Audi: ... Quattro Expense and test drive results

I am like sooo close. Just wrapping my head around the price.

The past weekend I tried the TSX and G35X. Results were:

TSX: OK, nice power, understeer, pretty good value and would consider
it if we are going FWD and Japanese only.

G35X: kind of like a biggish America saloon car, pretty good road
feel, big cabin and a bit noisy and not an A4. And the sales guy was a
maroon. Bad experience: we came back from the test drive and had to
wait for him to find us in the showroom. Bad move. Right after we
drove the Infiniti we went back and did another drive in the A4
Quatrro (I did a test drive the weekend prior). Mmmm, nice car. We
went over exactly the same roads, looked for bumps, drove one side of
the car in the dirt to feel the effects of going off road and back
onto the hard top and the A4 wins. The Infiniti has a big engine and
nice crap in the cabin but they are not up to German standards. Maybe
in another 10 years. A4 is still on top, we just have to find the
features and colour we want and then negotiate. The A4 quattro knows
the road and it feels like it is glued down. And the torque is a ton
better than the Infiniti. I checked this morning in a Consumers Report
and the Audi hit 166ft/lbs at 1950 RPMs and the Infiniti’s same torque
but about 4700 or so. Not much pull and you have to wait to either get
out of trouble or get away from it. And both cars we tested had
automatic. The A4 Sport mode rips, better than the standard and it
also has manu-matic or what ever they call it. I tried out the manu
mode in the G35 and it was kind of ugly. The G35 engine is what the
Japanese think the Americans want: more power, more noise at the cost
of actually building a good car around it. They use the same engine is
about 10 models which is good for commonality but they miss the mark
when it comes to driving.

As for the expense, quatrro is a safety feature. I am just about to
get the list of cars with the packages I want. And the A4 FWD CVT: I
would pick it before TSX. Audi also includes 4 year bumper to bumper,
cheap money to loan, the dealer wants my sale and shows me he does and
a much much better experience than with Infiniti. And the Infiniti
sales guy chewed gum the entire time we with him.

This was Audi's sale to lose and they hit it out of the park every
time. As for the Japanese: come back in about ten years. And BMW and
Mercedes: too much dough for the same thing which is not as good as
the bullet proof quattro. I am looking forward to owning the A4 and
going on a fab road trip thru the mountains this spring. My wife
doesn't normally (never as a matter of fact) drive on road trips but
this one, guaranteed she will have some left seat time.

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:24:56 +0100, "Pete" <com>
wrote:
 

The Ghee is threadbare.

Audi has bumper to bumper coverage for 4 years. I have not seen the
warranty in person, so to speak, but have been told that it includes
ALL consumables. Including brake pads. IOW, I pay for nothing other
than gas for the car for 4 years. Tires are of course not included but
I have been told that I will not have to spend any $ for the first 4
years. No other company (maybe MB sort of) offers this warranty. It is
worth about $2K or so over 4 years. That is worth something that other
companies don't offer. So for the same $ for a similar car (G35X for
eg) you can save some $.