From YourSITE.com
Long-Term Audi Certified A4 1.8T: Part VI
By by: David Herlihy
Jul 7, 2004, 19:12
Mileage has been rolling on with our long-term Audi Certified A4 1.8T quattro. Duty seems to be mostly commuting and our weekend jaunts up to Maryland to work on the VWvortex project Rabbit. The A4 has really only been able to stretch its legs on the weekend, otherwise spending its time running around the city.
For such a heavy car, we have been pleasantly surprised at mileage. In around-town driving, we are seeing 24.5mpg, while out on the highway we regularly see 27mpg. That’s not bad for an all-wheel-drive sedan of its size.
Due for another service, we booked the car in for the 30k check-up and oil change which we again provided our own synthetic oil for. Again we were met with the same treatment that we had previously documented.
The dealership’s valet was there to log mileage, go over the car for us and then show us inside to our waiting service tech. We’ve remained very pleased with the amount of service our local dealer is providing us with.
Unfortunately, this time around we did have recurring problems with the radio. We suspected it was too good to be true that our on and off speaker problem would pop up again. Low and behold, it did.
The problem turned out to be “blown” speakers. We’re hopeful that this is the last time our car is haunted by the intermittent speakers.
Another complaint we’d had on our return was a slightly creaking sunroof. After lubrication by the dealership, the problem has disappeared.
As for scheduled maintenance, the oil was changed with nary a hitch. The grand total for the service, minus the oil we provided, was $0 under Audi’s service plan.
Driver notes:
David Herlihy - I still continue to enjoy the sports suspension equipped A4, but have noticed that at higher speeds it seems a bit nervous with excessive vertical body movements. Mind you, this only occurs when driving a bit beyond the posted speed limits. While it feels a bit unnerving, the car doesn’t seem to lose its overall composure.
The new brakes added in the last installment have proven to be a real winner and have increased our confidence in the braking department. That has definitely allowed me to enjoy the rest of the car that much more. A
nother item that I have noted is that the 170 horsepower 1.8 turbocharged 4 cylinder needs more power. There are aftermarket vendors that provide performance chips for these cars, but only at the caution of possibly voiding your warranty if anything related to the chip causes a mechanical failure. One has to pay to play as they say. I’m seriously considering one such upgrade.
George Achorn – I generally love the car, though the weight of the A4 is a bit too much for the 1.8T. You really have to ring it out to get around cars that we normally don’t have an issue with. I guess you can’t have everything though, as we’d never get comparable gas mileage out of a 3.0 V6 or the 4.2 V8 found in the S4. With gas prices rising, our frugal 1.8T makes it worth the extra effort to pass soccer moms.
I’m also noticing some wear on the driver’s side door panel. The puddy colored surfacing on the inner handle is wearing through to black. Combine that with wearing tips of the window controls and it’s a bit of a let-down. While our Project A4 Avant with black interior hasn’t shown similar handle wear, we’re getting the same button-tip wearing. Audi’s interiors are typically second-to-none, so this fairly early showing of wear surprised me.
I love the new short-shifter from AMS. It’s a must have, and it’s such an improvement, we’ll be installing one in Project A4 Avant quite soon.
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