Well that me off, said goodbye to my A4 Avant Q 2.0TFSI s-tronic and traded it in for a lovely VW tiguan R-line 4 motion DSG 2.0 tdi
Getting older gone a bit sensible !
thought I’d do a wee recap and compare for anyone interested .
A huge thanks to everyone here for , help , knowledge, banter and sharing great car photos throughout the years .. I may be back at sometime !
The b8 A4 was my second A4 2.0tfsi quattro . First one a b7 and manual , that’s 2 A4 Qs over the last 8 years and an A3 before that!
Actually the B7 was mainly trouble free , some more expensive MOTs / wear and tear , new exhaust around the 11 year mark . Did that then gave to my brother . It’s still running well with minimal expense . Tyres and brakes .
But the b8 was expensive from day off , it was higher mileage than the b7 though. And the last year has seen me lump £1500 into it , wheel bearings , brakes , tyres cv joints , suspension springs , just kept going every 6 months. Even ones I replaced a couple of years ago on it are going again . Maybe it’s the crap Scottish roads and edinburgh city potholes .
Then another wheel bearing and spring now needing done soon , so I decided to trade it in.
Plus I think the S-tronic had had a hard life before me. So that was always on my mind with nearly 110,000 on the clock and the timing chain & tensioner needing done very soon too.
Got a decent trade in value for it , so shows a good spec Audi holds it value even at trade levels.
The VW is very nice , but obviously not anywhere near as a drivers machine as the A4 . To my surprise the 150ps tdi goes well enough in real world driving , actually more instant useable power compared to to the TFSI turbo lag. Steering is pretty vague on the Tiguan compared to A4 , but I expected that.
It just feels like a bigger top heavy golf with lighter steering.
And after trying a Skoda octavia VRS , the MQB platform just doesn’t have the directness, stiffness & flatness of the A4 MLB platform. (though my mate has just got a golf R which he’s promised me a shot of to compare!)
Tiguan has virtual cockpit which is really nice , and lane assist , adaptive cruise which is good but bit strange, Car-play and good amount of tech settings to play with on console .
The r-line seats are pretty basic compared to S-line tbh, cant quite get as comfy but maybe that is due to sitting more upright . The A4 was like a go cart with a hugging armchair position.
But the main thing is seeing 45mpg + on the dash without even trying to drive economically!
Compared to having petrol 2.0T where I got a long term average of 25mpg at best.
Same commute, part country, city jams , bypass I used to get 18mpg on a busy day , now get 44mpg in VW in same busy traffic .
and the DSG coasting function is really cool.
Getting older gone a bit sensible !
thought I’d do a wee recap and compare for anyone interested .
A huge thanks to everyone here for , help , knowledge, banter and sharing great car photos throughout the years .. I may be back at sometime !
The b8 A4 was my second A4 2.0tfsi quattro . First one a b7 and manual , that’s 2 A4 Qs over the last 8 years and an A3 before that!
Actually the B7 was mainly trouble free , some more expensive MOTs / wear and tear , new exhaust around the 11 year mark . Did that then gave to my brother . It’s still running well with minimal expense . Tyres and brakes .
But the b8 was expensive from day off , it was higher mileage than the b7 though. And the last year has seen me lump £1500 into it , wheel bearings , brakes , tyres cv joints , suspension springs , just kept going every 6 months. Even ones I replaced a couple of years ago on it are going again . Maybe it’s the crap Scottish roads and edinburgh city potholes .
Then another wheel bearing and spring now needing done soon , so I decided to trade it in.
Plus I think the S-tronic had had a hard life before me. So that was always on my mind with nearly 110,000 on the clock and the timing chain & tensioner needing done very soon too.
Got a decent trade in value for it , so shows a good spec Audi holds it value even at trade levels.
The VW is very nice , but obviously not anywhere near as a drivers machine as the A4 . To my surprise the 150ps tdi goes well enough in real world driving , actually more instant useable power compared to to the TFSI turbo lag. Steering is pretty vague on the Tiguan compared to A4 , but I expected that.
It just feels like a bigger top heavy golf with lighter steering.
And after trying a Skoda octavia VRS , the MQB platform just doesn’t have the directness, stiffness & flatness of the A4 MLB platform. (though my mate has just got a golf R which he’s promised me a shot of to compare!)
Tiguan has virtual cockpit which is really nice , and lane assist , adaptive cruise which is good but bit strange, Car-play and good amount of tech settings to play with on console .
The r-line seats are pretty basic compared to S-line tbh, cant quite get as comfy but maybe that is due to sitting more upright . The A4 was like a go cart with a hugging armchair position.
But the main thing is seeing 45mpg + on the dash without even trying to drive economically!
Compared to having petrol 2.0T where I got a long term average of 25mpg at best.
Same commute, part country, city jams , bypass I used to get 18mpg on a busy day , now get 44mpg in VW in same busy traffic .
and the DSG coasting function is really cool.
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