The king of world premieres strikes again: Edmunds drives 2006 Audi A4

So now that we can stop speculating about the appearance of the revamped A4— the shield/waterfall/trapezoid grille,
the headlights attenuated into a mean glare, etc.— we can concentrate on what’s important: driving. Rather, Edmunds can
concentrate on it, because they have a knack for getting cars like six years before they’re available to the rest of us
car scribbling shlubs. And what Edmunds finds is a subcutaneous layer more interesting than the epidermis. The
suspension has been completely revised with high-perf parts borrowed from the S4, and then there’s those two new
direct-injection engines, a 200-hp 2.0 liter turbo and a 255-hp 3.2 liter V6. Besides having better horsepower and
torque figures than the outgoing models, these puppies use Audi’s FSI technology to shoot fuel right into the
combustion chamber instead of through an intake manifold. The welcome result is more low end torque, which in the 2.0
seems to negate turbo lag and produce linear V6-like behavior. Strangely, Edmunds thinks the six-speed automatic
transmission is best suited to the powerplants, which I guess it is if you’re sitting in L.A. rush hour traffic. The
interior still exhibits the same best-in-segment quality for which Audi is famous. Pricing is also going to remain
stable with (at most) a 0.5 percent increase. So with all this new stuff added, where has Audi cut corners to hit the
price point? Have they? Anyone? Bueller?

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