Bought a 2015 Audi A4 2.0 Quattro in Estonia: My experience

Estonia has speed limits of 50 (70 on some roads) in the city, and 90 or 110 on highways. And I have no words to explain how my right foot is aching to just bury the throttle.

BHPian iceman7 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I have taken my first step into the world of the German Trinity; I bought myself a pre-loved Audi A4 2.0 TFSI Quattro.

What I like

• Clean, straight, timeless design. Not a single design line is out of place or forced.
• FAST 2.0 TFSI engine. 221 BHP & 350 Nm Torque.
• Rapid 7-speed S-Tronic gearbox.
• .Time tested quattro AWD – which I am using to the fullest on our snowed/iced roads.
• 0 – 100 km/h in 6.4 seconds.
• Mature ride and handling. 225 width rubber sticks to the tarmac offering tremendous grip.
• Mile muncher and a very capable long-distance tourer.
• Punchy 12-speaker sound system – deep bass and clear vocals.
• Stellar safety kit.
• Traction control which can be switched off.
• Heated seats (all 4) – extremely useful in North Europe.
• Ergonomics – multiple seat and steering settings help you find your PERFECT driving position.
• The 4-spoke steering wheel.
• Analog Instrument cluster – have always loved the fonts and color Audi use.
• All black leather interiors.
• Solid build quality.
• Slow ageing interiors and exteriors. The car is from 2015, and it does not show its age. Inside or out.
• Spacious boot.

What I don’t

• 7.5 – 9 kmpl in the city – par for the course, to be fair.
• Rear floor hump makes it a 4-seater.
• Slightly cramped interior at the back – legroom wise.
• Lack of Bluetooth audio streaming to play music – fixed this using a plug-in BT adapter.
• Lack of in-built navigation – Waze to the rescue.
• Lack of air vents for rear passengers.
• Current set of alloy wheels the car came with – Resolved now. Swapped with new wheels which will be winter wheels.
• Long term reliability of the 7 speed S-Tronic. Although from what I am reading, the S-Tronic is a bit different from the 7-speed DSG, and hence more robust & reliable. Time will tell!
• Maintaining a Black car – it’s my first Black car. Like an epiphany, I realized much later that maintenance is going to be painful. Not a deal-breaker, just needs extra care.
• Cost of spare parts – this is uncharted territory for me currently.

Sharp front. Still stylish after 7 years.

Rear quarter after a night in the snow. Notice the new wheels.

Simple, well laid out instrument cluster. Love the fonts.

The 4-spoke steering is meaty to hold.

Background & introduction

Unlike Netflix, there is no SKIP button here, so y’all going to have to read this.

The used car market in Estonia is insane. The variety and choice of pre-loved cars you can buy with a budget of EUR 25,000 (INR 21 lakhs) is just mind-boggling. Bump that up to EUR 30,000 and you can probably buy just about any marquee. This led to an expected problem for me – I was a kid in a candy store. My choice of what I wanted to buy changed every day. One day I wanted an Octavia RS, the next day a 3-series, next day a 5-series, next an E-class, next a Seat Leon, at one point I wanted an Impreza WRX STI. Such is the choice available. Absolute bonkers! After weeks of mindless browsing and going through hundreds of listings, I narrowed down my choice to an Octavia RS, 3-series, or a 5-series if I found a clean example.

I am quintessentially a BMW guy at heart. I couldn’t own one in India because of the upfront purchase cost and on-going maintenance costs. In Europe, it’s the opposite - wide choice of clean pre-loved cars, and a great support ecosystem of skilled (non-dealership) technicians. This gave me the confidence, and more importantly, the affordability to look at BMWs. Or Audis or Mercs for that matter. As any self-respecting petrol head, I have lusted after a powerful, RWD BMW ever since I remember. Destiny had other things planned.

Up next was the Octavia RS. Same story as the BMW. Wide choice supported by a great service ecosystem. Add to this, the Octavia RS is absolute VFM and checks all the boxes. Sturdy, handles well, looks good, is spacious on the inside, has loads of luggage space, and more importantly, comes with a 2 liter, 165 KW (221 HP) engine. What’s not to like!

I trawled through our local website for used cars and earmarked all RS and 3-series models I was interested in. There was one stumbling block though – I hadn’t got my driver’s license yet. I had completed all my exams but was waiting for the final driving exam at the State Transport department. Wait time, 3 months. Painful 3 months. This meant I couldn’t go and test any of the cars I liked. Just sit and look at them. This was in August 2021, with the exam scheduled for the end of October.

Then something else happened during that time. Due to local government regulation, eligible members of the Estonian population could withdraw a part of their pension. This immediately meant more cash in hand, which led to demand for consumer goods, including cars. Due to the global shortage of chips, new car deliveries are backed up. What compounds the issue is that Estonia is an extremely small market – 1.3 million residents in the country – so it naturally sits way down the queue if you compare it to France or Germany. A close friend wanted to buy a new Octavia; the dealership gave him a 10-month waiting time. This happened to a lot of people. They had the money to buy a new car, but they couldn’t have it today. This demand spilled over to the used car market. Suddenly, someone who was out in the market to buy a brand-new Octavia could buy a sweet, sweet 5-series for the same amount of money, immediately. The GOD’s of Economics awoke and thundered “If thy shall bring high demand, I shall increase prices!” And that is exactly what happened. Used car prices spiked. Well at least of those that remained on the shelves. All the cars I had shortlisted sold out in a month. Gone! PooF! I decided to put the whole search process on hold till I got my license. What is the point in drooling after something when you know you can’t get it today?

Getting my license. Well, almost.

End October arrived. Happy as a puppy, I went for my driving exam. Messed up a roundabout, failed the exam, and back to the 3-month queue for the next exam. Everything after that was a haze but come early December, we got a lot of snow in Estonia. Heaps and piles of snow. And no, Sir, it wasn’t going anywhere. This meant a lot of people who weren’t confident to drive in the snow started to cancel their driving exams and free up exam slots. I jumped at the opportunity and took the first available slot I could find. Come rain, come hail, come fire, come snow, I was doing the exam. D-Day arrived. Snow on the streets, driving examiner on my passenger seat, and an Opel under my butt, we set off on the exam. Long story short, I cleared the exam. Made minor errors but were overlooked because there was snow on the streets. Hello to the newest eligible driver in Estonia! We are going car shopping again!

Car hunt – Part 2

This time around, I didn’t have to go through the process of deciding what I wanted. The months between my 2 exams gave me time to think, set priorities, and decide a budget. I went out on a focused search – a 3-series, or an Octavia RS. All good RS-es were sold. The one’s available were either too expensive or had more than 150,000 KMS on the ODO. A lot of good 3-series models were around, so started to shortlist them and decide when to test them. An acquaintance works at the local BMW dealership, so whenever I liked a car, I would send her the VIN # and she would get me the full history of the car. The local BMW dealership also had a good bunch of used, dealer certified BMWs on sale, so I agreed to go and check them out. If you have been paying attention, life had other plans.

Car hunt – The twist

During my entire search process, not once did I search for an A4. I had looked for C and E classes, but no Audis. Out of sheer curiosity, I checked A4s that could be had for my budget. I found two – both, 2.0 TFSI Quattro. One of them had 77000 odd KMS on the odo, looked clean, and was priced well. When I saw pictures of the car, the surroundings looked very familiar, so I called the owner and asked for the address where I could see the car. As it turned out, he lived 4 houses down from one of my friends. Checked with my friend and he confirmed he had seen the car around and seems to be a clean car. We agreed to meet on Saturday for me to see the car. WILDCARD option has entered the room!

Saturday arrived. I made a run to a Skoda dealership that had a silver 320d xDrive sitting with them. The dealership was closed, so I moved on to the BMW dealership. The inventory of cars they had in there was staggering. 3s, 4s, 5s, X5s, you name it and they had it. I took fancy to a nice blue 320d wagon. There was one sales guy working and he had just gotten engaged with a customer before I walked in. I kept browsing, but time was ticking. I needed to go all the way across the city, to the outskirts to see the A4. It gets dark by 1530 in December, so I had to make good use of the remaining few hours of daylight. I excused myself from the dealership saying I would come back the following week (which I had all intentions of doing). Off to see the A4 then.

Reached my friend's place, got into his Kia Stinger (which I must say is magnificent to drive) and headed to see the A4. Introductions were made, and as soon as the owner found out that my friend lives 4 houses down the road, things got easier. Looked around the car, inside/outside and all looked super clean. Then we went for a spin. Remember, the streets were still filled with snow. This was my first time driving the 2.0 TFSI, so I was gentle with it. Drove it for 20 mins and it pulled well, went through the gears well, made no sounds while driving, and just felt tight and right. And of course, I got my first taste of what quattro is capable of handling.

The car had 77000 odd KMS on the odo. It is a 2015 make A4 which was purchased by the Ministry of Finance in 2015 and changed hands to the next owner in 2018. Used as a second car, it barely did 11000 KMS a year (which is less by Estonian standards). No accidents, maintained at the Audi showroom, records available. I loved the car. I had forgotten all about the BMWs I was going to see. This just felt right. Next up, we spoke about money. The car didn’t come with summer tires or wheels (they are expected as a standard part of the deal here), so I had room to negotiate. We agreed on the price, but I wanted time to think it over. The owner was in no hurry to sell, so we agreed that I will sleep over it and let him know the next day. Till then, he would hold the car for me. Got back home and spent the whole evening reading about A4s, quattro, and especially the 7-speed gearbox. One big advantage I had with the A4 was that it was at a price where I could buy it without a lease or loan. The BMWs I saw were a bit pricier, and I didn’t want to part away with liquid money for that price range. When I woke up the next morning, I had my answer. Messaged the owner and told him we had a deal. I just bought myself (although verbally) my first ever German. My first Audi!

Transfer of ownership

The car was leased with a bank. This meant I couldn’t just pay the money and bring it home. The current owners would first have to pay the outstanding lease amount, then get the car transferred in their name, and then sell it to me. If I went for the leasing option, it would take 3 weeks for me to get my hands on the car. Plus, there was the Christmas and New Years week in between which would have slowed things further. After waiting for so long, I wasn’t ready to wait any more, especially when we were on the penultimate step. We agreed that I wasn’t leasing, and I would make them the transfer as soon as the car was in their name. Estonia is a high trust economy where your word is sacred. If you say it, you do it. Period. If I backed out of the deal now, this would mean the current owners paid a chunk of money to the bank for nothing and messed up their cash flow. I had practically bought the car. Monday morning the owner paid back the lease balance to the bank. I checked with them how long the transfer would take, and I was told it would be 2 days. I set my expectations for taking the car on Wednesday.

Tuesday evening, the owner called. Car was in their name, and we were free to make the sale. I had just finished work, so immediately got onto making the money transfer to them, and then set off to pick up the car and complete the paperwork. Estonia is 100% digital paperwork. Almost everything you want to do with government services can be done online. I reached the owner's place, we signed a physical contract of sale, went to the transport department website, and transferred the car to my name. That simple. 1 form, a few clicks, a digital signature, and the car was transferred to me. I was now a proud owner of an Audi A4 2.0 TFSI quattro!

Driving the 2.0 TFSI quattro

The 2.0 TFSI was sold in various power variants in Europe. The one I picked up comes with a healthy 165 kW (221 HP) of power. The engine is mated to a 7-speed S-tronic gearbox. After reading all DSG horror stories, this was the only concern I had while buying the car. From the articles I have read online, I have understood that while in essence, the S-tronic is similar to the VW DSG (dual-clutch, et al), the difference lies in the fact that S-tronic uses dual multi-plate wet clutches. These are specific for Longitudinally mounted engines and have dual separate oiling circuits (1 for controls, 1 for gears). This box can handle max torque of 440 Nm. While this lays my mind to rest partially, I do understand that this is a highly complex and sensitive gearbox, so I have my fingers crossed! That said, and make no mistakes, it is as feisty as I expected it to be. Lightning-fast gearshifts that you don’t even notice, eager to upshift, aggressive kick down, and will hold high revs in M mode. I have no idea how high it can rev before upshifting, and I have not had the heart nor road conditions to do that. The car doesn’t come with paddle shifters, but you can push the gear lever to the right to engage S mode, and then push it forwards for upshifts or backwards for downshifts.

In D mode, the car will rapidly upshift at or just before 2000 RPM and I am usually doing 90 kmph in D7 with the revs at 1500. Push the throttle at this stage and it immediately drops a couple of cogs (at times 3), and suddenly the world is coming at you faster than it was a few seconds before. There is some drama. You see the revs jump, you are pushed back in your seat, and you feel the quattro system intelligently deliver the right amount of power to the right (correct) wheel and propelling you ahead. In the city, I am pottering around at 50 kmph in D6 or D7.

Estonia has speed limits of 50 in the city, 70 on some roads in the city, and 90 or 110 on highways. As a new license holder, I try very hard to stay within these limits, and I do. But others don’t. And I have no words to explain how my right foot is aching to just bury the throttle. In the 20 years I have been driving, I have learnt the most self-restraint in the past few months. That said, overtaking traffic on highways is a breeze. You are doing 90 in D7 at a whisker under 1500 rpm. To overtake, you change lanes and bury the throttle. Before you know it, you are doing well over 120 and past the object you set out to overtake. Proper, proper fun. I had absolutely no idea that Turbo petrols can be this much fun. And all of this feels safe inside the cocoon of the car. How, you ask?

quattro

quattro = magic happening. You press the throttle, you feel all 4 wheels moving, you are launched ahead of everyone around you, proper on rails. Take it on snowed roads and just experience the quattro system absolutely dominating everything else around it.

Technically, Audi uses a full-time AWD system (trademarked as) quattro. This permanent all-wheel-drive system uses a center differential to deliver power 40/60 F/R in normal situations, and up to 70/30-15/85 F/R in extreme use case situations. My knowledge of the quattro system is limited to what I read, and what I experience daily, so I am keen to learn more about how it works.

Practically, this has been of great use to me. We get snow here from December (if we are lucky) until the end of March. And when it snows, it snows. No mercy at all. The quattro system has got me out of quite a few tricky situations that a RWD would surely not be able to handle. Latest situation being a 120 kms highway drive where the highway was covered with slush, standing water, and snow. Every morning I see my neighbors in their RWD and FWD cars struggle to get out of our parking lot, and then all the AWDs drive like nothing has happened. There are pros and cons to having the quattro. The biggest con is the weight distribution and handling attributes. An AWD is safer, but a RWD is more fun.

Handling

I am currently riding on 225/50/17 Bridgestone snow/ice/winter tires. These are specifically designed for driving on snow/ice and have more grooves than a regular summer tire. Add to that, they have nails/spikes embedded to be able to grip in snow, and more importantly on ice. Before I moved here, I had no clue about how different driving in/on snow and driving on ice could be. Driving on snow feels more like driving on sand – sometimes packed, sometimes loose. Driving on ice is another thing altogether. Think of a surface that is glazed and with zero grip. Too ambitious on the throttle and you will lose traction immediately. Too late on the brakes or panic braking and you are rendered a helpless passenger in the events that follow. The spiked tires and quattro make things a lot easier and more manageable. Push the throttle and the car senses how much grip each wheel has and delivers appropriate power or braking to respective wheels. You need to try hard to trick the quattro into making a mistake. Driving in snow/ice is the most difficult in a RWD because you are constantly gauging how much throttle you need and keeping the back in place. But it’s a lot more fun for sure.

Quattro combined with disc brakes on all 4 wheels makes handling a lot more predictable on the A4. European cars will offer you the handling dynamics that the Japs or Koreans very often can’t. The steering is weighted perfectly – not too light, not too heavy. It’s just perfect in its weight and calibration. I am unsure at this moment if it is an EPS or a Hydraulic one. My money is on it being an EPS. The car does feel a bit front-heavy, and I haven’t had the opportunity to test how fast it will take corners, but I am pretty sure it will do just fine.

The 225/50/17 tires are meaty, cushy and offer the perfect balance of ride quality and comfort. You do feel some bumps transfer to your backside, but nothing dramatic or bone-shattering. Perhaps when I switch to summer tires and upsize, is when I will see a significant difference. 225 width offers a wide surface contact and traction – especially when power is sent to all 4 wheels. The only times they have broken traction is when I have purposefully been hard on the throttle in the snow trying to drift the car a bit. The traction control system lets you have fun for a few seconds - with the TCS light in the dash flashing wildly - and then takes over quickly to put an end to your tomfoolery. I haven’t dared to switch off TCS and drive in the snow yet. Perhaps I need to find an empty parking lot and see what happens. But again, it is a quattro, and it will be a lot more manageable and less dramatic than a RWD with TCS switched off.

Summer tires – We are 3-4 months away from when we need to switch over to summer tires. It is prohibited to drive with Winter tires in summer for the prime reason that if they have nails/spikes, then the road surface is damaged. A lot of people drive on all-weather tires. This saves them from having to buy 2 sets of tires and wheels and change them 2 times a year. But that will change in winter 2022 as Estonia has changed the specifications of the mandatory winter tires which can be used. My dilemma now is whether to stay with 17 inches wheels and buy a new set of wheels and tires, or upsize to 18 inches? In either case, I need to buy a full set (wheels + tires). 18 inchers look much better and will cover the wheel well completely. Ride should become sharper and a bit more fun. I don’t mind sacrificing ride comfort for this. I had earlier considered 19 inchers, but they are going to be too uncomfortable to live with every day and are a lot pricier to get.

These are MAM wheels that I am planning to get for Summer tires. These are 18 inchers.

Kitna deti hai?

I get anywhere between 7.5 – 9 kmpl in the city, and between 13 – 15 kmpl on the highways. The more I think of this, I realize that this is par for the course. It is a 2-liter engine producing 221 horses, coupled with AWD, and riding on high grip winter tires. Frankly, I do not mind this at all, especially when she starts flying over 2000 RPM. I use 95 petrol, but I am considering 98 petrol once every 5 tanks. Need opinion from experts here if that is OK to do?

Audio setup & quality

Sound is delivered through a 12 speaker Bang & Olufsen system – 4 speakers and tweeters in each door, 2 speakers on the dash, 1 mid in the center of the dash, and a woofer in the rear. Sound quality is rich and punchy. The ability to customize Bass, Mid, and Treble gives you a wide range to setup the sound to your liking. I have absolutely no complaints about the sound quality, and it meets my expectations perfectly.

What does not meet my expectations is Audi’s complete disregard and ignorance of providing BT connectivity to stream music. The car has BT, but that can only be used to do phone calls. Try streaming music, and it just won’t recognize your phone. As a point of reference, a friend in India has a 2014 Jetta, and that has audio streaming capabilities. All I get is a CD player.

But the saving grace is that this can be resolved. Audi offers a connectivity port in the glove compartment. It is a 30-pin plug which is called Audi Media Interface (AMI). You can buy a variety of aftermarket BT adapters that connect with the AMI and allow you to stream music. The choice is wide here. A simple EUR 20 adapter will let you stream music but won’t allow controls from the steering or the in-dash stereo and won’t show your playlist on the dash. Some of them won’t work with Spotify, while the others won’t work with Apple Music, or Tidal.

Then there are expensive one’s which cost EUR 80 – 100 that are specifically, custom made for Audis to address this need. These connectors/adapters not only allow you to play music but also enable steering controls for browsing music, moving tracks forward/backward, and updating your entire library of songs and playlists on the dash and center console. I bought something called “Invery Airdual Bluetooth 5.0 Adapter” from Amazon Germany. Cost me EUR 110 with shipping. It's practically plug-and-play. I had my phone connected within seconds, and my entire playlist updated on the dash in about a minute.

Sound output (volume) is a bit lower than that from the radio, but there is no loss in the bass, treble, or mid. I have nothing against Estonian radio stations (they play very good music and talk less) but on long drives, I prefer having my library of music. Only downside of this adapter is that it constantly draws power from the car even when the car is switched off. I read this much later than I had received the product. My workaround is to just disconnect it if the car is not going to be used every day.

Navigation

The car doesn’t come with navigation as standard, so I use Waze on my phone instead. Waze has up to date maps, extremely good navigation, recognizes speed limits on roads and highlights them if you are going too fast, and most importantly, lets other users highlight hazards on the road, in real-time. The best feature is that users can also update in real-time the presence of cops on the maps. So, if you have a cop car hiding in the bushes with a speed gun pointed at the road, users can just update this on the map. I don’t speed, but it’s a good feature to have.

Lighting

The car comes with a simple halogen, dual headlamp assembly powered by H1 and H7 bulbs. The previous owner changed the parking bulbs from normal ones to LED bulbs, so they now look like DRLs. The front headlamps provide decent illumination in both low and high beams. Fog lamps are halogen as well and provide ample spread and illumination. It’s the same at the back, all halogen bulbs.

Earlier on, I did think of swapping them all with LED/projector units but refrained from doing so. Mainly because 1) I do not want to tinker with the original setup, especially with electronics, 2) Cost, 3) We are headed into summer where we will have more than 14 hours of daylight; more than 20 hours in June, so switching to projectors or LEDs provide no additional benefit, and 4) there is a risk that the car won’t clear the mandatory technical evaluation which needs to be done every couple years. A swap would make the car look much better, but the cost is just not worth it. I’d rather use that money on some kickass wheels and maintaining the car.

Other points

• The car comes with a space-saver spare tire and is neatly placed in a compartment in the boot. This allows full access to the boot space.
• Boot space is adequate and can take 3-4 suitcases along with smaller bags.
• Rear floor hump makes fitting a 5th adult impossible.
• All doors have deep storage slots which can hold water bottles and other small items.
• Armrest is fixed between the front seats and can be adjusted for height and reach. Makes driving very comfortable.
• Large storage area below the armrest is equipped with a 12v socket.
• Car comes with a separate ashtray and cigarette lighter compartment just ahead of the gear level. It has a smooth opening and closing mechanism. Looks chic in design and operation.
• IRVM and ORVM auto-dim when there is too much glare from behind.
• Upwards retracting ORVMs are so cool.
• Bonnet opens with the help of a single hydraulic strut that also keeps the bonnet open.
• All 4 doors get puddle lamps and red door open indicators.
• It has been sub-zero weather ever since I bought the car, so haven’t had the chance to test the cooling. If it is a warm summer, then I can test this.

As my closing to this review, I am going to reiterate what GTO says (loosely translated) – always buy a car with a great engine. Bells & whistles will stop exciting you one day, but a great engine will keep you happy every single day you drive it! I have found my great engine.

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