{"action":"opened","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/barchanet/news/issues/27","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/barchanet/news/issues/27/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/barchanet/news/issues/27/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/barchanet/news/issues/27/events","html_url":"https://github.com/barchanet/news/issues/27","id":111707498,"number":27,"title":"Audi A4 (15 on) 2.0 TDI Ultra SE review","user":{"login":"barchanet","id":15102406,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/15102406?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet","html_url":"https://github.com/barchanet","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/barchanet/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":0,"created_at":"2015-10-15T21:04:23Z","updated_at":"2015-10-15T21:04:23Z","closed_at":null,"body":"Audi A4 (15 on) 2.0 TDI Ultra SE review<br>\nhttp://ift.tt/1LQ5oKD<br><div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\"><img alt=\"Audi A4 Saloon (15 on),Jaguar XE (15 on),Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon (14 on),Audi A4 Saloon (08-15),BMW 3-Series Saloon (12 on) 2.0 TDI Ultra SE 4d\" height=\"265\" src=\"http://ift.tt/1LQ5mm2\" width=\"400\"></div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">\n<span class=\"attribution\" style=\"color: black; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.992px; margin: 0px; text-align: start;\">&copy; Bauer Media 2015</span><span style=\"color: #666666; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.992px; text-align: start;\">&nbsp;Audi A4 Saloon (15 on),Jaguar XE (15 on),Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon (14 on),Audi A4 Saloon (08-15),BMW 3-Series Saloon (12 on) 2.0 TDI Ultra SE 4d</span>\n</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Competition for top honours in the compact premium executive sector is always fought in the company car park and right now there&rsquo;s a tougher battle to fight than ever before.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">The Jaguar XE recently joined the fray against the latest version of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon, which itself aimed to steal sales from the established benchmark in the sector &ndash; the 2012 BMW 3 Series. That trio left the 2008 Audi A4 Saloon in their dust, so a re-think was required and this is the result.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Driven in the UK for the first time, we&rsquo;ve been behind the wheel of the 2015 Audi A4 Saloon in its most humble of specifications &ndash; the fleet-focused 2-litre diesel in base SE trim. Does it tick boxes the others only aspire to or do you need to spend more to get the best from the A4 range?</div>\n<h2 style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI Semilight', 'Segoe WP Semilight', 'Segoe WP', 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.8rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.214; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Ultra TDI engine performs well</h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">One thing is for sure: you don&rsquo;t need a different engine. The TDI &lsquo;Ultra&rsquo; powerplant is great in a number of respects. It&rsquo;s extremely smooth, meters out its 320Nm early and pulls strongly thanks to 148bhp. You don&rsquo;t feel like you&rsquo;re driving a throttled-back tax hero, rather a premium saloon, which is presumably exactly what Audi was aiming for.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">With that in mind, probably the biggest surprise on our test drive (apart from how quiet the car is with its class-leading aerodynamics and the &pound;200 optional double-glazing front windows installed), was the fact that this engine &ndash; with its slick-shifting standard six-speed manual gearbox - allows CO2 output to dip below 100g/km. That fact in itself will seal the deal with a lot of fleet managers, who look to such figures to set targets dictating which cars make it onto their company car lists.</div>\n<h2 style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI Semilight', 'Segoe WP Semilight', 'Segoe WP', 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.8rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.214; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Low company car tax</h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">It also means low Benefit-in-Kind tax. Its 99g/km output slots it in at 17 percent for 2015/16, so if you budget for tax bills of &pound;200 per month for a 40 percent tax payer, it even leaves you some headroom to boost the spec with some optional extras. Find out what is included on a 2015 Audi A4 in SE trim by clicking here.&nbsp;</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">In fact, with the &pound;4,415 of options on our car, you&rsquo;ll be in for &pound;190 per month at 40 percent. For that you get an impressive array of on-board technology &ndash; something Audi claims is as important to its customers as ride and handling nowadays.</div>\n<h2 style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI Semilight', 'Segoe WP Semilight', 'Segoe WP', 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.8rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.214; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Impressive mobile tech in 2015 A4</h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">The MMI system costs &pound;550 and has many impressive features such as dynamic route guidance to take traffic into account, a 3D display, voice control and a three-month free subscription to Audi Connect, which unlocks internet access so you&rsquo;ve got local search, social media integration and even a Wi-Fi hotspot enabled in your car.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">This works incredibly well when paired with the Audi Phone Box, which costs &pound;325 and allows you to charge your smartphone wirelessly by simply leaving it in the box between the two front seats. Your mobile will have to be &lsquo;Qi enabled&rsquo; to use this feature, but if not there are a number of cases on the market which can convert it. It also uses the car&rsquo;s antennae to boost mobile reception, and crucially for many business users, allows connection to two Bluetooth devices at once so you can have both work and personal phones hooked up to the A4.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Another technology which Audi makes a lot of noise about is its headlight systems. Our car featured &pound;1,050 of LED headlights and taillights, coupled with directional indicators at the rear which sweep towards the direction you&rsquo;re indicating.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">We&rsquo;ve got the Audi Sound System installed to make the most of all that infotainment tech and at &pound;275 it seems like good value.</div>\n<h2 style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI Semilight', 'Segoe WP Semilight', 'Segoe WP', 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.8rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.214; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Bumpy but premium</h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">You&rsquo;ll be glad of something to listen to when you&rsquo;re bumping over the UK&rsquo;s poor-quality motorway network and unfortunately that&rsquo;s something the A4 isn&rsquo;t quite so adept at. In this specification, with standard 17-inch alloy wheels and out-of-the-box suspension, the A4 feels incredibly firm and imperfections in the road jolt through the cabin. It feels at odds with the refinement in other respects, such as how quiet the car is with the acoustic glass previously mentioned. We&rsquo;d definitely consider the optional &pound;900 adaptive suspension, which manages to iron some of this discomfort out.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Actually, the entire cabin feels fantastic. There&rsquo;s a level of fit-and-finish here that we don&rsquo;t think any rival can match; all switchgear and materials feel extremely high quality and the overall impression is one of a stylish, robustly-built premium car.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Yet with fuel economy of a claimed 74.3mpg, it isn&rsquo;t going to cost a huge amount in fuel either. You&rsquo;re more likely to see closer to 60mpg in real-world conditions, but that&rsquo;s still impressive and primarily thanks to the massive weight reduction of the 2015 A4 over its predecessor.</div>\n<h2 style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI Semilight', 'Segoe WP Semilight', 'Segoe WP', 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 2.8rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.214; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;\">Verdict</h2>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">It&rsquo;s safe to say we&rsquo;re impressed with the new A4 on our first UK drive. In several aspects it leads the market, and with the Ultra diesel offering such low running costs and SE specification offering a good level of standard kit, it simply has to make your shortlist if you&rsquo;re considering a car of this size.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">While the 3-litre diesel is nicer to drive, we can&rsquo;t see a requirement for it because if you&rsquo;re a little careful with the optional extras, you could drive away in a car that feels like it&rsquo;s worth twice the cash &ndash; especially in terms of company car tax.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe WP', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\">The 2015 Audi A4 Saloon is available to order now, with first deliveries on November 21. Prices start at &pound;29,150.</div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Segoe UI, Segoe WP, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.992px;\">Read full story on <a href=\"http://ift.tt/1LQP0zM\">msn.com</a></span></span></div>\n</div>\n<br><br>\nvia Barcha.net http://www.barcha.net/<br>\nOctober 15, 2015 at 10:45AM"}}