2018 Audi A4: Sedate styling hides a superlative sedan
Cars
This line that flows uninterrupted from the top of the tail light all the way to the corner of the headlights in one uninterrupted stroke is kind of the most interesting thing of the Audi A4's exterior.
Design.
It's simple in its geometry, it's mathematically efficient.
But it's not exactly what you'd call sexy, is it?
Fortunately, underneath that somewhat bland exterior is a car that's just packed with performance and technology.
Spend enough time behind the wheel and you'll find the 2018 Audi A4 is a car that's just bursting with personality.
And that's what we intend to do today, spend a lot of time behind the wheel.
Let's hit the road.
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It doesn't have the broad shoulders of the Coupe or the windflip profile of the Sportback By the sedan is underpinned by the same powertrain as those two vehicles.
So you've got a 2.0 liter turbo charged engine making 252 horsepower and around 273 pound feet of torque.
You're gonna put that through a 7-speed dual clutch automatic transmission on its way to the Quatro all wheel drive system.
Now you can get the A4 at an ultra trim level, that's gonna get you front wheel drive and better fuel economy, but don't bother.
If you're gonna go through the trouble of paying for an Audi, just get Quattro, it's what these cars are known for.
Now on the road the A4 feels pretty pedestrian, when you just drive it like a regular car.
When you go around a corner, it doesn't do anything too upsetting.
The power's pretty good for passing but not overwhelming.
However if you take the time and you mess with the drive mode.
Put it in its sport mode, maybe flap the transmission over into its manual mode and use the paddle shifters here.
You can actually get really good performance out of this powertrain.
The [UNKNOWN] is great and the engine feels well match to the fast shifting dual clutch automatic transmission.
And interestingly, the harder you [UNKNOWN] this thing into a corner, the better this [UNKNOWN] wheel drive system and [UNKNOWN] feel.
There's a lot of performance in this car that's not necessarily evident the first time you Hop in an turn it on.
You kind of gotta dig for it.
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Now beyond performance the A4 is packed with technology.
In the dashboard we've got the MMI infotainment system.
And in the upper trim levels we get the MMI plus system and that's going to add Google Earth's navigation.
With satellite imagery overlays.
And in front of me we've got this really good Audi Virtual Cockpit that's a reconfigurable display that can show everything from maps to fuel economy data to all of your infotainment stuff right here in the dashboard.
We've also got a ton of driver ready technology that we're gonna talk about in a separate video, but Let's just say that this car is one of the most technologically advanced cars in its class.
Now, the look is a little pedestrian.
It's nowhere near as good looking as say a BMW 3 Series.
It's not even as good looking as the A5 Coupe, which is basically the same car with more curves, but it's just packed with technology and it's packed with performance.
And this is a car that really sort of Shows you its performance and not necessarily tells you about how cool it is on the exterior, it's the car for you.
I think I'm all right with that.
The 2018 Audi A4 Ultra, that's the front wheel drive version of the sedan, starts at around $36,000.
Now, here we've got a Prestige Quattro.
It's close to the top of the line and as tested with options, we're looking at about $52,000.
Now there's a sweet spot somewhere in between those At the premium plus trim level with quattro.
That's gonna give you all wheel drive and all the tech that we like to see in this car.
And it's gonna be a handsomely appointed car, it's handsomely designed.
It's not gonna turn up any noses, but it's also not gonna turn any heads anywhere you go.
So personally, I think I'd go with the A5 Sport back.
It's basically the same car with the same performance, and the same technology, but with a lot more personality in its design.
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