Press Release
Design
The new Audi A4 has many fascinating sides to its character, all of them expressed by the outlines of its body. Their high-tech precision clearly demonstrates the leading position that Audi occupies in automobile design.
The new A4 has a spacious saloon body and a firm, muscular stance on the road. Its length (4703 millimetres) and width (1826 millimetres) exceed those of its core competitors, and sporty dynamics were the guiding principle in its development.
The proportions have a new balance compared with the previous model: the front body overhang has been considerably reduced and the bonnet and wheelbase are now noticeably longer. A long, coupe-style roof line emphasises the flowing silhouette. The roof meets the side sections of the body at an almost invisible zero-gap joint – just one of the many details that uphold the Audi principle of high technical precision.
Dynamic balance – interplay of body lines
The completely new outer body panels of the A4 consist of sculptured, curving surfaces framed by sharply defined outlines. The ‘dynamic line’ above the door sills rises slightly to the rear, the ‘tornado line’ below the windows slopes down. In this way the two contours add profile and dynamic balance to the sides of the car. Large wheels and boldly styled wheel arches emphasise this impression of concentrated energy.
The new A4 is a car that presents a confident personality to the outside world – an impression borne out by the broad, low, sporty ‘single-frame’ radiator grille.
The optional-extra xenon headlights are technical works of art, with powerful visual accents set by their electrodeposited chrome ‘wings’ and the standard daytime driving lights. Depending on the lighting technology used, their design differs: in the xenon plus headlights, the daytime driving lights each consist of 14 white light-emitting diodes.
The rear end of the body, which tapers strongly inwards, interprets the car’s sportiness in a most convincing way. The slim, tapered-off light units create a visual relationship with the road. The exhaust tailpipes are straight – even on diesel-engined cars a hint at the powerful character of the TDI engines. A4 models with the sporty S line exterior package differ in certain details, for instance the front air dam. The new Audi A4 can be supplied in 15 body colours – a wider choice than that offered by any of its competitors.
Controls
Optimal car control is one of the major areas of competence in which Audi leads the way. The new A4 is convincing in its ergonomics, which are logical in every detail and permit the controls to be operated intuitively.
The cockpit in the new Audi A4 is clearly oriented toward the driver. The centre console is inclined at 8 degrees to the driver’s side of the car and forms a single visual unit with the instrument panel.
A multifunctional leather-covered sports steering wheel with three spokes is available as an optional extra. It has small drum-type and pushbutton controls for the basic functions of the navigation and audio systems, the car phone and the voice control system. For the A4 with automatic transmission, shift paddles behind the steering wheel rim are another optional extra.
In many aspects of its detail design, Audi’s new midsize saloon pursues the same approach taken on the A8, its larger sister-model in the luxury segment. The Driver Information System (DIS) display located between the speedometer and revolution counter dials is a standard item on cars with a V6 engine.
A 6.5-inch black-and-white display screen is located on the upper part of the centre console, where it can also be clearly seen. It supplies information on the audio and air conditioning systems and the settings possible when the CAR menu is selected. These settings enable customers to configure many of the car’s functions themselves. The large switches and pushbuttons on the standard audio systems with MMI control logic are ideally positioned for easy operation, between the automatic air conditioning and the ventilation outlets.
When the new Audi A4 is ordered with a navigation system, the Multi Media Interface (MMI) is integrated into the centre tunnel. MMI has been highly praised by testers on many occasions and has proved to be superior to systems offered by competitors. 15 large switches and a volume control are grouped around a central turn-and-press knob, and used to select the navigation, information, CAR menu, set-up, telephone, address book, CD/TV and radio functions effortlessly, intuitively and logically. If the car has the high-end navigation system with DVD drive, all the relevant information appears on a colour screen measuring 7 inches from corner to corner.
Driving off safely and smoothly: the electro-mechanical parking brake
Another control on the centre tunnel operates the electro-mechanical parking brake, a convenient luxury feature also derived from the Audi A8. It assists the driver when the car is moving away from a standstill, and also functions as an emergency brake. The optional-extra Audi hold assist adds extra functions. The space formerly occupied by the handbrake lever can be used for additional convenience: as an optional extra, a centre armrest with extra-soft upholstery can be installed, with two 12-Volt power sockets beneath it.
The new radio-operated key for the Audi A4 has no conventional blade: to start the engine, the key is simply pressed into the ignition switch. It can memorise several of the car’s specific settings and also store servicing information and fault messages. The ‘advanced key’ high-end version means that the key does not even have to be taken out of the driver’s pocket. In this case sensors are used to lock and unlock the car and the engine is started and stopped by means of an elegantly designed pushbutton on the centre tunnel.
Audi supplies various stages in headlight technology. In the top version, the xenon plus headlights can be combined with ‘adaptive light’, which directs the headlight beams in the appropriate direction as the car turns a corner.
The new A4 is supplied with automatic air conditioning as standard equipment; the system is an entirely new, more efficient development that has enabled cooling performance to be increased by 10 percent and at the same time the fuel consumed to operate the air conditioning has been reduced by 20 percent. As an optional extra, a version with three temperature zones can be ordered; it permits separate control of temperature and airflow for the driver, front passenger and rear passengers.
