First drive: A4 Cabrio on the Christmas list
BY BRUCE NEWTON | 1st Nov 2002
It literally arrives just days before Santa Claus makes his annual visit - and just months after being launched in its home German market.
This is the replacement for the venerable Audi Cabriolet, which was notable mainly for being the late Lady Di's favourite car rather than for any redeeming mechanical attributes.
The new drop-top is shaping up to be a far more impressive proposition, as it is based on the current generation A4 sedan that went on sale in Australia mid-2001 and has since proved to be a strong seller.
In fact the Cabriolet will be the third version of the new A4 to go on sale here, with the Avant launched in September. It also adds to the company's drop-top artillery alongside the TT Roadster. Of course, an important distinction is that the A4 is a full four-seater while the TT is just for two.
Audi is not forecasting groundbreaking sales results for the A4 Cabriolet, hoping for a mere 120 sales per annum, which is understandable considering the car comes in one highly specified model - at least initially.
For about $105,000 you'll get the 162kW/300Nm 3.0-litre quad camshaft five-valve-per-cylinder V6 engine - in widespread use across the Audi range - mated to a multitronic continuously variable transmission. That combination means the Cabriolet is front-wheel drive, as Audi has yet to join CVT and its famed quattro system together.
Quattro is yet to be introduced to the manual gearbox versions of the Cabriolet either, although that situation will be redressed in 2003.
It's a bit of a moot point for us because Audi Australia has no plans to take manual versions or quattro in the foreseeable future.
Better news is that a 1.8-litre turbo version with CVT multitronic will almost certainly be imported here around mid-2003, priced about $85,000, around the price of the old Cabriolet.
In creating a convertible out of the A4 sedan, Audi did much more than simply gas-axe the roof and replace it with a cloth top.
For a start, this is a two-door body where the sedan is a four-door and while they look very similar, the Cabriolet does not actually share a single exterior body panel with the sedan. Indeed, the Cabriolet is not even actually built by Audi. That responsibility goes to famed specialist coachbuilder Karmann.
Under the skin the four-link front and trapezoidal rear suspension was firmed to cope with the car's substantial 1620kg kerb weight (up more than 100kg over the sedan), as well as lowered 20mm. The body has also been stiffened to help compensate for the substantial loss of rigidity caused by the removal of the roof.
The hood is electro-hydraulically operated via a button on the dash or by turning and holding the ignition key in the door lock, and has a heated glass rear window as standard, replacing the old car's plastic screen. It takes 24 seconds to open or close. Audi claims a good 0.30 coefficient of drag figure with the roof in place, which is 15 per cent better than its predecessor.
It is one of many improvements Audi claims for the car, which is understandable considering the original Cabriolet was based on the Audi 80 and first launched in 1991.
Many of them centre around interior space, aided by a 100mm increase in wheelbase. There's 66mm of additional knee room for the two rear seat passengers, 33mm more shoulder room at the front and as much as 52mm more in the back.
Luggage space is significantly boosted to as much as 315 litres with the roof in place and 246 litres with it down.
Audi has also worked hard to improve access to the rear by making the doors 11mm longer and introducing a new "easy entry" function that moves the front seats well out of the way.
Roll-over safety is an important issue in soft-tops and this has been addressed by two protective bars which pop up within milliseconds if the car overturns. The windshield has also been strengthened.
Other safety measures include seatbelts with belt-force limiters and belt tensioners, together with full-size front and side airbags, the latter integrated into the front seats and designed to protect the head and thorax.
There's also a standard electronic stability program (ESP) which incorporates anti-lock braking and emergency brake assist, while an electronic differential lock and anti-slip regulation are there to aid grip as well.
Underpinning this is that body strengthening work which means the A4 Cabriolet jumps 112 per cent in terms of torsional stiffness over the old car. Audi is confident enough of its work in this regard on the Cabriolet to claim it will match the A4 sedan for safety performance. The latter is an impressive four-star performer in Euro NCAP independent crash testing.
All this is capped off by a substantial comfort feature list which should include leather interior trim, dual zone climate control air-conditioning, a CD audio system (although the loader is in the glovebox, which seems like an afterthought), foglights, power windows, power seats, 16-inch alloy wheels and satellite navigation. Options will be few and far between, but Xenon headlights are likely to be on the list.
If the Cabriolet does end up arriving in some Christmas stockings for $105,000, then it will undercut the BMW 330Ci convertible by up to $5000, while the Mercedes-Benz CLK C230K is more expensive again. The CLK320 is in another zone altogether.
DRIVE IMPRESSIONS:
CONVERTIBLES are as much about style as substance - and there's no doubt the A4 Cabriolet's exterior is a very neat, elegant and understated solution. In other words, it's typically Audi.With roof up it retains its shape and presence - something not all convertibles are capable of - and there are also strong links back to its predecessor. Drop the hood and it sinks down under a hard cover that sits flush with the body work, giving the car an undisturbed profile all the way to the rear.
The ties to the donor sedan are also strong. In fact the links to the entire Audi family are undeniable with the four-ring grille, pronounced arch flares, high shoulders and smooth flanks all family traits.
It is a similar story inside where the Cabriolet sits about halfway between the familiar business of recent Audis and the cleaner, more upmarket appeal on show in the new A8 luxury sedan.
Individual speed and tacho dials are plugged into the instrument pod and ringed in metal, just like the three ventilation outlets that sit atop the vertical centre console. Below that there's a plethora of buttons and switches, as well as small a sat-nav screen.
The quality of the appointments is excellent. The leather and wood is all to the right standard, the seats comfortable and the sound system top-notch. The excellent finish extends to the roof inner, which covers over the ugly metal framework left exposed in some other cars.
Unsurprisingly, the A4 Cabriolet drives rings around its predecessor.
There's a much tauter, stronger, more convincing feeling to the whole exercise with little evidence of the dreadful scuttle shake that abounded in the old car. A comparison is not even worth making between the two, such is the difference in quality.
While impressive, the A4 Cabriolet is not cutting edge in terms of either engine or chassis performance.
The 3.0-litre works really well with the CVT, which continually keeps the engine performing in the meat of the torque band, but that also means noise intrusion can be a factor and the V6 does not have the sexiest note.
It also takes a while to adjust to the linearity of CVT. No rise and peaks which normal gearboxes deliver, you just keep going faster and the revs keep rising as you press the throttle harder. Back off and everything dies away. For traditionalists, the six steps programmed into the CVT's multitronic operation is reassuring, even if it is a bit of a con job.
And there's a certain amount of harshness to the stiffened suspension set-up - not objectionable on smooth German autobahns but if it is noticeable there, what's it going to be like here? The autobahn also gave us a chance to conduct some high-speed running (all in the name of research of course!) and we can report it can get pretty noisy in the cabin at 220km/h. It is quite civilised back around our speed limits though. Unfortunately, driving rain gave us no chance to test performance with the top down.
Oh well, that leaves us something to do at the Australian launch. Sounds like some Christmas fun!