2014 Audi A4 3.0 TDI – Review and Road Test – The Diesel Driver – The Joy of Diesel Driving

Next to the clean and powerful engine, the A4 has benefited with a variety of technology features from its upper-class siblings, the A8 and A6. The radar-based adaptive cruise control performs braking as well as accelerating automatically in order to maintain a preset distance from the car ahead Our A4 was equipped with the optional Audi Drive Select, which provides four different driving modes, Comfort, Auto, Dynamic and Individual..

Audi´s 7-speed S tronic automatic transmission is perfectly suited to the quattro all-wheel drive system and both are standard on every Audi passenger vehicle with three-liter displacement engines. The S tronic distributes power via the quattro system in a fixed ratio of 60% (rear axle) and 40% (front axle). According to the driving situation, which is constantly monitored by the quattro system and the S-tronic transmission, the power may be increased to a maximum of 85% for the rear axle or 65% for the front axle.

DRIVING THE AUDI A4 3.0 TDI

In my week with the A4, I drove more than 910 miles (1,465 kilometers), covering several trips including a drive to Worms and to the Bavarian Alps. The on-board computer reported an overall fuel consumption of 32.2 mpg (7.3 l/100 km). The figure did not come close to the claimed 41 mpg (5.7 l/100 km) but is understandable as most of the trip was on the German Autobahn at speeds averaging 63 mph (102 km/h).

My long distance road trip with the A4 took me from Munich via the German Autobahn A8 towards Stuttgart and Karlsruhe continuing via the A5 and A61 towards the Roman city of Worms and back. After a total of 552 miles (889 km), the on-board computer showed a fuel usage of 32.6 mpg (7.2 l/100 km). My trip to the Alps, via the Bavarian countryside, kept me away from the Autobahn but the overall fuel consumption didn’t improve as much as I expected. The Audi reported a small increase to 34 mpg (6.9 l/100 km) after 167 miles (270 km).

The A4 provided adept handling in every driving situation and offered, thanks to its high torque, enough power to easily overtake slower cars. Via the Audi Drive Select, I changed the settings of the car mostly to Dynamic when I entered the Autobahn and kept the car in Comfort while driving in the city. My only criticism goes to the radar-based adaptive cruise control system, which doesn’t offer a stop & go function, although that will surely become available on the new A4. The system disengages below 18 mph (30 km/h) and has to be restored manually above 18 mph. This can become an annoyance driving in stop & go traffic on the Autobahn.

INFOTAINMENT

The Audi MMI Navigation plus system in combination with the optional music interface provided the easiest and smoothest connection to an external device that I have ever experienced. Connecting my iPhone to the car took mere seconds. Also switching to my audio files after my phone was paired was even easier. I only had to press the media button of the infotainment interface and immediately accessed my music playlist.

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