Brilliance on Four Wheels: The 2017 Audi A4 Sedan 2.0T quattro S tronic

The 2017 Audi A4 Sedan 2.0t.

Our Publisher and Executive Editor said it four years and some months ago, when last TireKicker reviewed an Audi A4: "The worst part of a successful car is keeping the ball rolling...doing the freshening needed to keep the car relevant without losing the thread and screwing it all up."  Michael's assessment at the time was that Audi had succeeded---that the 2013 A4 was, in his words, "simply tremendous".

That meant meeting or exceeding a very high bar this time around.  And more.

New Car Review: 2013 Audi A4 2.0T quattro tiptronic

The 2013 Audi A4 2.0T quattro.

As we've noted here at TireKicker before, the worst part of a successful car is keeping the ball rolling...doing the freshening needed to keep the car relevant without losing the thread and screwing it all up. Last time around, two and a half years ago, I worried that Audi was letting the magic of the A4 slip away.  If they were, they fixed it in a hurry.

The 2013 Audi A4 2.0T quattro is simply tremendous. A car that pulls of the trick of feeling utterly contemporary and timeless at the same time. The timeless thing is important because Audi's had the A4 pretty close to perfect for a long time. To wander too far from what has made an A4 an A4 for the past decade or so would be courting disaster.

Audi A4 Review

When you make a nearly perfect car, you take a big risk with any revisions.

That's the position Audi was in when it updated the A4 this year.

By and large, they did okay.

                            

Styling changes are so subtle that you almost have to park an '09 and a '10 next to each other to see them.

One place where I think they missed it was the new taillamp design. I can't put my finger on it, but it reminds me of a car from years back...and it's not a good memory.