Test Drive: 2017 Audi A4 Premium

Audi's reputation has been dragged through the mud of late due to the whole "diesel-gate" scandal. Even so, Audi's have always been nicely designed and well-appointed cars and the latest A4 is no exception. With a trip to New York that necessitated renting a car from the city, I opted to take advantage of one of the benefits of my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and booked a car through Silvercar for the weekend. Having only spent a little time with the last iteration of the A4, I was looking forward to having the opportunity to get a little quality time with this latest version.

Comparison: Mid-Size Luxury Mayhem

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at a total of seven different mid-size luxury sedans. Our criteria for these sedans were that they needed to be two-wheel drive (primarily for fuel economy purposes), have no more than 250 horsepower, and should have equipment similar to a Honda Accord Touring (leather, navigation, LED or HID headlights, back-up camera, etc.). Pretty much every luxury car manufacturer has a mid-size vehicle that fits this criteria, but we chose these seven as they are often considered to be the most popular in this segment. Seven enter, but only one will emerge the victor.

Click below to read each vehicle's individual review:

Acura TLX 2.4 Tech
Audi A4 2.0T FWD Multitronic
BMW 328i
Cadillac ATS 2.5
Lexus IS250
Mercedes Benz C300
Volvo S60 T5 Drive-E

Test Drive: 2015 Audi A4 2.0T FWD Multitronic

MSRP: $35,500
As tested price: $39,900

My experience with the Audi A4 in the past has been relatively positive. Thanks to the car rental company, Silvercar, I have gotten to spend extended time with the A4. However, all of the A4s in Silvercar's fleet are equipped with Audi's Quattro all-wheel drive system. Seeing as how every other mid-size luxury car we have tested thus far have been two wheel drive, it would seem unfair to find a Quattro equipped A4. Besides, testing a front-wheel drive model will help not with just the car's fuel economy, but with its price as the A4 is not exactly the most cost efficient mid-size luxury car.

And thus we run into a problem. Either Audi sells a ton of front-drive only cars, leaving only Quattro models in their inventory, or people only want Quattro cars, thus forcing Audi dealers to minimize the number of front-drive cars in their inventory. The Audi dealer we selected to visit was one of the largest in Southern California, yet they did not have a front-wheel drive A4 equipped as we were expecting. Instead, we had to settle for something close, which did mean the car was missing a few key pieces of equipment we were hoping it would have. Lack of equipment notwithstanding, would the front-wheel drive A4 drive as well as its all-wheel drive counterpart?

Test Drive: 2013 Audi A4 Premium 2.0T Quattro

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With my S2000 in the body shop after being rammed in a parking lot during a doctor's appointment, I needed a rental car to get me to and from work. Unable to find anything at a reasonable price from the large rental chains near LAX, a Google search led me to Silvercar.com (you can read my review of Silvercar by clicking here). Long story short, I ended up with an Audi A4 2.0T Quattro for two and a half days instead of whatever econobox one of the large chains would have stuck me with for a higher price.

At first glance, the current generation of the A4 is a fairly handsome car. Since this car came with the lighting package, it had the new LED daytime running lights and xenon HID headlamps. The LED daytime lights have a very sinister and aggressive look and offers a good contrast to the rest of the car with its fairly smooth lines. There is one major thing working against the look of the A4 though, and that is the standard 17 inch wheels for the Premium trim, which are far too small for the car. They look tiny inside those large wheel wells. The optional 18 inch S-Line wheels, or the standard 18 inch wheels in the Premium Plus and Prestige trims look far better on the car. In fact, it seems to be the case with a lot of cars these days, where 17 inch wheels just no longer cut it.

Consumer Advice: Silvercar

Silvercar's garage near LAX

At some point in time, we have all had to rent a car from a car rental company. For the most part, people generally rent from one of the major national car rental chains like Hertz, Enterprise or Avis. Unless you sign up for one of their memberships, getting a car from one of these chains can be a gigantic pain. Long lines, lots of questions, sometimes unruly customer service, and let us also not forget that sometimes the car you reserve is not even available when you show up. And what are you supposed to do when you arrive at the rental counter after hours? At least at LAX, unless you are a Hertz customer, you are basically out of luck. Even if you are a Hertz customer, assuming you do not have their gold membership, you are stuck using one of their automated kiosks that can take up to 30 to 40 minutes just to get a car. Is there a car rental company out there that does away with the long lines, paperwork, and overall ridiculousness of renting a car from one of the major chains? Enter Silvercar.