Long-Term Road Test Update
Date: May 2010
Months in Fleet: 10 months
Current Mileage: 23,018 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 26 mpg
Average Range: 442 miles
Service: $345
Normal Wear: $0
Damage and Destruction: $1156
Our Quattro-equipped Audi A4 2.0T sedan made it through winter mostly unscathed. Adding a set of $1016 Nokian Hakkapeliitta snow tires helped enormously in this matter, allowing us to charge through Michigan’s worst with nary a thought. Which is not to say nary a speeding ticket. This writer scared up a five-o on a wintry charge to Chicago and back, and luckily, the peace officer was as merciful as the car. How fast was I going? Let’s just say there was a strong possibility that this long-term update might have had a prison dateline.
The point here is that the A4 is fun, confident, and stable right up to the rough edge of its handling limit. It’s not quite as linear as its principal competition, the BMW 3-series—the Audi’s steering effort changes dramatically with speed, for example. But for those who prize all-wheel-drive stability over on-the-edge fluidity, the A4 satisfies.
There’s no apparent fuel penalty for AWD, either. Technical director Dave VanderWerp wrote in the logbook, “Over the weekend, the Audi’s trip computer was reporting 28 to 29 mpg for each of my trips. Sure, they were mostly highway (as is most driving in the U.S.), but that included many a lusty on-ramp romp. That’s pretty amazing for an all-wheel-drive car on snow tires.”
All was not perfect, however. Our side mirrors were ruthlessly molested by ruffians wilding and carousing in the night. Our dealer replaced both for an eye-watering $1156. Two days later, we took the car back because the passenger door wouldn’t open from the inside. That was fixed under warranty. We weren’t charged for the A4’s initial 5000-mile service (oil and filter change plus an inspection), but its second visit to the dealer for the scheduled 15,000-mile checkup, which added a more thorough inspection to the oil and filter change, set us back $345.
But the most troubling issue persists: At low revs (1500 to 2500 rpm), the engine will occasionally surge by 100 or so revs. It mostly happens on startup while under load. The ever-trusty internet reports a few similar incidents and has diagnosed an engine misfire due to a broken catalyst. But in our car, no engine or O2 sensor lights lit up in the cluster, and our dealership reports no bad OBD codes. We are still mystified but will have it looked at when the A4 returns to the dealership for the scheduled 25,000-mile maintenance visit.
