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2021 Audi A4 2.0L TSI Technology: Ownership experience

6th January 2022, 13:15 by Rahul Nagaraj

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I have got a minimum of 10 km/l in Bengaluru traffic and a maximum of 17.5 km/l on a busy highway. With spirited driving on the highway, the fuel efficiency showed 13.5 km/l.

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Likes

Silent and smooth engine with good fuel economy.
Good quality and plush interiors with minimum chrome.
Properly insulated cabin. Outside noises sound far away.
Audi Virtual Cockpit- the best iteration of a digital instrument cluster.
The spare wheel has its own space, leaving a huge boot for luggage.
Comfortable suspension that does not compromise on handling.
Small steering wheel, weighs up nicely in dynamic mode.
Audi phone box actually increases mobile coverage in rural/ hill areas.

Dislikes

No rear-wheel/ all-wheel-drive even as an option.
No Audi pre-sense. So no increase in power from the Mild Hybrid System.
Strictly average sound quality from the 10 speaker system.
Android Auto / Apple Carplay is wired only. No use of the wireless charging pad.
The car is front heavy. Can be easily felt at high speeds if the boot is empty.
The gearbox is slow in Comfort and Eco mode. Changes to fast shifts in dynamic mode.
No ventilated seats (not offered in this class). No perforated leather on the seats.
A small horn is hard to reach and requires a hard press to work.

Background

My old ride: The 2014 Santa Fe, was a beast of a car. The complete disconnect from the road by the suspension and the steering means this car can be driven for hours without fatigue. The engine is a sleeping monster, once a driver learns to compensate for the slow auto-box, this car can easily keep up with the likes of 520D. I have also managed to keep up with the legendary 530D on our roads.
My profession: I command cargo ships and specialise in Car Carriers. Over the years I have worked closely with Daimler/ Mercedes, VW, BMW, Ford and all the Japanese brands. I get to see the latest and greatest of their cars (not all the time, we do second-had runs too).
Usage: Predominantly highway runs with occasional city use. So a boot is needed. The spare wheel is also important.
Decision making: As my old ride is a large and fast SUV, many cars feel super slow to my perception. I rarely drive my father’s Creta or my wife’s i10 as they are just too slow. Any car we purchase will be looked after and driven by my wife as I am out at sea half the time, so her liking the car is important.

The decision to buy a mid-size sedan from the four rings:

I always wanted my next car to be European. I have been looking, in passing, at new cars for a few years.
In 2018 with a budget of 60 lakh in Bengaluru, I was getting an AMG C-43 within my budget. Since Santa Fe was only 4 years old, I decided to postpone a car purchase.
In 2021 with the same budget of 60 Lakh, I could not get an ordinary C class or the 3 series before discount!
Spoke to the family, if this trend continues, even the base Germans will not be affordable in a few years. So with the BMW 3 series or pushing budget to a Volvo XC60 in mind, we started our test drives in September 2021. I first tried the pre-owned route, since my wife has to take care of the car, these were quickly dismissed.

[Before I go into the test drives I want to say that in Bengaluru, every showroom I visited, we were attended to immediately and all questions were answered. Once we walked out of the showroom only follow-up as per my request were done. We felt welcome everywhere we went. This is different from our Nexa/ Honda/ Hyundai experience from 3 years ago.]

First stop - Mercedes Benz (wife wanted to try GLC): The test drive of the GLA was nice, my kid loved the sunroof. I liked the engine. The digital instrument cluster is probably the sharpest I have seen in this segment but the car is too small. The wife did not like the ride and found the interiors basic for rear passengers.

Then I sat in the C class. Seating was almost go-cart style with only a little height adjustment available. Looking at the interiors I was like “Are you kidding me!”. I carried the latest C class to china in March 2021, and that model ‘maybe’ will come in 2022. The boot can’t even take one large suitcase with the spare wheel. Did not do the test drive of the C class. I had a similar reaction in the GLC. Since I recently did a Daimler run, I have seen the latest Mercedes in March 2021 going to China and these outdated cars will still be sold in India well into 2022. So no Mercedes for us.

Next stop - BMW: After the Mercedes experience, the 3 series interiors came across as basic. The digital instrument cluster is digitised just to tick off someone’s checklist, it would have been better looking with a physical cluster. OK, so these are not what makes BMW famous. Let’s do a test drive.

Drove the 330Li. After the diesel Santa Fe, this car did not impress. I repeatedly confirmed with the SA sitting beside me if the car was in sport mode. So if the 3 series petrol was not as good as the car we were replacing, then we would have to look at X3 or 530i. My wife’s old company used BMWs for office pick up / drop and my wife flatly refused to consider X1/ 3 and X3. She finds BMW to be uncomfortable for passengers on city roads and bumpy highways.

Still wanting a BMW, I requested a price list for the 3/ X3 and 5. The sales rep kept pushing for the 330Li with long waiting for the regular 3 and 5 series. No discounts on any of the cars. Eventually, the difference from the Audi was just too much to ignore.

Volvo: The following weekend, I took a long test drive on the S60. This is a very comfortable car with usable ADAS. The car drove itself in Bengaluru traffic with SUVs squeezing in front and no lane markings. The XC60 is a completely different car. Opulent interiors with proper massage seats (not like Mercedes) and excellent sound system. Got a good offer on the outgoing diesel model. The New 2021 petrol model has at least 2 months waiting after launch and no Android Auto/ Apple Carplay! Only Android head unit. Without Apple Carplay, for me, the car is out. With Siri, I listen to and respond to email/ SMS/ What’s App etc. without taking my eyes off the road.

Special mention to Yesudas and his boss Arun at Martial Motors Bengaluru. They attended to all my requests, got the car to my place and spent hours with my wife answering all her questions.

Unfortunately, my wife was not keen on an outgoing diesel model of the XC60 which will be a headache to re-sell like I was experiencing with the Santa Fe. These cars, no matter how good, get no attention in India.

The next day my wife told me she had arranged for me to test drive an Audi A4 and the car will be at our home first thing in the morning.

Before the car arrived, I quickly opened the A4 – 2021 thread on Team-BHP to check for any complaints. Only got pages of sweet discounts on the forum.

The test drive was good. The car was peppy, comfortable and boy the virtual cockpit looked nice. The seating position was also the highest compared to 3 Series, C class and S60. I clearly told the SA that any car with the term “DSG” attached to it gave me the creeps. (yes yes I spend too much time on team-bhp.com ). He told me Audi uses a different drivetrain and I should search for Audi DSG, not Skoda DSG.

The A6 was also discussed but no Quattro there so even if it was cheaper than the 5 series, the BMW was a better choice.

Back home, the last-price OTR quoted by the Audi SA was far lower than any price we had heard for weeks!

We finally decided to purchase a 50 lakh mid-size sedan to replace our SUV and then next year purchase a Thar to have an SUV sedan balance in our garage. My kid was OK with the small sunroof of the A4 because I have a strict ‘no sticking head out of the sun roof’ policy.

Delivery Experience:

Once we had decided on the A4, the showroom had trouble confirming the colour we wanted. By mid-October, most of the discounted A4s were sold.

My wife insisted on Blue outside and Beige inside. They finally offered a Blue exterior and Tan interior, which we accepted.

Two weeks after the initial booking, we took delivery of the A4 in Navarra Blue with Okapi Brown interior.

We decided to take a loan instead of paying up front. The loan process was smooth and the showroom representative handled everything.