the car, but the first gear ratio is low enough to provide respectable acceleration up to 60km/h. Unfortunately, the other ratios in the transmission are quite high and second gear won't provide 'slingshot' acceleration out of a typical corner.

The high gearing results in a 2000rpm engine speed at a steady 100km/h in sixth gear. We didn't use sixth gear that much during the week the car was in our possession and perhaps that explains in part how it was that the trip computer recorded an average fuel consumption of 11.5L/100km. With more open-road driving (and less thrashing the tripe out of it), the A4 2.0 TFSI quattro should be good for around 10.0L/100km.

Audi's official combined claim is 7.4L/100km... That'll test your self control...

The A4's straight-line traction is a hard act to follow, but the quattro drivetrain also lends a helping hand in corners. Dynamically, the Audi was very effective -- and this was where the A4 quattro revived memories of the 90 quattro.

This particular car was fitted with the Audi Drive Select system, which is an impressive bit of kit. We alternated between Comfort and Auto settings, using the Dynamic setting infrequently. During harder driving, the system left in Auto approached the Dynamic setting for its level of steering feedback, roadholding and handling. In other words, the Auto setting will be more than adequate for most people, most of the time.

The car was punted around on dry bitumen, so there was little opportunity to assess it for wet-weather grip, but with its quattro system and decent tyres (Dunlop SP Sport 07 225/50 R17), the Audi leaves little doubt it could be a pretty hard car to catch once the roads are damp...

Quite balanced and agile, the A4 would thread its way through corners with a neutral stance and plenty of steering response. There was reasonable feedback in the corners, but on-centre the steering was less communicative and, combined with a fairly quick steering ratio, was a tad nervous in a straight line. As for two A4 variants tested previously, this one required correction after the initial entry to a corner. With power on, the car would steer into the corner neatly, but then widen its line. With power off, the driver will find the car taking a second bite at the corner as it adopts a tighter line near the apex. In both cases, it was likely the stability control coming into play.

Thrown into a corner at higher speeds, the car exhibited signs of weight transfer from the rear, but this didn't unsettle the suspension, which never did anything less than convey rock-solid grip through the front wheels. And the suspension only provided the one occasion when the rear end felt less committed, during heavy braking into a corner.

Under brakes, we provoked a little tyre squeal on occasion, but the grip remained and the electronic safety aids kept everything in check. There was even a brief moment of brake-induced oversteer, but the car's roadholding was of such a high standard that it virtually washed off speed fast enough before the stability control could even intervene.

Overlooking the more sporting aspirations of the A4 quattro, the car plainly bears much in common with the two A4 variants tested previously (for information concerning packaging and comfort, read more here).

In that review, the two A4 variants were both equipped with Audi's Multitronic (CVT) system and the reviewer criticised the pedal placement for being skewed to the right. Imagine, if you will, that same situation, but with a clutch pedal thrown in for good measure.

At the risk of labouring the point, the manual A4's pedal placement is quite ordinary. For an average male there's precious little room on the right for a foot to depress the accelerator pedal without brushing the trim panel on the right or the brake pedal on the left. Similarly, unless you sit slightly askew, you'll collect the footrest as you raise your left foot from the clutch pedal.

With the manual transmission, the whole driving position becomes problematic. The take-up point for the clutch in our test car was too high, which forced this driver to raise the left knee beyond what's comfortable, unless the seat was placed further back than you would normally consider necessary. Once you shift the seat rearwards, the footrest is not so restful, with the left leg stretched out a way.

To sit comfortably and still use the clutch effectively, the reviewer had to adjust the steering column almost to the full extent away from the dash -- to enable easy reach from the seat and provide a clear view of the instruments.

Even once the driving position was 'optimised', the driver felt too low in the car and the gear shifts were still pretty slow, by necessity. Between the high (and sudden) take-up in the clutch, the off-boost lethargy of the engine and the sheer mass of the drivetrain, the whole business of matching revs to road speed was not always accomplished with great finesse. In some ways, the car is smoother when driven harder, with the engine operating at higher revs.

In its defence, the gear shift quality was precise and light.

Once again, as previously noted with an A6 tested, Audi offers so much flexibility of adjustment for the driving position, that it can take a very long time to find the appropriate mix. Just when you think you've nailed it, something else strikes you as not quite right.

In the view of this tester, the seats also lacked comfort and support for the thighs. While the seats are designed for straightforward entry and exit, they don't hug the occupants the way they arguably should -- particularly when this car can muster a high level of roadholding and almost certainly will be driven hard on occasion. Perhaps optioning the sport seats will cure this -- at a cost.

This vehicle was fitted with adaptive xenon headlights -- which could be left on an auto setting -- plus rain-sensing wipers. We had no complaints with those features, other than when the lights were reset to low beam, they left the driver feeling like the car had plunged into a cloud of coal dust.

In some respects, that is a metaphor for this particular A4 variant... the highlights are there, but the dimness of some design elements seriously detracts from the overall pleasure of operating the car.

So the A4 2.0 TFSI quattro may leave buyers in two minds. Where the 90 quattro was a focused car in its time, the modern-day A4 equivalent is a worthy successor, but compromised nonetheless.