Impressions of 2009 A4 2.0T Quattro loaner car.

So last week I dropped of the Avant at the Audi Dealership and they took care of some issues for me, namely;

• They fixed the sagging shift boot (i.e. the shift knob had its shaft broken so the boot was loose and the knob could be pulled straight off of the shift shaft). According to Audi they replaced the whoel shifter, which is weird to me, as all they needed was a new shift knob, whatever.
  
• There was a rock in the passenger door window slit and it scratched the hell out of my front passenger door window. They did that for free, kind of cool.
• The 4 chrome pieces that are on the outside of the 4 doors are milky and discolored, they actually warrantied those!
• I had this error "Right dipped headlight" 2 times, but it is gone now and they couldn't find any fault, just hope it happens and stays on before my warranty is up.

The 2 things they say they cant find are;

• Crackling/creaking comeine from the front suspension at any low speed under any circumstances. Tomorrow I take the shop forman out and show him what I am talking about.
• Shifting from 3rd or 4th into 2nd is sticky. Basically when you shift from 1->2 you go straight down, so its not a problem, but when you shift hard from 3rd or 4th you are putting a lot of LEFT pressure on the shifter, and it gets stuck at this little spur or notch or something. According to the guy that owns Ingelstadt West its no big deal and just needs to be adjusted.

OK, about the loaner car. Well it was a 2009 A4 2 liter turbo with quattro. My first impression is that it must have CVT because you cant feel the shifts, well unless you floor it and need to wait a full second for it to drop down a gear, man I hate automatics.

It is surprisingly fast, like really qute fast for a 2 liter. I was actually really impressed by it. That might be because it produces 258 lb. ft of torque. The exterior and interior are not very impressive to me. Audi used to be (just like bimmer used to be) all about smooth svelte and beautiful lines. This car is all angular and funky. To me the B7 -> B8 genesis is exactly like the BMW e46 -> e90 genesis. Perfect muscular, yet svelete, and classy lines turned into angular nonsense. The interior's of Audi's have always been spartan but slean, beautiful, and really nice to look at. The new one is well, just funky. too many weird shapes and different disparat ideas going on. There is no unity to it. I like my car's interior so much better. I would pass on buying this car on the lackluster and unattractive interior alone. I will admit I do really like the 3 knob layout. 1 nice large control screen that handles everthing for the car. 1 knob for climate controls, 1 for stereo navigation, and 1 little one close to your right hand for stereo power and volume. Thats a good layout. The key is funly too, exactly like the new bimmers the key fob IS the key, you slide it into a slot and then push the entire fob which starts the car.

One feature I HATE is the electric parking brake. You pull up on a little switch, this engages the brake, and then you push down on it to disengage it. Its heinous. If you are fusting around and pull on it at speed your parking brake goes from full off to full on. No more E-Brake slides, or even using it in little doses if you happen to lsoe your brakes. Very very lame.

handling its not bad, the steering is a bit soft, and the brakes are epic as all Audi brakes seem to be nowadays.

Ultimately if I was going to spend that kindf of money I would buy a B7, or any of the other 7 manufacturers cars that pretty much look the same and drive the same as this one.