Girlfriend just took delivery of a new A4 saloon, S-line, 2.0 TDI. We took it down to Manchester this weekend, just thought I'd share my thoughts on it ...

First time I had seen the new shape "in the flesh" so to speak. It does look really good, much more aggressive front end than the old one. The "S-line" is basically the sports pack, alloys, lowered, skirts etc, the 18" alloys with 235/40 tyres are the dogs *******s. She was talking about getting the quattro but I wasn't convinced the engine was powerful enough to justify it on a car that big/heavy.

Interior is nice, layout is v similar to the Golf / Octy, all switches, dials etc laid out very logically. I don't think the sports seats are very comfortable, also a problem I have with the Golf GTI, lack of lumber support is the main problem but also being 6'4" tall I think they're designed for shorter people !

The dual-zone climate control is crap though, it's always either too hot or too cold, the fan seems to work really hard even on "auto" and it's noisy and irritating. Also there's no trip computer which seems weird on a car that cost over

Hows the rear legroom? My old X plate A4 was chronic. The newer models were a bit better - just wondering if they have done anything about it in the latest facelift.

D.

Is it just a facelift or a new platform ?

The rear legroom seems pretty good to me. With the front seat all the way back there's about the same rear legroom (i.e. virtually bugger all) as there is in the (old) Octavia. Thing is, in the A4 you would need to be about 6'10" tall to need the front seat all the way back, whereas in the Octavia at 6'4" tall I have it at the limit.

Facelift i think.