Originally Posted by
Ferrer
Revisited the Audi today over the same roads, see if it could redeem itself.
Considering it's now 4 years old the design has matured nicely, but the big grille still bothers me. It ruins what should be an discreet and understated saloon. The interior is a bit boring, but the quality is top notch, there's no part where you can put your finger on and it doesn't feel like a quality product. And after 4 years and almost 150.000km everything still works and nothing rattles or squeaks. The seats are not as good as the Jag's though, not supportive enough and tad too hard for my liking but the driving position is fine. There's plenty of space in the front, the back or the boot and the latter is easily accessible.
Once you get on the move things start to go a little wrong. The suspension is hard and the low profile tyres and hard seats don't help it. It crashes over bumps and potholes. There's a bit of tyre roar, but while it doesn't excel in that aspect it's not bad either. As for handling, well there isn't any. The steering is devoid of feel, altough not as bad as I remembered, and the nose heaviness provokes understeer at the limit. However since it has four wheel drive and huge tyres the grip in the dry is monumental so you've got to be going really fast to notice it. It's a car in which you can go phenomenally fast in the twisties but somewhat you don't feel part of the process, it just grips and goes, no real drama, no real fuss.
The gearbox and engine, like the rest of the car, are very good. If anything the 255bhp in the Audi feel, relative to the figure, faster than the 300bhp in the Jag. And on top of all that it's much more frugal, under 9L/100km being possible in relaxed driving. The donwside is that the noise is just that, a noise which in my opinion detracts highly from the driving exprience. The gearbox feels a bit more jerky in the Audi at times, but the kickdown is much better, faster and eager. However the manual control is limited to the lever and it's configured upside down, push to upshift and pull to downshift, which is very unnatural.
Overall I'd say that objectively the Audi is probably the better car. But it feels very german, very good but somewhat inert. The Jag may not be as good as the Audi, but for driving I'd rather be in the plucky brit.