A4 1.8Tq report - good and bad

[Greg Spark <sparkg@wave.co.nz>]

Have just returned from 10 day holiday during which I covered 4100kms in my
A4 1.8Tq.

I'll get the bad news out first. Some b*****d coined the side of the car
resulting in a deep scratch on both R doors and front guard that will require
respray. Common problem in this country but more so with Mercs and BMWs.

Several stone chips were acquired and now the front of the car is looking
pretty damn chipped :-(  - might get it resprayed when the doors are done.
Seems to be a problem with the A4 - too much paintwork in the front profile.

The car would definitely benefit from a 6 speed box. The revs in fifth
are too high for a top gear. A higher 6th gear would make for more relaxed
cruising. The acceleration in fifth is excellent though, so I wouldn't like
to see that gear stretched.

My driving was a little limited by the knowledge that a speeding ticket for
over 120kph would see me walking for three months, however on most of the
roads (New Zealand's South Island) traffic was almost non-existant so long
periods of speeds between 130-160kph were possible. Two sections of the
trip were covered at a 180kph speed - wide long straights with gentle
sweeping bends. The car was absolutely stable even up to 220kph.

Overall the car performed faultlessly, although my tires (ContiSportContact)
now need replacing at 30500kms - not bad considering the treatment they've had!

Fuel consumption varied between 9.1 and 11.1 L/100kms with an average of
9.87 (thats 28.6mpg - Imperial). Hard driving doesn't seem to push the
fuel consumption up by as much as I would expect - is this due to the
efficiency of the 5 valve head??

A track session confirmed that the car is too soft and undertired to
fully exploit its handling potential (I have the factory sports suspension)
but my feeling is that to push any further in this direction would make
the car too hard for normal driving - after all I am 43 and my wife does
travel with me :-)

The sports seats are superb - my first feelings that they might be too
hard have not been confirmed and lateral support is excellent.

Depending on your mood, the car is a superb cross country performance sports car or a comfortable luxury cruiser.

Next step is a new set of tires (Falken ZE502 225/50-16) and a 70mm Remus
stainless exhaust. I'll report back on these additions.

-- 
Greg Spark
sparkg@wave.co.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand
'96 A4 1.8Tq 5sp MTM 187hp