ACGN meeting, test drives

[Tom Nas]

Hi all,

Time for our bimonthly club meeting here in Holland today, this time at a
dealership in Assen, in the north. A 300 km round trip, which the 'new' 90q
dispensed with easily. It's an excellent long-distance cruiser, the seats
are superb and the amount of noise doesn't betray the car's age.
Alas, the 16in wheels with 215/40 Tyfoon(?) tyres spoil the car's handling.
It doesn't inspire confidence in corners (though I cannot actually unstick
it when pushing hard) and there's NO steering feel. Back to 15in Ronals and
decent tyres, which I've now decided is my next upgrade.

The meeting itself was pretty good, large dealership with a brand-new
building and lots of demo cars to test drive. The first car was new to me
in every respect- an A6 2.5TDI Multitronic. What a great car, an excellent
engine and a first-rate transmission. The Multitronic is a stepless
automatic with five programmed 'ratios' for those who prefer to change
gears themselves. Unlike most automatics the revs don't rise until the
engine is screaming its head off (which is pretty useless for a TDI anyway)
but it looks for the optimum rev range for any given speed, and does so
without being intrusive. In fact, you don't even notice that it's there,
which is a big compliment. The V6 TDI is a great companion for the
Multitronic, lots of torque and excellent response. You only notice that
it's a diesel when it's idling, at speed it sounds like a smooth V6 petrol
engine. The A6 suprised me by being pretty sharp to drive, I expected it to
be more wallowy.
Next car (moving down the range, not exactly the way to do it) was the new
A4 1.8T quattro. Sports suspension is standard on quattros here, and it's
good- not harsh or crashy at all. The amount of noise (engine and wind) was
slightly disappointing on the A4, the rest of the car was not. The interior
is really, really nice with plenty of space- even rear seat passengers
don't get a bad deal. It had a leather interior which was too slippery for
my tastes but the shape of the seats was superb. The high-resolution info
display is excellent, very easy to read and not distracting. Unfortunately,
the car rode on Continental tyres which made for poor grip and lots of
understeer, bad companions for the fine chassis.
The third ride was an A2 1.4, which I'd driven before. For such a small car
(Golf-sized), the interior space is really impressive. The lowered rear
floor gives you plenty of leg room in the rear, more than enough room for
an adult on a long trip (in fact, there's more space in the rear of an A2
than in an A4!). Build quality is exemplary, though you can see that
simpler materials have been used. Everything's high-grade though, and
there's not a rattle to be heard. The 1.4 16v is somewhat rough at higher
revs but provides the A2 with enough oomph to get it to a decent lick of
speed even with three adults on board. This is a car I could happily live
with...

An excellent meeting all round- great hospitality with food and drinks for
everyone, very enjoyable test drives and nice Audi chat. And a nice
opportunity to get out the 90q for a relaxed drive.

Tom