Automotive Trends

Audi is wasting no time building out its bread-and-butter A4 lineup with the sedan and a new allroad debuting at the North American International Auto Show. Both models use a 2.0-liter turbo with 252  hp and a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. You can still get an A4 with front-wheel drive but almost no one does, which is probably the same reason the 6-speed manual is no longer available on base cars. The allroad makes Quattro all-wheel drive standard and also raises the ride height 1.3 inches. That makes light offroading somewhat easier and the cladding along the lower body seems to be a hit with customers so it carries over from previous allroad generations. The A4 features just about all the tech and luxury features you can get on the high-end Audi’s, including a 19-speaker Bang & Olufsen 3D stereo, the latest and greatest Virtual Cockpit, full color head up display and the list goes on and on. With prices starting at $38k and heading quickly up from there we should probably be glad that the A3 has entered the lineup where the A4 used to reside and helped make Audi ownership a little more attainable.

Soft-Roading

     Logically, one would not even consider putting an Audi in a cornfield. But photographers don’t exactly adhere to the same brain patterns when logical thinking is involved. Thus, we tread many a dirt road and cattle path in pursuit of photog satisfaction. Is the allroad (not a typo, Audi is case sensitive) capable of traversing lightly beaten paths while coddling passengers listening to classical music with the A/C purring away? Yeah, something like that, but you will have to read on to find out. Read more…