36 hours with our A4 (we got it!) (semi-LONG)

[jafo@tummy.com]

36 hours (and 610 miles) with our new A4...

Last Friday we were finally able to fly out to Chicago to pick up our
car.  We had put down a deposit on a '97 A4 that was coming in on the
boat, but because of a conference we had to delay picking it up by 3
weeks...  I also decided that we'd use some of this down-time to let
Schaumburg do the throttle body tweek they're so well known for.

I can't say enough good things for Schaumburg.  The buying experience
was great...  We got a good price, and it was available to us nearly
2 months before another dealer could get us one from the factory (for
$1400 less).  Alex from Schaumburg Audi picked us up at our hotel
Saturday at 9:30am, and we were putting the 19th mile on our A4 by shortly
after 11am.  The paperwork BS was taken care of within about 20 minutes,
and the rest of the time he spent introducing the car to us and showing
us it's features.

We didn't have to haggel or go through the "Wait while I talk to my
manager..." stuff -- they found the car within 30 minutes of my call
and their initial offer was around $700 less than another dealer, when
the car was actually $700 more expensive because of the Bose stereo...

When we first arrived at Schaumburg Audi, Alex took us into the garage
to inspect our car.  My first thought was "Holy shit that's yellow!"
>From now on, our car isn't "Brilliant Yellow with black leather
interior..." like the brochure says, it's "Holy-shit-that's yellow".
It's not the yellow I was expecting, but it's not offensive either.
In retrospect I'd probably have chosen the Emerald Green over this
shade of yellow, but I'm not unhappy with it -- it DOES have it's
positive side...

When heading back to the car from the mall (Chicago's largest mall
apparently), we could spot the car a third of the way across the
parking lot -- we're unlikely to ever lose it again...  I doubt
we'll ever be in an accident where the other driver says "I just
didn't see you..."  Of course, other drivers may find themselves at
accident scenes where they hear "After that yellow Audi blinded me...".

We spent Saturday driving around the Chicago area and checking out some
sites.  We put just over 100 miles (on top of the 19 miles that were
on it at delivery).  Downtown Chicago is an interesting city -- interesting
architecture, that's for sure.  However, I wouldn't want to live there.
The people seem far too uptight for my taste.

According to Alex, we were supposed to do the "break-in" driving for
the first 500 miles, then drive it kind of hard.  That meant that we
didn't really get to pounce on the car while driving around Chicago.
The car was great though.  The engine sounds great, was very smooth.
The interior of the car is excellent.

Sunday we put the big miles on the car -- just under 500.  We had to
head back from Chicago, so it was all interstate...  I endedu up
shifting between 4th and 5th every 10 minutes or so.  Just as we were
pulling into town, I started really pressing the engine.  It feels
great!  I have no idea what the throttle-body mod did, but the engine
definitely has enough power for my taste.  It's not a frighteningly
fast car, but it gets up to speed and has a good ammount of passing
power.

I'd have to echo the Auto Week drivers who commented "almost perfect"
in their extended test.  It's a truely great car -- just like our '90
90q20v, but much more refined.  Here's the list of hits and
misses:

  Hits:
    The interior is great!  The leather is great, the fit and finish are
      great, the ergonomics are great.
    The engine is great -- it pulls and handles very well.
    The car doesn't have the typical "plastic offgassing" new car smell.
      Instead, we decided that it smells faintly of coconut -- strange
      but good, especially with Evelyn's alergies.
    The trip computer is nice -- it's very interesting to see the
      current MPG meter (and watch it reed 100+MPG when coasting
      downhill :-).
    The Bose radio is nice -- especially with it's integration into the
      car -- showing the station, preset number, and call-sign or
      music type in the instrument cluster is a nice touch.  It seems
      a little "boomy" for my taste (as much Bose stuff is), but we've
      only listened to FM radio (which they often run through a
      compresser) and some tapes.
    The trunk is HUGE!  Love it...
    The auto up-down windows are great!  The '90 has auto down, but not
      up...  In Chicago -- the land of the tollways -- that was a good
      feature to have.
    Quattro!  As I was stopping on the side of the highway to retrieve
      something from the trunk -- I realized that we were in some nasty
      loose snow that a lesser car might have had problems in.  Not the A4!
    Oh, and Evelyn LOVES the heated seats...  She's got to be part cat --
      she was snoozing away with the heater on 5 for an hour or so on the
      ride back...
    3 year, 50K all maintainance included!  Alex told us to ask to have
      the windshield-wipers replaced when we go in for maintainance too,
      they don't do it by default.  The stock wipers do a GREAT job of
      clearing the junk off the windshields.

  Misses:
    The digital climate control is great, but it would have been nice
      to have dual-zone controls -- Evelyn is often colder than I am.
    What they hell are they doing packaging an in-dash tape deck in a
      $660 upgrade stereo in this day and age?  Good CD decks can be
      had for $300.
    Who decided to have these $70 laser-cut keys?!?  How many cars are
      actually broken into by using an attack on the lock?  Heck, I once
      watched a professional lock-smith spend 15 minutes before giving up
      trying to pick the lock of a Toyota Tercel.  They're going to break
      the window or wait for me to come out with the keys and remote or
      even sniff the radio frequencies for the lock/unlock frequency.
      We have to spend $70 for a replacement key, for no extra security.
    We all know the cup-holders are nearly useless.  I ended up spilling
      Snapple while trying to see if it would fit or not...

The misses are more nit-picking -- it really is the perfect car for us...
With the A4 1.8t in town, cost is less of a concern than it was before.
It certainly out-classes the Subaru (really the only other competition
with AWD -- a lock-out-spec for us).

600 miles and going strong!  The only way you're going to get the A4
from me is by prying it out of my cold, dead fingers -- or offer an
S version with 250HP (and a manual transmission, do you hear me Audi?).
Otherwise, there's no reason to replace the perefect car.

Enjoy,
Sean
-- 
 I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in
 my body.  Then I realized who was telling me this.  -- Emo Phillips
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo@tummy.com>
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