Review
A co-driver and myself had the envious task of driving it to the UK from Spain and it was a stunning car that provided hours of motoring pleasure.
But, of course, the time came too soon when Mr BMW wanted his £55,000 car back – and that meant returning to my Fleet News long-term test car. It is testament to the quality, comfort and desirability of the Audi Avant 2.0 FSI Sport that this was not a problem at all.
In fact, getting out of the BMW and into the Audi was almost seamless, despite the huge difference in price. I've now spent quite a bit of time with this car and its performance to date has been faultless. It really is a pleasure to drive although, as I have stated before, I'm a little disappointed at the engine's lacklustre performance at times and it doesn't appear to be loosening that much either.
I've already heaped praise on the car for its stylish looks – both for its bodystyle and its durable interior – and I can't imagine my affection for the car will ever wane.
But its band of admirers is constantly growing and there's quite a queue of road testers at Fleet News ready to take the keys from me at the time of our next car swap.
One of its features did catch me out though on the very day I write this report, although I admit it could have been driver error rather than a problem with the car. The Fleet Towers region was covered in thick mist this morning and for the past few weeks I have let the car automatically decide for itself when the headlamps should come on.
I understand that it should be the driver's responsibility to ensure the lights are used appropriately but because I hadn't manually turned them on for weeks, I forgot to check and they were not turned on. Thankfully I realised my error about five minutes into the journey.
But on the other hand, if a car boasts such a feature that is supposedly automatic, should they not have come on?
Company car tax bill 2004/05 (40% tax-payer): £148 per month
