Audi A4 Avant vs HSV Clubsport vs Mercedes-Benz C250 2013 Review

Audi A4 Avant vs HSV Clubsport vs Mercedes-Benz C250

Mercedes-Benz C250 CDI estate
Price Guide: $71,400
Options fitted to test car: Vision Package – electric sunroof, bi-xenon headlamps with cornering lights and washers, premium 12-speaker audio with sub-woofer ($4990); Driving Assistance Package Plus – active yaw control, adaptive cruise control, lane departure assist, blind spot assist ($4990)
Crash rating: Five-star ANCAP
Fuel: Diesel
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 5.3 (combined cycle)
CO2 emissions (g/km): 139

Do you have a family, a lot of stuff to tote around and the means to go a bit out of the ordinary in doing that? We’ve convened a trio of chariots here to help you get the job done in style.

Our comparo had its origins in Audi’s offer of an A4 3.0 TDI Avant for road testing. That’s the A4 wagon with the six-cylinder 3.0-litre diesel, but without the quattro AWD. Noting that it’s rated at 150kW/400Nm, we figured it would have to have a pretty-well sorted drivetrain to put 400 Newton metres s to earth through the front wheels from just 1250rpm.

As a comparison point, we thought it wise to call in a major competitor. For around the same money as the Audi, Mercedes-Benz serves up its four-cylinder 2.1-litre C250 CDI estate. Two thirds as many cylinders displacing not much more than two thirds the capacity sounds like a dubious comparison point. That is, until you notice that it generates the same 150kW as the Audi’s six, and 25 per cent more torque – 500Nm – going out through the rear wheels.

From there, it was obvious where to go for our third player. Where else do you go when you’re already pitting Germany against Germany? Germany, of course. But that seemed pretty pointless with the ageing 3 Series Touring wagon set for replacement in February. So we decided to throw something into the mix from out of left field.

We went on the hunt for something else that works up a similar kind of muscle for similar money. We found it in HSV’s Clubsport R8 Tourer. It’s a little bigger in the body, with lots more power from its 6.2-litre V8 at 325kW, and a spot more torque at 550Nm. And a completely different mindset, of course. It’s here as a radical alternative to the Germans, a very different way of fulfilling the same family-plus-gear functions for around the same price.

Audi A4 Avant 3.0 TDI
>>The aesthete in the smart suit
The A4 features the same 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine you’ll find in different states of tune all the way up the lineup to the A8, as well as in the Q5 and Q7.

Even in this low-tune form, it’s a punchy, flexible unit serving up its full 400Nm through a nice broad band from 1250-3500rpm. It’s well paired with Audi’s Multitronic transmission – a unit that proves you can get an enjoyable drive out of a CVT. You need your senses working overtime to distinguish it from a very good conventional auto.

Standard paddles allow you to flick between its eight speeds – fixed points on the transmission’s sliding scale to emulate the gears of a conventional box. They’re great for making the most of the engine’s overtaking power without hard kickdown. That’s useful in diesels – because what they squirt into the combustion chamber is 100 per cent fuel rather than fuel/air mixture, with economy suffering commensurately as the throttle opens.

Although at 1715kg it’s fairly heavy for its size, it’s a snappy performer, crossing the 0-100km/h line in 7.3 seconds. Buckets of midrange acceleration make highway and back-road driving a pleasure. They’ve done a good job of curbing the torque steer for a front-wheel drive car of its power, and also reining in the understeer going into corners at speed.

Fuel economy is impressive, too. A NSW south coast overnighter on the often twisting, undulating Princes Highway yielded an amazing 5.8L/100km. Around Sydney, we were getting mid to late sixes.

The ride skews towards firm for the sake of handling, but not uncomfortably so. On hostile surfaces, the A4 stays composed and hangs on tight through bends, absorbing the lumps and holes with reassuring quietness. The speed sensitive electro-mechanical steering is quite linear, but it could do with a bit more weight and feel.

Our S-Line tester’s austere black-on-black motif might not be to some people’s taste, but the all-electric leather/alcantara front seats are supportive behind and beneath (thumbs up for the extendable thigh support), well side-bolstered and firm enough to have you emerging fresh from long stints at the wheel.

Ergonomics are excellent, even in this specced-up variant bristling with knobs and buttons around the console and centre stack. The MMI central control system, with its circular opening menu, is quick and easy to learn.

The A4 Avant was the least roomy of our trio in the rear seat. While there’s sufficient leg and foot room there for two adults, the tall front seats can make things a bit claustrophobic on long journeys.

Cabin storage is excellent with door pockets all round, centre box and under-seat drawers. The 490-litre (floor to ceiling) cargo area is the smallest here by a hefty 200 litres, but expands via the split-fold seat to a handy 1430 litres. On the upside, the A4 outperforms the others at the towbar, taking up to 1900kg braked load or 750kg unbraked.

Our test car was optioned up over $80,000, but there are no gaping holes in the base kit list. A standard rear-view camera might be nice in a $70,000 car. In mitigation, many of the options aren’t harshly priced – we’d suggest the $900 Assistance package (adaptive cruise, lane departure warning) is money well spent.

HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer
>>The athlete in a singlet
HSV employs a bit of the WRX/EVO principle in its modified Commodores. Making little effort to disguise its humble origins can actually add to its attraction.
This isn’t just about working-class hero appeal – part of the logic in the underlying message is that you’re spending your money on the meaty, hard-man stuff that turns a Commodore into a track car.

Well it does if you don’t get the auto. It’s not a bad box, but it doesn’t do the engine justice. Save two grand – there’s enough torque here to make this an easy drive even with HSV’s meaty manual. And you get the launch control.

Indoors, it comes with all the space benefits of a Commodore, which means it has by far the best rear-seat leg room on offer here. The front sports seats are big and comfy – several of our drivers and passengers deemed them the best of the bunch. Fore-and-aft adjustment is manual – quick and simple. Height adjustment is electric, where it’s handy.

Hard plastics around the centre stack and console and a general sense of stick-on deluxe earn it the bronze medal in this company, but the ergonomics are decent. There’s no shortage of information, thanks to the trio of auxiliary gauges and the Enhanced Driver Interface. The latter lets you scroll through instantaneous power and torque outputs, stopwatch and lap-timer, brake-force and g-force distribution maps… it’s fascinating stuff and not at all conducive to keeping your eyes on the road.

But that’s where the gimmickry ends. Past that, HSV serves up what you’d expect in a car of this price: dual-zone climate control, sat-nav, reversing camera, rear parking beepers, leather, 20-inch alloys, sports suspension, auto headlamps with daytime running lights.

No fancy keyless trickery – stick the key in the hole, twist it and you’re at the source of HSV’s appeal – good old American know-how in burbling baritone. The LS3 V8 needs a raucous 4600rpm to reach its peak 550Nm, but so much of it is available down low it doesn’t matter, even pushing around a chunky 1887kg. Put your foot down hard and meet Meat

Loaf on wheels – a great bellow through the quad pipes and 99.9L/100km (because that’s as far as the real-time readout goes).
But it’s quite happy and remarkably less thirsty in traffic. Our ten days around Sydney yielded consistent mid-late 13s, mid-15s at the worst, with little effort. That’s remarkable given its 20.9L/100km official urban cycle figure. We thought it was aberrant, but it kept happening. Really.

The six-speed auto transmission does its job, but it could do with a set of paddles. Especially with its rather weighty, direct steering – part of a well-sorted handling package that gets the big bloke through corners with prowess enough to match the muscle under the hood.

Load capacity figures reflect how much more metal box you get for your money than with the Germans. The Clubsport will swallow up to 895 litres with the split-fold rear seat up, expanding to an enormous 2000 litres when it’s down. Surprisingly, it’s not up to the Audi on towing performance. It’ll take 1600kg braked or 750kg unbraked.

A major mechanical overhaul saw the old diesel fours replaced with a new 2.1-litre engine in two specs, the upper of which we see here. The first thing you notice on booting up this remarkable little engine is how little Daimler has done to disguise it. It’s anachronistically chuggy. No matter – it marks a milestone for the leap forward it takes mass-market oilers on the modern value scale for driveability, economy and cleanliness.

The second thing to notice is its muscles. Okay, the C250 CDI needs an uncomfortable 4200rpm to reach its 150kW peak power. But oilers are about torque, not necessarily kilowatts. And this one draws that extraordinary 500Nm from just 1600rpm.

It only lasts until 1800rpm, but the narrowness of its torque band is the key to its exceptional fuel efficiency. It’s calibrated to reward lightness of touch, which it does with an official 5.3L/100km on the combined cycle. We didn’t achieve that, even on a Princes Highway overnighter down the NSW south coast. But we did get mid-sixes both ways on that trip with a fair amount of foot-down action and mucking around with the paddles.

Not that there’s much need for that, with the old five-speed auto transmission supplanted by the seven-speed 7G-Tronic transmission across the lineup, helping boost flexibility and fuel efficiency. It’s a terrific combination, with a flexibility and technology that keeps crook shifts to near zero on even the trickiest of roads.

Remarkably, it returned recurrent late-sixes around the crowded Sydney metro area, against an official 6.5L/100km on the urban cycle. This without effort from an engine that will take you from 0-100km/h in a little over the 7.2 seconds it takes its sedan sibling.

In short, it works on every front: it’s potent, it’s frugal and it’s very clean. But, adding to the surprise, it’s neither as frugal nor as clean as Audi’s 3.0-litre six. It helps, though, that our car’s satnav included a facility to recommend the most fuel-efficient route.

On ride and handling, the C achieves as perfect a balance as you’ll find in cars costing much more. A supple, absorptive spring/damper combination sequesters you away from the rough stuff with aplomb. Yet it doesn’t come at any obvious cost in cornering prowess, even at speed. Benz seats have attracted grumbles for being hard, but you can’t fault them when alighting after hours at the wheel.

Ergonomics are excellent, even if Benz does still use that stalk-mounted cruise that one can mistake for the indicator. Past that, it’s hard to fault. With the COMAND system comes internet connectivity via your smartphone.

Open the rear and you have up to 690 litres of space at your disposal with the split-fold seat up, expandable to 1500 when you drop it. It’s the least happy of our trio on towing duties, with a limit of 750kg unbraked or 1250kg braked.

Verdict

In the Benz you get loads of torque and terrific fuel economy from a little engine. In the Audi, you get less torque but better economy from a bigger engine.

As we mentioned, BMW’s next-generation 3 Touring arrives here shortly, and is very sharply priced, so it’s likely to throw a cat among the German pigeons presented here. However, it’s not likely to touch the HSV.

In the Clubsport you get similar hauling capabilities from something altogether different. It’s a simpler device than the other two here, but to dismiss it as a mug lair’s Commodore – as many a Benz or Audi buyer doubtless would – is to do it an injustice. It’s a quality drive for those prepared to pay the price at the pump.

While the auto transmission does its job, by this driver’s reckoning there’s more joy to HSVs with manual gears. But who are we to say? Although it’s a 50:50 split between autos and manuals across the HSV lineup, around 90 per cent of Clubsport Tourers sold are autos. In short, the Clubsport’s not for everyone, but those it’s for will rejoice in it. Twas ever thus.

Casual voxpops among those who sampled or rode in all three gave the gong to the A4 – yet more evidence that Audi is surmounting the default bronze medal spot among the German luxury brands. The usual compliments apply. Armed with a terrific engine and a world’s-best-practice CVT, it’s a great drive, city and highway. It’s also incredibly economical, beautifully built and stylish, if at the expense of practicality in the rear.

For this driver, though, it’s the Benz. And if the 2012 VFACTS figures are anything to go by, buyers agree, with the C Class lineup outselling the A4 by 2.5 to one.

The C250 CDI is muscular, it’s miserly and it trumps the others on ride/handling balance and interior ambience. As a midlife makeover of uncommon depth, it’s paid off.

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