This all-new Audi sedan makes first impression throughout our nocturnal lengthy drive, with its highly effective headlights and clean trip high quality.
The distinction between driving within the day and at night time is, nicely, day and night time. I’ve found a brand new window for my ritualistic drives to Mahabaleshwar which is completely at night time. An evening drive beats getting up on the first light (which I hate) and the later it will get, the emptier the roads. Sure, truck site visitors continues to be thick at night time, however after round 11pm, truckers too peel off for night time’s sleep. And that’s really the smart factor to do! However the temptation of driving up the final 40km of a totally abandoned ghat highway is just too irresistible to decide on a extra smart time to journey. Moreover, I discover driving the hills safer at night time as a result of an oncoming automobile’s headlights make blind corners not so blind.
BUTTON UP: Bodily buttons are simple and intuitive to make use of.
That doesn’t take away from the statistically undeniable fact that driving at night time is far more harmful than driving within the day and the possibilities of having an accident are twice as excessive. However, if you happen to compensate for the hazard ingredient with defensive driving and a protected automobile, night time driving just isn’t as lethal as one would suppose. That’s the cue for our long-term Audi A4 to make a grand entrance.
The A4 has been my nocturnal buddy for the previous two Mahabaleshwar journeys due to the way in which it takes the stress out of night time driving. The A4’s full-LED headlights play a key function in placing me relaxed. The broad and highly effective excessive beam has a deep throw that picks up unlit bicycles, vehicles with out tail-lights and even the retinas of straying cows from afar. It’s these unilluminated hazards that makes night time driving in India so treacherous, and that’s why pair of headlights just like the A4’s is crucial security characteristic. It’s simply not the headlights, the cabin lighting can be simple on the attention and the intuitive really feel of all of the controls retains you centered on nothing else however the highway forward.
SHINING NIGHT: Robust headlights take the stress out of night time driving.
Touchscreens are a lifestyle in automobiles that we’ve come to simply accept, if not love. You don’t suppose twice earlier than prodding or swiping a touchscreen and the A4’s infotainment system works fairly responsively. However after the solar goes down, you actually admire the row of bodily buttons for the aircon and the way good it feels to rotate a well-crafted knob with satisfying clicks. Two issues that you simply are inclined to continually regulate is the aircon and the music quantity, and the A4 has exhausting buttons for each these capabilities (plus, in fact, the quantity button on the steering wheel). At night time, when you must focus exhausting and never take your eyes off the highway, you admire the intuitive really feel they provide.
The A4 provides extra than simply nice lighting to maintain me relaxed at night time. A driver’s seat that lightly grips you, a spot-on seating place that offers you good view of the highway with none obstruction from the instrument panel or the A-pillars and an environment friendly washer and wiper unit that retains the windscreen crystal clear, all add as much as what I might name an excellent ‘night time driving package deal’. Have I inadvertently coined a brand new advertising time period?!
SPOKE IN THE WHEEL: Alloys look lacklustre on sharp-suited A4.
Evening can be when you possibly can even have enjoyable driving up the Wai ghat, a 11km twisty highway from Wai to Panchgani that’s fairly nicely surfaced and fairly extensive sufficient to allow you to take pleasure in ‘straight lining’ the squiggly bit firstly. Nonetheless, the empty, twisty ghat additionally exhibits the relatively unsporting facet of the A4. It’s a bit nose-heavy and understeery if you push exhausting and the two.0-litre TSI engine’s energy supply isn’t what I might name explosive. I default to the properly crafted paddles to remain within the meat of the powerband, which makes for a extra fulfilling if not exhilarating driving expertise.
Satisfying, enjoyable and comfy. These are the phrases that spring to thoughts after spending lengthy hours within the A4. It’s a supremely refined sedan that doesn’t ask a lot of the motive force and might rework what may very well be a harrowing journey into a simple one. The standout characteristic, if I needed to decide one, is the trip high quality. No different sedan on this class rides as easily because the A4. It’s not too mushy just like the Excellent in our long-term fleet and neither do sharp edges thwack by way of, like within the – dare I say it – C-Class. There’s a soaky, well-rounded edge to the A4’s suspension, which doesn’t come at the price of physique management. Few automobiles trip as nicely within the metropolis as they do on the freeway and fairly frankly, the A4 units a brand new benchmark for trip high quality.
STRAIGHT BACK: Upright seat again compromises rear-seat consolation.
Gas effectivity was higher than I anticipated. A determine of 11.6kpl on an extended, exhausting drive to Mahabaleshwar is significantly better than what I get from different VW Group automobiles with the identical 2.0-litre TSI engine on the identical route. I think the A4’s effectivity is helped by the 95 octane weight-reduction plan that I switched to and is, the truth is, advisable. The upper octane gasoline is dearer, nevertheless it retains the engine working optimally.
Niggles? A giant one is the again seat, which is nowhere close to as comfy because the entrance. Positive, compact luxurious sedans will not be meant to be excessive on house, however for me the problem is extra to do with the seat again design, which is just too upright by a couple of centimetres. I additionally didn’t just like the relatively boring design of the five-spoke alloys, which don’t appear like they belong to 2022. Having mentioned that, the very nice sedan has been a good way to begin a brand new 12 months of motoring.
