Archives for posts with tag: audi

Test: Audi A1 Sports

August 31, 2012 //
0
Audi has finessed the traits of the Polo GTI into a Mini Cooper-busting premium hatch. NEIL DOWLING reports June 11, 2011

THE Audi A1 Sport is priced hard up against the Mini Cooper S Chilli but Audi claims its hatch is faster and more fuel efficient. Let the battle begin.
“Sport” says it all — a higher-performance model that uses all the strengths of the seven-month-old A1 with the oomph nicked from parent company Volkswagen.
But it’s too crude and not entirely accurate to say that the A1 Sport is just a more luxurious and expensive version of the VW Polo. Yes, they share a platform and the basic drivetrain. But they drive very differently.

VALUE: Compare the $27,790 three-door Polo GTI with the three-door A1 Sport at $42,500 and you’d feel dudded at the traffic lights. But they’re not the same car. Buy the VW and you don’t get the Audi’s level of equipment, finish and styling, though the options list is extensive and expensive. Even the colour-contrasting roof arch — the design highlight — is an extra $720. LED daytime lights, rear park sensors, 17-inch alloys, Bluetooth with voice control and climate control airconditioning are standard. Satnav adds $3600.

DESIGN: Built like a bubble and with extremely short overhangs, the A1 is blunt, efficient and perfectly packaged for cities. It seats four — though it gets a bit tight in the back — and has great luggage space thanks to its flexible seating.

TECHNOLOGY: The Polo’s turbocharged and supercharged 1.4-litre small-squirt four gets an extra 4kW in the Audi (now 136kW) and its weight is down to 1190kg (Polo is 1189kg).
The engine is sublime. In the Audi, it feels quieter and less frenetic, possibly due to extra sound deadening, but certainly has more than enough go. Only the seven-speed S-tronic twin clutch auto is available, with paddle shifters optional. Better yet is the compliant ride. It’s vastly better than the harsh Mini. The latter will probably hang on longer in fast corners but the truth is my days of fanging are over and many motorists want comfort.

SAFETY: It’s an Audi and everything is top-shelf occupant protection and active safety: six airbags, all the electronic aids and lap-sash belts for everyone.
Brakes are brilliant but the rear discs are tiny — seemingly the size of a foil meat pie tray — and don’t radiate confidence. In fact, they’re over-engineered and pull the car up really well.

DRIVING: Audi laid out a track at an airport for a fang and that showed the Sport has off-the-mark sparkle and great cornering. Given that most of us live in cities, of more interest is how the car handles poor road surfaces and dodgy motorists. The trick here is to make a car that is compact for negotiating narrow roads and squeezing into parking spots, yet has great visibility and yet feels effortless to drive.
As the Audi A1 Sport targets the novice premium buyer, it has to deliver all this with comfort, quietness and a sense that the car has better than premium-class quality. The A1 delivers on all counts.
It is surprisingly quick off the mark, hitting 100km/h in 6.9 seconds compared with the Cooper S’s 7.2, but it’s the agile chassis that makes it a delight to drive.
I drove the Skoda Fabia RS in its homeland recently and noted it shares the Polo GTI innards. Yet the Fabia didn’t have the Polo’s skittish manners through corners. It felt more connected with the bitumen.
The A1 Sport is better again.

VERDICT: I prefer to fang the Cooper S but prefer the comfort and quality of the Audi. I’m a simple person so the Audi’s dashboard is more logical to comprehend. Audi has improved on the Polo GTI’s cues. Is the A1 Sport a better car? Not necessarily. It attracts a different buyer, one seeking a premium hatch who is unlikely to consider a Polo.

specs
Audi A1 1.4 Sport
PRICE from $42,500
WARRANTY 3 years/unlimited km, roadside assist
RESALE 68 per cent (est)
SERVICE INTERVAL 12 months/15,000km
SAFETY 5-star Euro NCAP
ENGINE 1.4-litre, 4-cyl turbo petrol, 136kW/250Nm
TRANSMISSION 7-speed DSG auto, front-wheel drive
BODY 3-door hatch
THIRST 5.9L/100km, 98 RON, 139g/km CO2
“Angry baby Audi for those who like to blend power with luxury”

—– OTHERS TO CONSIDER —–
VW Polo GTI
price $27,790
ENGINE 1.4-litre, 4-cyl petrol, turbo and supercharged, 132kW/250Nm
TRANS 7-speed DSG auto, front-wheel drive
BODY 3-door hatch
THIRST 6.1L/100km, 95 RON, CO2 142g/km
“A budget-priced fireball . . . Love it”

Clio Renault Sport 200
price$36,490
ENGINE 2.0-litre, 4-cyl, petrol, 147kW/215Nm
TRANS 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
BODY 3-door hatch
THIRST 8.2L/100km, 98 RON, CO2 195g/km
“Look ma, no turbo — and it doesn’t need one”

Mini Cooper S
price$43,555
ENGINE 1.6-litre, 4-cyl, petrol turbo, 135kW/240Nm
TRANS 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
BODY 3-door hatch
THIRST 6.3L/100km, 95 RON, C02 146g/km
“Unmistakable design. Fascinating interior. Firm but unyielding handling”

 
 
 
 
 
 
Tags , , , ,
Categories Uncategorized

Test – Audi A8 4.2TDI

August 24, 2012 //
0

It’s a V8, Penelope, just not as we know it. NEIL DOWLING oils the Audi

SOMEWHERE in the world, today probably, some clown is filling up the stonking Audi A8 4.2-litre V8 TDI’s fuel tank with petrol.
That’s because the filler has yet to recognise that this near silent, elegant, rapid and authoritatively-styled German is powered by a diesel engine.
Getting out the petrol, flushing the fuel lines and replacing a few injectors and filters will be expensive. Very expensive. But doubtless Audi service centres around the world are well practised.
How can one blame the guy who filled it up? The A8 4.2TDI idles with almost inaudible assurance, responds instantly to a touch of the accelerator and cuts through freeway traffic with so little fuss and bereft of noise that the clink of Armagnac flutes from the rear seat can clearly be heard.
VALUE: All this doesn’t come for nothing. The limousine will cost $238,500 before it’s ready for the road. It is loaded with equipment that will keep you amused for hours – possibly days. If you let children loose in here, you may not see them for months. All this before you turn over the engine. Standard kit starts with the best materials and finest construction ever to grace the cabin of a sub-$500,000 car. It’s brilliant. There’s also a superb audio and sat-nav system, a touchpad with handwriting recognition, wireless for your iPad/iPhone or Android and Audi’s Multi Media Interface that does everything from alter the drivetrain characteristics to help lower fuel consumption.
DESIGN: It’s a lavish and expansive saloon with its hard bits built predominantly from aluminium – it weighs about 40 per cent less than a comparable steel body – and the soft bits from leather, padded vinyl and wool-blend carpet. It has family lines but while its possible to mistake it for an A6 on a damp night, it is clearly too much a limousine to be an A4. There’s more room than most people deserve and even the boot is big enough to carry sufficient cash to buy a small country.
TECHNOLOGY: The A8 rides on adaptive air suspension and the bi-turbo V8 diesel drives all wheels through an eight-speed sequential automatic. Remarkably, the 4.2-litre engine pumps 258kW/800Nm – that’s not a mistake – and yet can get 7.6 L/100km. Not when you max it out over the 0-100km/h spring, however, which can be dashed in a mere 5.5 seconds. Not bad for a 2-tonne, 5.1m top-notch four-door sedan. The MMI also gets a nod for its technological excellence.
SAFETY: This should go without saying but the A8 is the pinnacle of Audi’s safety program. Some of the equipment is optional – and no surprise here but it’s expensive – but the standard lifesaving aids should be more than adequate. The A8 previews Audi’s pre-sense safety system for avoiding accidents and minimising the consequences, and gets night vision assistant with pedestrian marking and adaptive cruise control with “stop and go” feature.
DRIVING: Forget the word diesel and immerse yourself in 800Nm of torque flowing seamlessly to all wheels through a silky ZF eight-cog auto. Wet corners at night dissolve as a dry corner in day with the limpet grip of the tyres and AWD and the canny electronic aids. The quietness is so unnatural that the experience of cruising country highways is almost surreal. Back to reality quickly, though, when overtaking and feeling that torque thrust the car forward without a murmur. Practical car for the city? Probably not. Perfect open-road tourer – also a maybe given it has no proper spare wheel. But the liquidity of its forward motion and readiness to spring to life without flinching, is magic.

AUDI A8 4.2 TDI
STARS 4
Price: $238,500
Warranty: 3 years/unlimited km, roadside assist
Resale: n/a
Service interval: 10,000km/12 months
Safety rating: 5-stars
Spare: none
Engine: 4.2-litre V8 bi-turbo diesel 258kW/800Nm
Transmission: 8-spd auto, AWD
Body: 5.1m (L); 1.9m (w); 1.5m (h)
Weight: 2070kg
Thirst: 7.6 1/100km; 199g/km Co2

Tags , , , ,
Categories car tests

Test – Audi TT 2.0TDI

August 24, 2012 //
0

Audi’s diesel TT goes to the blood bank. NEIL DOWLING reports

BLOOD banks give you a cup of tea, a biscuit and a lie down in exhange for a litre of your best red.
Giving blood helps out your fellow man and the only downside is you feel a bit drained after the exercise.
You won’t be alone. The Audi TT 2.0 TDI is the automotive equivalent of the after-effects of donating blood. Pity is, the effects aren’t temporary.
Adding a turbo-diesel engine to the TT coupe effectively, completely and irreversibly changes it from a lithe, nimble and lustful coupe into a bloodless carriage. Honestly, a Corolla could be more fun.
VALUE: Not a lot. My calculator says the $68,950 petrol-fuelled version is streets better. For example, the petrol TT costs $4850 less than the $73,800 TDI tested here. The price difference in fuel per year is $107. That means it’ll take 45 years for the modest fuel economy benefits of the diesel to pay for itself. But I admit that, the drivetrain aside, the TDI is as sweet as any TT, is a wonderful handler, is comfortable (for two) and perfectly made.
DESIGN: It just looks like a work of art. That raked tail, slim headlights and in-ya-face vertical and impossibly overdone grille are disparate design cues that, remarkably, meld into an iconic shape. Most people love the TT. It signifies perfection, style and performance and indicates the owner has a few spare dollars in his pocket. The cabin is beautifully minimalistic. Some switches are so small and so randomly placed that it may take hours to find them. Ah, those Germans. How many other carmakers make a game out of operating the car? Bad news includes the useless rear seats and the lack of a spare wheel.
TECHNOLOGY: The 125kW/350Nm engine drives all wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch auto, assisted where necessary by paddle shifters on the steering wheel. The body is a blend of aluminium and steel which gets the coupe’s weight down to a trim 1280kg. Well, at least for the 2-litre petrol model because the diesel version is a porky 140kg heavier. It has a six-speed dual-clutch (DSG) transmission. That’s one cog less than the petrol engine’s seven-speed box but the diesel copes thanks to its prodigious torque.
SAFETY: Surprisingly, this is rated as a four-star car. Partly that’s because there’s not much difference to the first-generation TT. There’s also four airbags – I hate to be fussy but six is now considered the bare minimum – but no complaints about the sophistication of the brake and chassis components and electronic aids. No spare tyre but there’s aerosol sealant and a compressor. Good luck with that.
DRIVING: You’ve probably noticed I’m a little peeved. The concept of a diesel in a sports coupe probably makes sense in Europe where diesel is about the same price as petrol and the extra fuel economy reduces refuelling stops as one cruises the autobahns. Maybe some driver’s prefer the punch of the diesel’s torque. But no, it doesn’t work in Australia and even the calculator agrees. The TT’s handling is predictable and the all-wheel drive “quattro” system is so secure, especially in the wet. But pick a tight series of corners and you can feel the extra weight of the diesel version, especially in the nose. The diesel also makes the wrong exhaust noise – it’s more a dull, low-speed vibration than the petrol’s full symphonic range – and that sours the drive.
VERDICT: It’s a car you want to love. But your wallet – and your ears – win here and make the petrol model a far sweeter proposition. Or two 86s.

AUDI TT 2.0 TDI
STARS 3
Price: $73,800
Warranty: 3 years/unlimited km, roadside assist
Resale: 51%
Service interval: 12 months
Safety rating: 4-star
Spare: none
Engine: 2-litre 4-cyl turbo-diesel 125kW/350Nm
Transmission: 6-spd dual-clutch auto, AWD
Body: 4.2m (L); 1.8m (w); 1.4m (h)
Weight: 1420kg
Thirst: 5.5 1/100km; 144g/km Co2
Three Others to consider.

BMW 320d COUPE
Star: 3.5
PRICE: $72,464
ENGINE: 2-litre, 4-cyl turbo-diesel, 135kW/380Nm
TRANS: 6-spd auto, rear drive
BODY: 2-door coupe
THIRST: 5.3L/100km; CO2 140g/km
“Doesn’t wear the TT’s sexy clothes but package offers more space. Feels lighter and more agile than the Audi and almost makes the driver smile”ql

MERCEDES C250 COUPE
Star: 3
PRICE: $69,900
ENGINE: 2.1-litre, 4-cyl turbo-diesel, 150kW/500Nm
TRANS: 7-spd auto, rear drive
BODY: 2-door coupe
THIRST: 5.1L/100km; CO2 134g/km
“Surprisingly brisk performance from this unobtrusive coupe. Like the BMW, can seat four people but also like the Beemer, can’t match the TT’s cache”ql

PEUGEOT RCZ
Star: 3.5
PRICE: $54,990
ENGINE: 2-litre, 4-cyl turbo-diesel, 120kW/340Nm
TRANS: 6-spd manual, front drive
BODY: 2-door coupe
THIRST: 5.3L/100km; CO2 139g/km
“French interpretation of the TT and works very well. But it’s only a manual and Peugeot – and sister Citroen – must rethink their so-so right-hand drive conversions”

Tags , , ,
Categories car tests

Test – Audi A5 convertible 3.0TFSI

August 24, 2012 //
0

It’s the wrong season to think about a convertible but this Audi will change your mind. NEIL DOWLING reports

CAN ice form in your wet hair on the way to work on a wintery morning?
The answer is “probably” because the experiment wasn’t concluded as the rest of my body went into hypothermia before my hair froze.
This comes under the heading of “don’t do this at home” – a stricture that promptly means you do it – and shows that while a convertible is a sure way to get the opposite sex’s attention, blue skin and chattering teeth can dull the car’s lure.
But though the driver’s motives are dubious, there’s nothing quesionable about the beautiful, quick and expensive Audi A5 convertible.
VALUE: At $112,900 this is a financial heavy hitter. This 3-litre version is a massive $16,000 more expensive than the otherwise identical 2-litre version. I’m reminded by the adage that convertibles are designed to be driven slowly so passers-by can get a good look at the occupants. A more powerful engine may not help this cause. But the A5 3.0 TSFI’s features are impressive and you’ll soon see why it costs so much. The safety gear alone is top-notch while the all-wheel drive system, supercharged engine and quality for the icing on the cabrio’s roof.
DESIGN: People who know Audi’s A5 will easily recognise the shape despite some tweaking earlier this year. The LED running lights form a distinctive brace at each front corner with a similar theme in red at the back. The front end looks sharper but still remains a clever blend of looking elegant while showing serious intent. There’s room for four adults (it’s built on the A5 coupe platform) and the boot is a reasonable 380 litres with the fabric roof up and 320 litres when down. Cabin treatment is gorgeous with the tester in cream and charcoal leather with a perforated black headliner. There are some small changes to the dashboard and the steering wheel can be ordered with a flat bottom. Whoopee.
TECHNOLOGY: The A5 3.0 TSFI gets a slightly subdued version of the S5’s powerplant. Its 240kW/400Nm is more than sufficient to get it to 100km/h in 5.8 seconds. Audi claims 8.1 L/100km but I saw high 9s despite the annoying stop-start system. There’s a seven-speed dual-clutch DSG gearbox and all-wheel drive. The front fenders and bonnet are aluminium to successfully reduce any nose-heavy tendencies. The “drive select” system gives four modes – dynamic, comfort, efficiency and auto – to control steering wheel feel, gearbox shift points and engine management. The tester had a fifth setting, individual, that allows the driver to memorise preferred settings. There’s also optional damper control.
SAFETY: This is a five-star crash-rated car with a host of electronic safety aids. There are automatic roll bars that deploy when the car starts tilting, electronic traction and stability systems, four-wheel ventilated disc brakes, and a centre and a rear differential to distribute power for maximum traction. Heated mirrors, LED running and tail lights, rear park sensors and bi-xenon headlights help but the space-saver spare isn’t great comfort.
DRIVING: It may be a convertible with a rag roof but it feels as strong as a steel-top and as quiet as many metal rivals. This is so well built and so broad in  its appeal that it’s such a shame it costs so much. Driving enthusiasts will revel in the urge of that supercharged engine that pumps hard from idle. It always has its power and torque on tap and this instant response makes it one of the most enjoyable cars I’ve punted this year. For all your moods – and those of your partner – it can be cruisey or crisp depending on the pressure on the acclerator and considered use of the “driver select” functions. Dynamic mode is preferred as it makes the steering firmer and reduces the electric-assist tendency to vagueness. The mechanical centre diff sends 60 per cent of power to the rear wheels and there’s also a clutch-action rear diff that works between these two wheels. The result is a car that feels more like a rear-drive car than previous Audis.

VERDICT: It’s a porky 1850kg dry but you’d never know it. A car for all seasons, all drivers, all reasons.

AUDI A5 3.0 TFSI
STARS 4
Price: $112,900
Warranty: 3 years/unlimited km, roadside assist
Resale: 55%
Service interval: 12 months
Safety rating: 5-star
Spare: Space-saver
Engine: 3-litre V6 supercharged petrol; 200kW/400Nm
Transmission: 7-spd dual-clutch auto, AWD
Body: 4.6m (L); 1.9m (w); 1.4m (h)
Weight: 1850kg
Thirst: 8.1 1/100km; 95 RON; 190g/km Co2
Three Others to consider.

BMW 325i
Star: 3.5
PRICE: $97,565
ENGINE: 2.5-litre, 6-cyl petrol, 160kW/250Nm
TRANS: 6-spd auto, rear drive
BODY: 2-door convertible
THIRST: 8.8L/100km; 98 RON; CO2 204g/km
“Svelte German is tame in poerformance to the Audi but makes up with features and classy quality. Cheaper, too!”ql

MERCEDES E250
Star: 3.5
PRICE: $108,350
ENGINE: 1.8-litre, 4-cyl turbo-petrol, 150kW/310Nm
TRANS: 7-spd auto, rear drive
BODY: 2-door convertible
THIRST: 7.6L/100km; 95 RON; CO2 178g/km
“Clever small-bore engine goes hard though not as smooth as its rivals. Lots to like and badge cred is strong”ql

LEXUS IS250C
Star: 3
PRICE: $94,800
ENGINE: 2.5-litre, V6 petrol, 153kW/252Nm
TRANS: 6-spd auto, rear drive
BODY: 2-door convertible
THIRST: 9.3L/100km; 95 RON; CO2 219g/km
“Perfect Japanese quality, lots of features, great customer service and a smooth rider. But porky weight and modest engine means it’s not for the performance driver”

Tags , , , ,
Categories car tests