A very frustrating car to own

Aldi-Sport Chap said:
I agree with a lot on here but not everything. I came from a BMW F31 335d to my A4 and the difference is night and day. The S-tronic gearbox is OK, it's vastly smoother than the ZF but yes it's slower, especially when cold but the gear changes, they're just so smooth. It's not a racer it's a cruisy diesel and it excels. In the BMW I too was frustrated with the reversion to comfort, the lousy i-Drive where "back" rarely returned you to the previous page, the non automatic auto wipers, the useless sat-nav, the runflat noise, the runflat harshness, the runflat fear of not having a spare, the wind noise, the ***** headlights, the Tandy quality stereo (was it even stereo?), the oil leaks and everyone thinking you're a c**t cos you drive a BMW.

Yes, the box is slow, I drove a manual Q2 last week and it really shows how slow it is but I can live with that for the comfort, refinement, build quality and just a nicer place in which to commute.
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Totally agree on the above. My wife has a 430d Gran coupe and I had a 330d before my current a4

The stock bmw stereo was dreadful but the standard one in my a4 s line I’m my view isn’t far off the upgraded Harmon Kardon one in my wife’s 430d.

We always take my car when we go out as a family as the road noise and firm ride of the 430d is not ideal. I actually posted a review of my old 3 series vs my new a4 on a bmw forum a while back and most people agreed with the bmw’s shortcomings particularly the interior and refinement.

Audi just don’t do responsive auto boxes (certainly on non S and RS cars) but for me that’s ok given the overall strengths of the a4. From what I’ve read recently it’s the same with Mercedes and Volvo.
 
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I was thinking today how poor the primary controls are on the Audi, particularly lack of steering feel, too slow a rack and over-servoed brakes affecting modulation. The combination is not great, but acceptable for a commuting car so it's all swings and roundabouts (literally).
 
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Aldi-Sport Chap said:
I agree with a lot on here but not everything. I came from a BMW F31 335d to my A4 and the difference is night and day. The S-tronic gearbox is OK, it's vastly smoother than the ZF but yes it's slower, especially when cold but the gear changes, they're just so smooth. It's not a racer it's a cruisy diesel and it excels. In the BMW I too was frustrated with the reversion to comfort, the lousy i-Drive where "back" rarely returned you to the previous page, the non automatic auto wipers, the useless sat-nav, the runflat noise, the runflat harshness, the runflat fear of not having a spare, the wind noise, the ***** headlights, the Tandy quality stereo (was it even stereo?), the oil leaks and everyone thinking you're a c**t cos you drive a BMW.

Yes, the box is slow, I drove a manual Q2 last week and it really shows how slow it is but I can live with that for the comfort, refinement, build quality and just a nicer place in which to commute.
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In my experience Audi drivers rank equally with BMW drivers in the c**t stakes. Imagine my horror when a few months ago I was given a 3 series as a courtesy car while mine was being repaired. An Audi driver in a BMW! Double bad.
 
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I have now covered 27,000 miles in 17 month in my Allroad. There are many things I love about the car, the creamy smooth V6, the amazing refinement, the overall build quality, the MMI, though with the odd glitch, the real time traffic info on the sat nav, even the fuel economy which is averaging 47mpg which is just amazing for a 3.0 V6 with permanent AWD. The gearbox when in town is easily the worst thing about the car, even after all the miles I've done I still from time to time get caught out at junctions and roundabouts. Yes, pull back to sport largely sorts the issue, but on busy commutes it's a PITA every junction, and I really shouldn't have to. Out of town gearbox is superb. Whilst I'm moaning, the door mirrors are too small and the fake running boards along the sills (on my Allroad) make it virtually impossible to get out of the car without transferring whatever crap is on there to trousers, and it takes ages to get au heat into the car on these frost mornings. The electric auxilliary heater seems to have the heat output of a couple of matches. My prior Jag XF had a diesel fired auxilliary heater and gave heat in under half a mile, not 4, and it had the ZF 8 speeder box, which was lovely.
 
Aldi-Sport Chap said:
Yes true unfortunately. I'm happy to be back in the Audi though.

I admit he S-tronic is slow, can we remember the multitronic CVT? It's not that slow
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Quite, a gear change in 8ms is not slow, there are worse, far worse, dsg gearboxes out there. To be honest I never though I'd be defending the stronic as before I would only buy a manual gearbox and anything automatic was the devil's spawn. But for all the drivers assist packages to work how they should I, reluctantly, took the decision to go for the stronic.
Now I don't look back and having driven a diesel A4 with a manual gearbox I am glad I took the decision I did as it was awful. Mind you it is still nice to get back into a 2018 fiesta where everything communicates back to you exactly what it is doing...
 
We're Audi drivers we're not supposed to do things like indicate and check our mirrors.
 
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kmanmx said:
We're Audi drivers we're not supposed to do things like indicate and check our mirrors.
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Strange thing is, I'm sure I actually indicate more now. Maybe I just want to share how good the dynamic indicators look.....sad, or what!
 
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I posted a 500 mile review here a few weeks after getting the car and i had a handful of negatives, the gearbox and the sound system being the main ones which still remain an issue for me after 9000 miles.

Gearbox works ok when on the move, once the cars warmed up but the lag is just too much to deal with for me especially around town. It ruins what is a near perfect engine in my opinion. The ZF would have been much better suited to this car

Like someone mentioned though it is a cruisy diesel and once you start treating it that way it does become slightly easier to live with.

A few other annoying things whilst were on the subject...

I dont like the storage area underneath the armrest. Its too shallow and I can't leave anything of value in the car unless its in the glovebox.

The star button (which I have configured to drive select) works when it feels like it, the MMI often resets itself mid drive and sometimes I have to press the start engine button twice before the car starts.

I Still love the car though all things considered and hopefully they'll address some of these issues in the upcoming B9.5
 
Perhaps we should have two new threads created, one called 'what I hate about my A4' and one entitled 'what I like about my A4'...
 
Can agree with a few points here.

What modes do everyone here drive on? I drive in comfort and very rarely there can be a bit of lag if I need to suddenly accelerate.

I've got the 272 with a tune and even despite the tune I do find the gearbox to be a bit sluggish at times, (90 percent of the time it's fine though) but the times it doesn't respond makes the whole driving experience very frustrating.

Has anyone considered a tcu tune? I recently got in touch with JR tuning who have a tcu update (not a full tcu remap) that promises faster gearchanges etc so I'm hoping that will liven up the car a bit.

Also agree on the point on the BMW 8 speeds - my friend has the 435d and the zf on that is very responsive/sporty even in comfort mode. The zf in mine is a lot more smoother and comfort orientated but in sport/dynamic it's on par with the BMW and even has a slight edge performance wise because of the tune.

Hoping the tcu update will mostly cure the occasional gearbox lag issues on my car though!
 
cuke2u said:
Perhaps we should have two new threads created, one called 'what I hate about my A4' and one entitled 'what I like about my A4'...
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I agree at least then anyone looking in can see both sides of the story
 
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I have a question for anyone who has the 1.4 s tronic. When you rev it to red line in dynamic and with the gearbox in sport, when it hits top end before changing gear, does you hear a buzz sound? Mine does it but im not sure if it's just me or if it has an issue
 
6500 miles into the S4 and 7000 miles into the M140, is say they were about the same. The kickdown coding on the s4 is better in that it makes better use of torque an doesn’t drop 3 gears as soon as you want to. The bmw probably shifts fractionally faster. Overall both are great.
 
Two years into owning my car and I have to say the gearbox (s tronic on the 2.0 TDI quattro) completely ruins it. The number of times I've put my foot down on the accelerator whether from a standing start or whilst on the move and the engine will rev but the car would not move or speed up as I'd expect it to

Once I'm out of this car I don't think I'll be purchasing another Audi again
 
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Would you consider a manual or has this shipped sailed ?
 
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A4B9 said:
Two years into owning my car and I have to say the gearbox (s tronic on the 2.0 TDI quattro) completely ruins it. The number of times I've put my foot down on the accelerator whether from a standing start or whilst on the move and the engine will rev but the car would not move or speed up as I'd expect it to

Once I'm out of this car I don't think I'll be purchasing another Audi again
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Weird thing is that regardless of the drive mode, I'd swear the issue for me is that the lag is in the throttle reaction. Stationary, dynamic, "S", floor pedal, wait a moment........then traction control. I'm certain there is no movement on the rev counter before the car begins to move.

I can't say it overly bothers me now as I find I'm allowing for it to happen when pulling out or going on to a roundabout and probably tend to wait for bigger gaps in the traffic. And that mightn't be a bad thing anyway.
 
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Sounds like a safety buffer. That would drive me mad. I would want to take control again and I am not even a Brexiteer!
 
Paul Golding said:
Weird thing is that regardless of the drive mode, I'd swear the issue for me is that the lag is in the throttle reaction. Stationary, dynamic, "S", floor pedal, wait a moment........then traction control. I'm certain there is no movement on the rev counter before the car begins to move.

I can't say it overly bothers me now as I find I'm allowing for it to happen when pulling out or going on to a roundabout and probably tend to wait for bigger gaps in the traffic. And that mightn't be a bad thing anyway.
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I dont get any movement on the rev counter either, just a delay usually about 2 seconds before the car shoots forward it can be dangerous if you're not used to it. Probably the main reason I dont like the Mrs driving it.
 
I'd say there's something wrong with it! I know there's some lag/delay, but I've never had that level of issue before. In Efficiency mode the pedal response is crap but in any other mode it's not too bad and the revs will rise as soon as you press the pedal regardless...
 
SMI77 said:
+1 - I am positive they were designed by either marketing or a fashion designer, and neither drives.
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I actually remember reading something about them, in that they were very specifically moved to the position they're in now and engineered to reduce wind noise in the cabin. Apparently that just means making them smaller! Haha.

That said, I've gotten used to the odd shape and size of them now.
 
Daggerit said:
I actually remember reading something about them, in that they were very specifically moved to the position they're in now and engineered to reduce wind noise in the cabin. Apparently that just means making them smaller! Haha.

That said, I've gotten used to the odd shape and size of them now.
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Yes, but that I thought referred to the ridges on the vertical side facing the window, where the side assist light is?
Still no excuse for a practicality disaster!
 
SMI77 said:
Yes, but that I thought referred to the ridges on the vertical side facing the window, where the side assist light is?
Still no excuse for a practicality disaster!
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I assume so but I don’t know the specifics apart from being moved onto the door!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
https://www.yourmechanic.com/question/large-driver-side-mirror-blocked-view-and-caused-accident
http://www.pathfindertalk.com/forum...930-side-mirrors-too-big-blocks-out-view.html
I find no issue with the mirrors at all, they reflect on what is happening behind perfectly. If they were larger than they'd be more susceptible to damage and we all know the cost of audi parts.
Or maybe audi should fit these:
Rearview high speed scarification big1
 
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in regards to the * button i have this programmed to change drive select. I have noticed that when I am using Apple play it stops working as programmed. Otherwise just don't try and change modes on first start up for 10 seconds.
 
Syed Shah said:
I have a question for anyone who has the 1.4 s tronic. When you rev it to red line in dynamic and with the gearbox in sport, when it hits top end before changing gear, does you hear a buzz sound? Mine does it but im not sure if it's just me or if it has an issue
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In short , yes
I have the Diesel so the red line is lower but in anything other than Efficiency it will hit the rev-limiter for about a tenth of a second, though it feels much longer. I have yet to ask the dealer as it has taken 7 months to notice (I rarely floor it obviously) but once I felt it I tried a few times in different modes. Can I assume this is just the utter lethargy of the 'box software? I know it changes in 8ms but that's not the problem, it's the thinking time before it flicks the switch which is frustrating. Or is mine broken?
 
Nickfrog said:
I was thinking today how poor the primary controls are on the Audi, particularly lack of steering feel, too slow a rack and over-servoed brakes affecting modulation. The combination is not great, but acceptable for a commuting car so it's all swings and roundabouts (literally).
Click to expand...

Sounds like your in comfort
 
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Not sure as I actually feel the same about the primary controls, however it has always been the same for all the audi's I have driven or owned. However I find the brakes just right for me.
You only have to get into a fiesta to know that it can be done as the feedback through the controls are a relevation after driving a audi.
But then our cars are designed around a different objective, as Nickfrog states, that they do quite well...
 
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Aldi-Sport Chap said:
In short , yes
I have the Diesel so the red line is lower but in anything other than Efficiency it will hit the rev-limiter for about a tenth of a second, though it feels much longer. I have yet to ask the dealer as it has taken 7 months to notice (I rarely floor it obviously) but once I felt it I tried a few times in different modes. Can I assume this is just the utter lethargy of the 'box software? I know it changes in 8ms but that's not the problem, it's the thinking time before it flicks the switch which is frustrating. Or is mine broken?
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Im not sure tbh. All i know is that whenever the cars at redline, i hear a ‘zzzzzzzzzzz’ sound for about a second when changing gears. Im going to take mine in and ask what that is whenever i can.
 
My car was in for a service on Monday I mentioned the gearbox at great length to technician, he quietly mentioned that he is aware but all he could do was plug it in, which he did and no issues found and apparently not even a software update.

The B9 A4 is a poor car in general imo, the tech works when it feels like, it’s completely devoid of any character and the gearbox is just painful to use.

I genuinely cannot wait to get out of this heap of garbage, Audi, never ever again!
 
Sorry you feel that way but for me it is completely the opposite and everytime I drive mine I have a smile on myface. Everything just works, the ride quality and interior is sublime. So much so that I am seriously thinking of keeping it as the car has, and does, everything I need it to do. And with the upgrades it is even better...
 
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