► We drive the all-new Audi A4
► It’s evolved into a sentient new A4
► Lighter, cleaner and sharper
Shock news for anyone who thought self-driving cars were a far-off figment of Elon Musk’s imagination – Audi has gone and built one. Not the robot RS7 that’s been seen setting solo lap times at various race events over the past 12 months. No. The brand new Audi A4, due in dealerships imminently.
Now, we’re not quite at the stage where the A4 will drive you home from the pub after that post-work drink morphs into a massive set-the-world-to-rights bender, but the 2015 version of the car that really defines Audi has no fewer than 30 driver and safety assistance systems. Unsurprisingly, you don’t get all of these as standard, and admittedly most are imported from the more rarefied Q7, but extend the options list to its full potential and you’ll end up with a junior executive saloon that’s as keen to take the wheel as you are. Possibly more so.
The A4’s first stand against human incompetence comes with Traffic Jam Assist. Assuming your A4 is equipped with the inevitable automatic transmission, and you’ve got the adaptive cruise and self-steering lane assist functions optioned and switched on, Traffic Jam Assist will detect said vehicular preserve and, for as long as your speed stays below 40mph, take care of the tedious stickiness for you. Not only will it speed up, slow down and when necessary, stop, it will also analyse the trajectory of the cars in front of you in order to not just follow them along the road but also steer round any obstacles – by itself. Feeling redundant yet?
Predictive Efficiency Assistant (PEA) is strike two. This little ray of sunshine moves adaptive cruise control on from registering and obeying the speed limit to incorporating sat-nav data in order to pre-emptively reduce your speed ahead of corners, roundabouts and even hills. You don’t even need to have a route set for this to work, and the first time it decelerates the car for a roundabout you’ll do a little squeal; forget Big Brother, this Audi is definitely watching you. PEA is apparently worth fuel savings of up to 10%, and if the cruise isn’t active an icon appears that encourages you to back off manually.
Other tricks intended to save humanity from itself include the usual auto-braking functions – including a new Turning Assist that stops you turning across the road in front of traffic – blindspot monitors, and a device that warns you against opening the doors into traffic. Pre-sense systems also mean that should you foil the A4’s exhaustive efforts and create an accident, the Audi will do its utmost to protect you. How long before it decides that, actually, we aren’t worth the bother?
Don’t panic, yet. Just as Audi Drive Select allows you to tailor the powertrain, steering and – where fitted – adaptive damping, you can dive into the MMI menus and tweak the degree to which any of these assistance systems intervene. And at the moment that includes switching them off. Handy, since Ingolstadt has also spent a great deal of effort making the new A4 considerably better for us long pigs to drive.
Not to the extent that you’ll be wanting to cancel the 3-series or XE order if you’re really keen to show those pesky apexes what’s what, but the new A4, which is as much as 110kg lighter than the old A4, both rides and steers with increased adroitness. Ironically this is particularly true of the toyed-up tosemi-sentience, range-topping 3.0-litre V6 TDI S line pictured, which benefits from 268bhp and a quattro four-wheel drive system that’s biased 40:60 towards the rear – and can shift the mix up to 70% fore and 85% aft, as required.
Dial the adaptive dampers up to Dynamic and this combination will carve around a mountain with something akin to enthusiasm, staying both flat and composed on its new five-link front and rear suspension while the quattro and 443lb ft do their best impression of a slingshot. Even the conventional eight-speed Tiptronic auto is largely cooperative, and you do get used to the – also optional – variable ratio Dynamic Steering. This ranges from light and surprisingly delicate in Comfort to truly meaty in Dynamic.
Audi’s been working hard to keep the big six relevant, so while this and its more humble 215bhp sibling remain an indulgent choice, the CO2 and mpg penalties are hardly crippling considering the smooth thrust you get in return. How the new A4 copes without adaptive suspension is a secret the firm is keeping close to its chest (conventionally-suspended cars weren’t available to drive), but 19-inch wheels didn’t cause the 268bhp version to pop any vertebrae on reasonably varied Italian tarmac.
The preordained best-selling 2.0-litre TDI was strangely less fluid, thumping far more noticeably over expansion joints despite the littler lump and smaller 17s necessary to achieve Audi ‘Ultra’ efficiency status (just 99g/km C02 on the 148bhp four; 102g/km for 187bhp). The front-wheel-drive chassis is nothing to be ashamed of, being keen and tenacious enough in direction changes, if hardly a danger to your adrenal gland; but the standard steering is a touch numb, and the six-speed manual gearbox unpleasant, being especially vague from second to third. Most will suffer the single g/km of CO2 and £1530 it costs to upgrade to a dual-clutch seven-speed S-tronic anyway.
There’s a trio of turbo petrols, too – including an intriguing 187bhp 2.0 with modified Miller cycle parsimony – but even combined they’ll account for single-digit sales percentages in the UK. Whatever you pick, refinement won’t be an issue, as the aero-acoustic benefits of the new A4’s 0.23Cd makes it almost as quiet inside as an A8. There’s a bit of whistle around the wing mirrors on the motorway but otherwise little to detract from the 19-speaker Bang & Olufsen 3D-sound stereo, and only the barest minimum of idling diesel clatter.
As per every other Audi introduced since the third generation TT, the A4 can be equipped with the fancy Virtual Cockpit digital instrument cluster, supplemented in this case by a central screen and optional full-colour head-up display. Further techno-wizardry includes smartphone mirroring so you can get app-y via the car’s central screen, wireless smartphone charging, and dual Bluetooth connectivity so you no longer have to choose whether it’s work or home that gets you a Fixed Penalty Notice. You can also spec a pair of chunky Audi-branded tablets as a rear-seat infotainment upgrade and/or replacement for your iPad in the boardroom.
The interior quality is as impeccable as ever, but its design seems a little fussy and incohesive in places. Still, since you’ll be whiling away plenty of downtime as the A4 drives you around, it’s good to know that the new one has 25mm more front headroom and 23mm more rear legroom, making it a fine place to be. What was already the lankiest car in its class is now 25mm longer and 16mm wider; the A6 must be wondering what it did wrong.
But will the XE, the 3-series and the C-class be sweating? The A4 has always offered something different to the driving machismo of the BMW – and now the Jag – while the Mercedes dazzles with its aloof image and interior style. That difference, now more than ever, is a kind of cool intelligence that, while not without appeal, doesn’t quite feel like enough to upturn our junior exec hierarchy at this initial introduction.
Up against
Better than: BMW 3-series, at driving itself
Worse than: BMW 3-series, at being driven by you
We’d buy: Jaguar XE, Pace, grace, less space
The specs: Audi A4 S line 3.0 TDI 272
Price: £38,950
Engine: 2967cc 24v V6 turbodiesel, 268bhp @ 3250-4250rpm, 443lb ft @ 1500-3000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Performance: 5.3sec 0-62mph, 155mph, 55.4mpg, 134g/km CO2
Weight: 1735kg
On sale: Now (due in dealers November 2015)
Love: All of the toys, very refined, better to drive
Hate: Interior has lost a little charm, HAL- in-waiting vibes
Verdict: Nice upgrade for existing A4 fans, not sure it’ll win over others
Rating: ****