I haven't done this in a while so I took the day yesterday to treat myself to a few test drives to get caught up on a few cars that I have been interested in.

Before I delve into the reviews of the cars, I would just like to say that of my dealer experiences, the Hyundai dealer in Alexandria had a cheap feel but great service, the Jag dealer in Vienna had a beautiful facility and great service, and the Audi dealership in Alexandria had a great facility, but terrible service. While the first two seemed to fit my expectations, I have consistently been unimpressed with the Audi dealers sales team who are pushy, uninformed, and have tried on numerous occasions to rip me off.

But anyway, on to the test drives...

Hyundai Genesis

Exterior
This car has presence. The dealer had several of these parked out front and they were all fitted with only the 17-inch wheel package, but even so, they have a strong visual impact. The car does include a lot of cues from many other cars, but it all works well together. Even the wheels look nice and fit well with the look of the car.

Interior
Initial impressions of the interior are that it is well designed and well laid-out. The car I drove had the premium package, which adds a few options such as the rear sunshade, upgraded sound system, and memory seats, among others. Adjusting seats to find a comfy driving position was a quick affair. Generally, the feel of the materials is good, though you can definitely see where there are a few hard plastics used and it appears more Hyundai than Lexus. However, the seat leather seems of good quality, the dash is easy to read and well laid out, and the center console is logically laid out and feels fairly luxurious, although the look of the display could use a bit of an upgrade.

The rear seat room is definitely impressive and fitting of a car of this size. Rear A/C vents are well positions to provide cooling or heating to the rear passengers. And surprisingly little noise filters into cabin from the outside, making the car a very quiet and livable space.

Driving Impressions
Initial impressions of the drivetrain are that the 3.8L V6 is completely adequate for hauling this car around in regular driving. When pushed hard, the car feels like it is straining a bit, but the odds of a driver pushing it hard enough to reach this point is rather unlikely in day-to-day driving. The sound of the motor during regular driving is barely noticeable and gets to be a nice mechanical lull when pushed hard. Even the transmission is smooth as silk and you barely feel it shift at all.

Handling wise, the car is surprisingly good. While the steering feel is fairly light, it is precise and the car responds well to quick transitions. In fact, the car drives much smaller than it is, considering this is a huge car. I felt completely confident hustling this car around the corners and body roll is surprisingly minimal.

Conclusions
Overally, I was very impressed with the Genesis. It is a solid competitor with a decent motor, solid handling, and a surprisingly good interior, all at a price in the mid-$30k range. I can see why InsideLine could pick this as a winner over the GS350 in their comparison test. Definitely worth a test drive if you get a chance and I am actually going to recommend this car to my father when his MDX lease ends in a few months.


Audi B8 A4 2.0T

Exterior
The exterior shape of this car is beautiful. Everything flows so well and it is an impressive looking car from every angle. My only issue is that the base wheels look terrible. This car needs the upgraded wheels. The cars that the dealership had were all base models only, so there are some details which look cheap on the outside, such as the window surrounds, which are of this hideous looking matte plastic which really detracts from the overall luxuriousness of the car. Otherwise, I really like the overall look of the car, but they should really look to improve the details of the base model.

Interior
The interior is typical Audi. Very nicely laid out, very nicely appointed, and really well thought out. The center console color display looks really nice and is really good at drawing your attention away from the problems with the interior such as the fact that the silver pieces are all painted plastic and while they looked okay, really did not fit well with the rest of the interior. The rear seat space is definitely better than the older model, but is still small although it certainly does not feel cramped.

The one thing that surprised me the most about this car was the noise. It was a fair bit louder than I expected with a lot of engine noise filtering into the cabin. Road noise was not too bad and wind noise was generally well managed, but there seemed to be more engine noise in the cabin than I would expect for a car of this class and in this price range. That is not to say that it is loud in there by any means, but just pervasive during my drive.

Driving Impressions
As much as Audi would like to tout this car as the driver's car of its line-up, I feel like they have failed, once again, to set up an engaging drive. The car is certainly quick and the 2.0T motor pulls very well for its small displacement, but the steering feel is completely lacking still. There is a huge on-center dead spot which allowed me to saw the wheel back and forth a bit without changing the direction of the car. Additionally, I feel like the steering effort was unnaturally light. Also detracting from the experience is the fact that the transmission (this was an automatic as they had no manual models available for testing) was somewhat harsh and abrupt with the shifts, introducing an unnecessary lack of smoothness to the entire test drive.

Handling was fine, if uneventful. The steering detracts so much from the overall driving experience that it was hard at times to get an accurate sense of where I was putting the contact patches. Feedback from the road is a tad too well-damped and the car feels very isolated. Handling limits are probably relatively high with the quattro system, but I did not feel like I could confidently take it to the limit and know when the car might break loose.

Another thing that I noticed when the salesperson was pulling the car out for me was that the engine sounds very rough and coarse from the outside. I think that I have probably complained about this before with Audis, but the engines sound so unrefined when you stand outside the car. The exhaust note on this 2.0T is not even that inspiring where revving it covers up the engine noise well. Sure this is nitpicking a bit, but when all of the competitors in this field, even the TSX (which is only other 4-cylinder competitor), have engines that sound pleasing when running, makes me wonder why Audi does not try to do more with their base motor.

Conclusions
I must say that overall, I am somewhat disappointed with my first drive of this car. After hearing from Audi about how they really made this new model a drivers car, I think my expectations of dramatic change might be clouding my impression, but I was not impressed with what I experienced. Perhaps it was the fact that this was a base model car or perhaps it was because the price tag was so high, but unless you need quattro or can't live without the looks, I would suggest looking at the numerous options in this class and picking something else. In fact, I could not really see why anyone would pick this car over the MB C300 which I find equally attractive on the outside, but had a much better driving experience with.


Jaguar XF Premium Luxury

Exterior
This car is stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. I love everything about the look and I feel like it blows away everything else in its class for the exterior appearance. The detailing is exquisite and the flow of the flanks of the car lend it a taut athletic look that just screams, "DRIVE ME!!" This is easily the best looking Jag I have seen in recent years and is truly a step up in styling from the S-Type.

Interior
Unlike the exterior, I have mixed feelings about the interior.

I loved the rich leather and the fine woods. I liked the color scheme of the metallic trim pieces and the cool rotating dash vents. The Jaguar Drive Select that pops up out of the center console when the car is turned on is definitely a neat trick and will impress all your friends the first time you turn the car on. Even the cool lighting of the gauges at nice was very impressive.

However, I did not love the obvious Ford quality of some of trim pieces. Some of it felt cheap and inappropriate for a car at this price range. In fact, I was stunned with how cheap the door switches for the windows and the mirror felt. And the center console buttons, while they looked cool, did not give a satisfying tactile response when pressed. Also, my biggest gripe has got to be the touchscreen. I love gadgets and technology, but in a car, there can be such a thing as too much technology for technology sake. There are too many controls integrated into the touchscreen. While it certainly makes for a very clean and simple console design, turning on and off the heated and cooled seats was a chore at times and performing simple functions means taking your eyes off the road. And the "TouchSense" opening of the glove box is annoying since it doesn't work if the car is powered off.

Driving Impressions
No doubts here, this is a great drivers car. The engine sounds fantastic and you just want to rev it over and over again to hear it scream. I love the exhaust tuning on this car. Power wise, while it is barely more powerful than its V6 competitors on paper, the torque of the V8 does help get this car going smoothly. And the transmission is absolutely brilliant. I generally dislike automatics, but this is one that I could live with if I had to because it just works.

Cruising along at speed, the car is quiet and comfortable. Get on the loud pedal and the car just responds, picking up speed quickly and building the exhaust note to a thunderous roar that is just music to my ears.

Handling wise, there are few faults with this car. The steering is well weighted and the feedback is excellent. You get a good sense of what the contact patches are doing without it being jarring or excessive and you don't feel so isolated from the road that you lose confidence in the car (Audi, you should be paying attention!). Limits seem sufficiently high and the car felt eager to handle quick transitions. The ride was comfortable, but firmed up nicely when pushed. Body roll is kept in check reasonably well.

My only issue was that the car did not feel that fast. From my recollection of the slalom and skidpad numbers, this car did not do phenomenally well on either of these, despite the RWD layout and the excellent steering. I wonder if the stability control is not fully defeatable?

Conclusions
In this class, if I were looking to make a splash wherever I go, this is the car I would choose to own. It is beautiful, makes all the right noises, and is fun. My concerns are with the gadgetry and given Jaguar's reputation for problems of the electrical nature, I wonder just how expensive those cool dash vents and the shift selector will be to fix if they break out of warranty.

But this is definitely a car I would pick over the A6, E-class, or GS any day.

 

Awesome review!
I have sat in the Jag and was also taken aback by it. Love it. I cannot wait to go test drive the Genesis.
I think it is funny the car's we pick for ourselves and the ones we recommend for our parents!

I am disappointed you don't like the A4. I have been thinking about getting my wife one of those.

 

i just test drove the new a4 2.0T yesterday too. low end torque from turbo engine is very lovely but 4banger engine whine wasn't much lovely. although audi's new eps wasn't much impressing, i thought it was better than the one from the 2g tsx.

 

I haven't driven the new B8 but I have driven the C300 and I hated it. The interior plastics were so bad for a $38k car that I stopped caring about anything else. I thought the engine was weak and a bit thrashy, the transmission hunted for the right gear, and it was simply too expensive for what it was.

That being said, $42k for a 2.0TFSI B8 isn't exactly my idea of a bargain either. I just hated the C300. Didn't get to drive the C350.

 

Great reviews! I'm not surprised by the Genesis or the Jag but the A4 review is definitely surprising. Although I've never driven an A4 before I always had in my mind that it was a great driver's car and refined, but it sounds like they have a few things to work on to get it to where it should be. Thanks for the great write up!

 

Great review, I'm another who's taken aback by the A4 review. I didn't know it had EPS though....? Either way, EPS is terrible.... definitely makes things quite boring

 

I am as disappointed with the A4 as anyone since I was really hoping that the new A4 would make my list of cars once the TL-S lease is up in a few years.

That said, I did drive the absolute base model, which means that there is a good chance that the slightly better equipped and a bit more upscale models have different tuning and the addition of a sport suspension kit or the Audi Drive Select multi-mode suspension system might make a difference in my impressions. Though honestly, I could not find any way to justify the base A4 over many other cars in this class and many cars that are not in this class (I suspect that even the new Mazda 6 would be a much better buy than a base A4), but we will see how that changes when the dealerships start to get non-base models in and I can properly evaluate a 3.2 model with a 6-speed or DSG transmission and the Audi Drive Select suspension setup.

 

As usual, great reviews CG...

What was the price of the base A4 and was it FWD or AWD?

 

It was a quattro model with a few basic one-off options (bluetooth, heated seats, homelink, etc.) and it came to about $34.5k.

 

with the inflated price of the A4, it is difficult to compare this to other cars in its "class." this new pricing is starting to make the A4 a niche car. Those able of justifying the price are either A. Enthusiasts or B. Instinctive spenders who over-extended their budget.

i understand the reasoning for the factors for stateside pricing, but that doesnt mean im willing to surrender. 42k for a small 4 banger. get real.

also, if im buying an Audi, i am not settling for a 4 cyl. nor base equipment. meaning... a fully loaded V6 is pushing ~50k?? HA

 

thanks for the review.

 

For kicks, i loaded an A4 3.2...$54,625 MRSP. Wow.

 

 

No fuckin way....

Wow, he wasn't kidding...I got it up to 51,255 The funny thing is, its just a A4 3.2 Quattro (265HP...) with the sport package, navi, adpt. cruise control, and rear sunshade...I think Audi takes the cake for being extremely overpriced for what you get. I would've said Mercedes-Benz, but I don't think you can get a non-AMG C-class into the 50k range.

 

Great review! I'm another one who tried the new A4 and it really felt like you took the words out of my mouth. What you get for what you pay is simply not justified with the base model. Another proof that shows that despite their price, the G35, 3 series and arguably the IS are still the best pick of the bunch.

 

told ya. its becoming a niche car.

although who fully loads ze germans anyway? the options are there to pick and choose to your taste, not pick ALL OF THEM. Ever load up a cheapo Golf or Jetta? You approach2x $$ the base model.

Nonetheless, the pricing structure is too offset. and the general public will quickly dislike dealerships when they come in and get quoted 20k more than the Audi commerical said. coincidence that people tend to hate audi dealerships? The reps are just price tags with faces. nothing they could do about it.

 

now in regards to the Jag XF: I think Tata motors will pour the money into Jag that Ford motor needed to years ago. Tata has some crazy deep pockets to get them "back on track "so whatever it takes" as far as money and talent. i think you'll see some impressive progress in the next 3-5 years.

 

Tata motors pockets ARE deep. 3.7 Billion deep. Nor are they hurting AS bad as the other corps out there. i may even consider investing in them after the automotive market stabilizes and WHEN the oil bubble pops.

XF is the first example. and will be the start of a beautiful future.

And Ford design (mostly non-american models) is coming a long way. an improved backbone structuring could be a homerun.

 

The Jag is

 

cliff notes?

lol jk. thanks! good job

 

Excellent viewpoint.

I wonder if Audi almost does their 2.0T injustice on purpose, so they can sell more 3.2L cars? The engine should be more than enough to move the car, and Subaru can wring out nearly 280 HP from a 2 Liter turbo engine. Why doesn't Audi get with it? Oh well, great post and a good read.

 

Interesting choice of cars for comparison. I haven't seen a Genesis in person yet, though.
The Audi's 2.0 is not a big boost-big lag peak HP engine like the STi- the Audi is more lux cruiser than racer-wanna be.

In the previous gen (2008 MY), the 2.0T manual wasn't much slower in acceleration than the 3.2 V6, which I think was added to the A4 just because we Americans wanted a bigger engine and were less willing to pay $30K+ for a 4-cylinder since the A4's entry lux competition-- 3-series, MB C-, CTS, TL, 9-3-- all had V6s available.

I liked driving the 2008 A4 2.0T sedan with manual, but it had a few options and the interior looked decent.

 

Great Reviews, sounds exactly how I would describe a car to a friend. Screw Car & Driver and MT reviews, CGTSX2004 FTW.

 

I tend to agree the 3.2 V6 is aimed at Americans with our "bigger is better" mentality. As a previous generation B7 2.0T owner, let me say I had no interest in the 3.2 V6. I preferred the "base" model not only because it was cheaper than the V6, but with a couple mods, could make about the same power with more torque and get better gas mileage. All while still being cheaper than the V6. In addition, the aftermarket supports the 2.0T motor way more than the 3.2 V6 and although my "base" Audi might not be the quickest car, it's plenty fast for me.

With that said, I tend to agree and don't understand why Audi purposely does not differentiate the base 2.0T FSI engine. Or TFSI in the new models. I mean, you find this engine with little differences spread throughout the Volkswagen Automotive Group's line up, from the GTI and Tiguan, to the B8 A4 and upcoming TTS. Of which, in the TTS, they're able to pump out 268 HP just by strengthening some internals. To me, Audi has been lazy with an engine that has a lot of potential and NEEDS to be differentiated right from the factory. Owners shouldn't have to resort to "chipping" or tuning their cars to make them equatable to competitors.

Edit: Just for reference, when I got my base model B7 A4 back in 2006, it was about $40k+. Of course I didn't actually pay that much, but it gives you some insight that these cars have never really been a "value" when compared to their competitors. This is where you negotiate folks.

 

I drove the Genesis sedan a little while back and would have to agree with everything you said. Its not really the car for me (maybe the Genesis coupe) but I wouldn't hesitate recommending one to my grandparents....

 

Audi is similar to VW, but it should be no surprise as VW is the parent company. A GTI only starts at $23000, but loading it up with options is $$$$

 

word.

as a community of people who bought acuras, it makes sense that we are the type to jump on a company that backcharges for options that should be standard to most consumer 'needs'.

heck, i was so happy to check off one box for my CL: Navigation. period.

 

one thing i would like to ask after reading it again. how would u compare the b8's driving experience vs the b7?

 

Surprisingly, not that different. The car was a little more willing in the corners due to the rear bias of the quattro system, but given the rather vague steering feel, it was hard to tell.

But again, I have read a number of the reviews that say that the B8 is a drivers car now so I am wondering if maybe the Audi Drive Select adaptable suspension makes a huge difference in the car's feel.

Will have to wait for the dealer to get one in so that I can try it out.