Re: Ordering a new A4TQ has evolved into a habit

[Josh Pinkert <flush@radix.net>]

>1. Grey interior in the car with the Grey cloth (and Blue in a Blue, etc.)
>I am serious! Matching interior, Detroit style! Like my neighbour's Buick,
>that has the red ceiling (!), red carpeting and red door panels to match the 
>red seat upholstery. My car's interior was totally screwed up. It looked so 
>cheap it would've made a Corolla envious. Lookes like cheap plastic. Who the 
>hell was that genious who came up with this *Ambience Theme* $hit in a car 
>that used to be so classy?!
>It had a light grey dash board with assorted black switches and bezels 
>inserted here and there. They looked like a sore in the eye.
>The gorgeous textured Aluminium grey dash and door inserts (in place of the
>yeechi laquered firewood on a 2.8) was completely lost, blended into the grey
>panels.
>

The interior roof might be grey for all A4s (I think).  I have an
anthracite interior with a grey roof.

>2. The Detroit-style all-red tail lights. A4 now has red blinkers! The
>logical step now would be to combine them with the stop signals and rename
>the car into a Chebby.
>

The red tail lights were announced a while back.  They are the euro tail
lights...orange ones were ONLY sent to the US.

>3. The beautiful Audi Sport steering wheel has lost the Ni plated ring with
>decorative hex screws. It has a yeechi rubber circular insert instead.
>

The '97 and '98 Sport steering wheels didn't have the "cheesy" plated ring.
 That was only a '96 wheel.  The only change for the late-'98 sport wheel
is removal of the fake hex screws.

>Why don't they leave the obvious design success alone? Why the hell did they
>try to improve on what had been near perfect to begin with? Arghhhhhhhh!
>

Well, it needed improvement in some areas.  The sport suspension package is
a welcome option, especially for $400.  More power in the form of a 30V V-6
is also great.  Tiptronic for the autobox drivers...side airbags, etc etc.

The interior "themes" is just to follow along with the Audi family.  I
agree, though, that it's too bad they effectively eliminated many of the
interior choices we once had.  I was really happy to find out that in 1997
they allowed an anthracite interior with Europa Blue exterior.

All I can say is that you win some, you lose some.  It seems like the
longer you wait, the less perfect the car gets for you.  I bet that you'd
have been much happier with a '97.  You'd have better seats and you'd have
been driving a car for the past 4 months.  Plus, for approx. $1000 you
could have added a better sport suspension package (audi sport package
springs, Koni shocks).  When the crappy tires wear out, you replace them
with Pirelli P7000SS 225/50 R16 tires...giving you all season capability
and great dry/wet performance.

BTW, I have an "early" '98 2.8 and I'm glad.  I didn't get the sport
package because Audi announced prices too late.  I wasn't going to blindly
commit to something I hadn't driven...


--
Josh Pinkert
flush@radix.net
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