The new A4 has really arrived with a wallop, taking not only the top prize of Business Car of the Year, but also stealing the upper medium category that has flicked backwards and forwards between Ford‘s Mondeo and the BMW 3-series in recent years.
The introduction of the new model appears to have gone smoothly, with the estate following a few months behind the saloon in late summer 2008, and new engines including a 120PS version of the 2.0 diesel adding an entry oil-burner to the launch range. At the top end, the new S4 coming this spring uses a new 333PS supercharged V6 engine rather than the old S4’s V8. It’s quicker than the previous S4, but emissions plunge by 97g/km to 225.
Audi‘s fleet sales marketing manager Nathan Dennis puts the brand’s formidable success this year down to the combination of image, desirability and quality of the product, and the new A4, the biggest-selling premium fleet model of 2008, is a shining example of this.