There was a time when inexperienced station wagons could possibly be discovered all over the place on American roads (regardless of sure unfounded superstitions about inexperienced vehicles), although few of them had handbook transmissions and even fewer boasted compelled induction. By the tip of the twentieth century, wagons of any type had fallen out of favor, however Audi ignored the fin de siècle longroof naysayers and provided American automotive consumers the A4 Avant simply in time for the collapse of civilization so many anticipated on account of the Y2K Bug. Naturally, you can get your 1999 A4 Avant in wonderful inexperienced — your alternative of Cactus Inexperienced Mica, Jaspis Inexperienced Metallic or Tropic Inexperienced Metallic — and that is what we have for at present’s Junkyard Gem.
Generally it is onerous to inform why a sure automobile ended up within the knacker’s yard, however there isn’t any thriller with this one. A thick stack of weathered parking tickets from the Metropolis of Denver below the wiper advised the story, and examination of the tickets revealed that every one of them have been issued for failure to maneuver the automotive for avenue sweeping… in one of many Mile Excessive Metropolis’s snootiest old-money neighborhoods.
Again in 1999, a brand-new A4 Avant would have been completely at residence in such a neighborhood (if a bit on the inexpensive aspect), however as soon as the hood and one fender have been switched from Cactus Inexperienced Mica parts to junkyard-obtained Volcano Black ones and a few many years have passed by … nicely, you may wager that residents of these Gilded Age mansions have been spraining fingers rage-dialing the Denver County Car Impoundment hotline and demanding that one thing be carried out about this eyesore.
So, let’s speak about this automotive’s happier instances, when it was new and had an MSRP of $26,440 (about $47,680 in 2022 {dollars}). You would get the A4 sedan with front-wheel-drive that yr, however the wagon was obtainable solely in all-wheel-drive configuration.
Audi provided People two engine selections within the 1999 A4 Avant: a 2.8-liter naturally-aspirated V6 with 190 horsepower or a turbocharged 1.8-liter four-cylinder rated at 150 horsepower.
This automotive has the turbocharged I4. I anticipated the curb weight for the 1.8T to be a lot decrease than that of its V6 sibling, however it scaled in at simply 33 kilos lighter.
Each the 1.8T and a pair of.8 variations had a five-speed handbook as the bottom transmission, however most American consumers opted for the Porsche Tiptronic computerized (at a price of $1,075 additional, or about $1,940 at present). This automotive has the correct five-on-the-floor, a setup by no means obtainable within the Ford Nation Squire or Plymouth Customized Suburban (although these wagons have been obtainable with three-on-the-tree column-shift manuals for some mannequin years).
Personally, I might say that the 5-on-the-tree column-shift handbook is good for a station wagon, as a result of it will get you a pleasant overdrive prime gear plus the shifter location clears house for a wagon-correct entrance bench seat. Sadly, Audi did not seek the advice of me on the topic, and this automotive has the same old shifter location and bucket seats.
The A4 went onto a brand new platform for 2001, letting us know the outdated century was gone endlessly.
While you develop up craving for a classic motorbike, solely to be seduced away by the brand new A4 Avant.
Even the German Eye within the Sky can not look away when it spies the A4 Avant.
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