Comments on: Report: Audi planning R4 to compete with Cayman, Boxster

By: A4

A4 — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:41:49 +0000

ive got nokians and they are absolutly amazing

By: Veda

Veda — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:23:13 +0000

Audi’s coming out with way too many models and performance oriented ones at that. I’d rather see them improve their notorious durability issues instead of trying to expand at this rate.

By: Renton

Renton — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:20:24 +0000

Foster,

Balance is one thing, but it really is all about the tires.

A RWD car with good snow tires does real well. The best snow tires are Hakkapeliittas.

http://www.nokiantyres.com/wintertyres_en

Put on a set and you’ll do fine, no matter what drivetrain you are running.

An Audi Quattro with a set of Hakkas will climb trees.

By: A4

A4 — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:16:41 +0000

itll be awesome

By: Fatstrat

Fatstrat — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:24:53 +0000

Any competition in any segment is good. I would like to see an all out war in this one.

By: Foster

Foster — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:53:27 +0000

RWD, not able to drive in snow. Off topic but since you said it well. Take a 1990 Ford Tarus Sedan and Mustand.
Sedan bad in snow FWD MUSTAND okay up to about 6inchs going very slow but I had to put chains on the sedan to get it to do the same. But if you take a BMW 330i and A fwd audi A4 the BMW go’s threw the snow better. BUt the quattro is the best. Then again Take an Xi and were all the same Again. Really rear wheel drive doesnt make a care handle worse in snow or rain or ice. Its how it is balanced.

By: Brendino

Brendino — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:15:21 +0000

Someday I’d like to see a survey to see how many Joe Schmo buyers care about FWD. I know that enthusiasts are vehemently opposed to it in sports cars, but how many mainstream buyers are okay with it? And just how much does the whole “RWD is impossible to drive in the snow” thing affect peoples’ purchases of vehicles?

By: meanpants555

meanpants555 — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:00:11 +0000

Sampson: I agree with what you state 100%, if a car is light enough it doesn’t need the mega horse power, massive brakes, etc…

Better by design and not over engineered.

By: meanpants555

meanpants555 — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:56:05 +0000

It’ll probably replace the TT and be AWD only, no? It is in my eyes better looking than the R8. Somehow the R8 is too globby, this R4 is crispy and appears to be missing its B-pillar, very sweet.
It would be a ‘halo product’ for SEAT and expensive for them; 6,000 would be all they could sell. Remember Vauxhall with the VX220? Those weren’t flying out of the showroom.

By: nowei

nowei — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:30:05 +0000

I don’t know how I feel about this car at all…

A) Haven’t Audi already expressed concern that a high performance TT could compromise the R8? If that’s the case why build a model in between the two? Or maybe that was just an excuse for not building a high performance TT when they knew an R4 was in the works. Still, the high performance TT vs. base R8 was believeable enough that I think this just further complicates things.

B) If this isn’t cutting into the R8′s segment, will it be cutting into the TT’s? Especially since it doesn’t sound to me as though there’s that much of a difference in price between the two.

C) It’s gotta be offered with RWD as an option if it’s going to compete with the Cayman and Boxster. If it’s quattro only then there’s a big gap between those models. Standard RWD with quattro as an option might give it an edge, though.

D) Again, aren’t Audi and Porsche fairly closely alligned? It seems that the Volkswagen-related factions are intent on competing with each other while they’re trying to move into BMW/Mercedes territory, and that just doesn’t make any sense.

E) I think the high volume idea is really quite flawed. With such an uncertain segment that’s already occupied by the company’s own cars, I don’t know who they think will be buying these cars. That being said, I can see the SEAT model being a huge success. If it and the Audi are more-or-less the same car, I’d opt for the less plush interior of the SEAT (it’ll probably weigh less as an added bonus) and enjoy the fact that I had a more exclusive car than the “upmarket” Audi.

I think Audi might be playing a dangerous game in flooding the market with too many models that are too similar. That being said, assuming the manufacturing processes are all streamlined and they can basically build these models interchangably (which doesn’t really sound like the case) then it’s a brilliant idea. Flood the market with a variety of models and see which ones the public likes.

That being said, it does sound like a cool car, but it’s one of many.

/no

By: Don

Don — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:49:35 +0000

my fault, I forgot it will be mid-engined. But if that weren’t the case, FWD wouldn’t be out of the question since the regular TT A4, and A6 are. If it’s only 200 hp, they’d do it.

By: Endurancevm

Endurancevm — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:38:47 +0000

Wow, a FWD mid engined roadster…sign me up for one when i dont care about performance from my sports car.

By: bepsf

bepsf — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:33:08 +0000

Don–

“Like the R8, the R4 would be a two-seater with a mid-engine configuration.”
Now why would it be FWD???

By: Don

Don — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:28:55 +0000

i’m guessing it’s gonna be quattro, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s FWD

By: sampson

sampson — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:27:45 +0000

More car makers need to be shooting for 2600 lbs with 200+ horsepower… Enthusiasts get what they want, and with the vehicles weighing less, they’ll be more efficient so environmentalists are happy too.

By: Renton

Renton — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:25:00 +0000

Sounds like a winning combination. I hope they build it. It will need more than 200 hp if it costs $40K+

YBH is just is not as fun to go into anymore since Porsche moved up the street.

By: Jimbo - G Mill$

Jimbo - G Mill$ — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:20:40 +0000

damn. thats gonna be a niice ride. audi revenues are prime and with marketing like this; i can’t see their market share decreasing by trend anytime soon.

By: tailg8r

tailg8r — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:13:20 +0000

sign my wife and i up for one

thanks AUDI!