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Audi A4 B9, a bigger A3 or a smaller A6? Audi A4 B9, the official car of dentists who want a single car and who do not want to dive to the A6 or A8. Audi A4 B9, thank you that the A5 came along and took all the tattooed bagmans and associates.

Unfortunately, the Audi A4 is stubborn to keep faithful to a car segment that is in a coma worse than Piers Morgan was when he got belted by Jeremy Clarkson. Like the Mondeo or the Passat, the Audi A4 remains a premium sedan in a world where people prefer to spend tens of thousands of euros on anything but a sedan. A Q5 crossover, an A5 coupe, a garbage truck, but not an A4 sedan. And it’s easy to see that this car segment is dying because Ford has chosen to remove Mondeo from the list altogether and the Passatis also bleeding in terms of sales.

As for the car itself, it can be seen that Audi still did not listen to the cries of the buyers and made minimal improvements to the car so I do not know why should I recommend an A4 when you can buy an A3 sedan or an A6. Basically, the modern Audi A4 sits in the middle of the center, doing nothing but it’s job. It does it’s job, sure, but it won’t move much and it won’t do the extra mile. Audi A4 B9 – The Big Keith of the car world.

Audi A4 B9 Engines

Petrol

• 1.4 TFSI of 150 bhp – Bolted in for the kind of brochure that reads “With prices starting from…”, here you can have what is essentialy a Polo engine mounted on the A4. Well, at least it doesn’t have a 3-cylinder engine, otherwise I would have said it was a Dacia Logan if it hadn’t listened to the people around it and followed its dreams. At least you have 30 more horsepower than the base engine on the A4 B8, so that’s nice to have.


• 2.0 TFSI of 190 and 252 bhp – Finally we have a correct engine without specific issues, for the Audi A4 B9. By far the most balanced and reliable on the list, because in 2013 VW did its homework and invested heavily in TFSI engines. Or so they want us to think.


• 2.9 TFSI of 444 bhp – Specially built for the Porsche Panamera, Porsche Cayenne and Audi RS4 / RS5, surprisingly reliable. It’s like having Zack Khan run the Iron Man without pause and doing it without breaking a sweat.


• 3.0 TFSI of 350 bhp – On duty on the Panamera, Audi SQ5 and Audi S4 / S5, this is essentially the same classic 3.0 TFSI, but now with two turbos. That means low reliability so take either a 252-horsepower 2.0 TFSI or dive straight into an Audi RS4. And since you have money for an S4, you might aswell take the plunge towards the RS4.

Diesel

• 2.0 TDI of 136, 150 and 190 bhp – This will probably be the most popular engine on the Audi A4 B9, whether it’s new, used or brought from abroad without documents because you “lost” them. Them safest engine of the bunch is the well-known 2.0 TDI 150 horsepower unit, put on anything from Golf to Passat to Transporter.


• 3.0 TDI of 218 and 272 bhp – It has less issues than 2.0 TDI, but when you see how much the timing change costs, it’s like when you’re in the bar and a bottle suddenly hits you in the back of the head, courtesy from one of your drunken friends. You lie on the floor, in a puddle of your own liquids, and you think about whether you made the right choices in life. Maybe you should have taken that 2 liter engine.

Audi A4 B9 General Issues

• Many people complained about the quality of the interior trims on the A4 B8, and Audi ofcourse couldn’t be bothered to listen to the customer’s voice and placed crickets all over the interior. It probably wouldn’t be a problem in a low-cost car and maybe even a middle-class one, but at a premium one that costs as much as a village’s alcohol reserves is unacceptable.


• The electrics are another weak point of the germans and the Audi A4 B9 is no exception. In fact, out of the BMW 3 Series – Mercedes W205 – Audi A4 trio, the Audi A4 is currently the weakest in electrics department. If you go to another class / segment, the statistics change, but in the too-big-for-small-cars-too-small-for-the-big group, you will have to constantly argue with the infotainment and the functions and various sensors which have their own sensors and so on.


• The headlights on the A4 B9 are tri-xenon, ofcourse they are tri-xenon. Wait and see what tri-heart attack you get when they break down because Audi must also have a reputation that needs to be maintained and they have to be famous for something. Expensive headlight repairs it is then!


• Diesel engines enjoy the classic dual mass flywheel issues, EGR valve, particle filter and AdBlue installation. Watch out when looking at low mileage diesels that aren’t clocked but are the real deal. A modern diesel driven mostly in the city will have bigger problems than Dominc Cummings had and has with the law, so think it through very carefully before buying one.


• The A4 B9 was and is a popular fleet car, especially in civilized Europe. If the E Class is the official car of the Turkish taxi driver and the 5 Series is the official car of Uber X in the UK, the Audi A4 B9 is the official car of premium sales agents, corporate managers, doctors and dentists who bought their car on their own limited company. That means Star Wars grade mileage on most of them and alot of trusted dealers and good willed people will clock them. 

Audi A4 B9 Verdict

Yes, it no longer dominates the market as B6, B7 or B8 once did and Audi A4 B9 is a rare presence on the streets of Europe today. This is both because the time of premium sedans is over (long live the premium cross-over) but also because it looks much too much like the A6 C7. And if you think that the price difference for used cars is 2-3 thousand euros between them, many people choose to go straight to the A6, even if they do not understand that it is another car from a different class with different maintenance costs, even if they share alot of engines. A car is not just the engine.

What engines do I recommend? For petrol I will recommend the superb 190 horsepower 2.0 TFSI and for diesel the sedate 150 horsepower 2.0 TDI is prolly the best choice.