To
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| Ooh. Pretty. Two-tone seats. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
elaborate further on the subject of suspension, this car is, like many others, happiest on glass-smooth asphalt or clean grooved pavement; however, unlike many others, it transmits most road irregularities straight to the awkward, yet supportive seats. The firm, sporty suspension keeps the car pancake flat around onramps, but bumps are bumpy and the seats are similarly firm, so the bumpy goes straight up your spinal ladder. Oddly, the seats shouldn't be adjusted in the way that you might think will give you more comfort, but rather, as they were designed to be adjusted. After initially setting the chair to my preferred low slung, racy position, I found that back fatigue developed quickly and intrusively, so I started randomly moving buttons around to adjust the 12-way power seat until I was seated as high up as possible and leaning way back in my seat with a lot of lower thigh support. One quick push of the Memory "+2" and my optimal seating position was saved for the rest of my time in the car. Problem solved.
On the second day, when my copilot, Tom, joined me for the second l
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| Audi's MMI navigation system gets two thumbs up, but only needs one thumb to use. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
eg (Madison, Wisconsin to Boulder, Colorado), he tried adjusting the seats as he normally would in his A4 and also found that he quickly developed fatigue and back stress. When he adjusted it to match my counterintuitive settings, he quickly became settled and pain free. After that, it was smooth sailing, except in parts of Nebraska, where Tom commented that the roads are so spotty and the ride so firm that he should have brought along his Man-Bra for support.
As for the other tests of endurance on a trip like this, the most rewarding was by far the navigation system, and the most painful, the gas bill. The gas bill I will discuss later, but I have almost nothing but good things to say about the navigation system. Use the dial and buttons to punch in the address of any place in Canada or the States (they are divided into regions), plus city and state, etc. and the nav will diagram you a map of the route, but you first have the option of adjusting the route with stopovers, places to avoid, or simply going through a stretch that you know to be more scenic.
The system then directs your driving with voice prompts, ample
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| Behold Madison, Wisconsin, the fried cheese curd capital of the world. (Photo: Jonathan Yarkony, Canadian Auto Press) |
warning to prepare for lane changes, exits, and turns and a little countdown bar plus directional arrows in the gauge binnacle so you can prepare for the upcoming turn. My only complaint was that the computer-generated voice sort of slurred her "left" and "right" so that they often sounded the same. That is something that should be very clear and unmistakable, but wasn't.
However, I can't thank Audi enough for their excellent navigation system and the visual cues that got me to my stopover and end destination without a flutter. After testing Audi's MMI interface in a number of different Audi vehicles and spending a reasonable amount of time working the system, I have to say that it is properly intuitive and incorporates a reasonable organization of car functions. It takes only a brief acclimation period to become fully versed with its positioning, and ensuing operation can be executed with a minimum of attention stolen from one's focus on the road.
These
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| Warp speed S4. (Photo: , Canadian Auto Press) |
are all relevant and necessary accessories that would be available in any sport sedan as luxuriously appointed, and fully taking advantage of its assets on a long trip brought them to my immediate attention, but what about that engine? Well, that was definitely one of the things that helped keep me awake, with its veritable growling and deep rumbling that kept me alert, entranced and enamored through hours and hours and hours of Midwestern scenery (farms, farms, farms, farms, Chicago, farms, farms, farms, Mississippi, farms farms farms....), I'm going to dedicate the rest of Part I of my Road Trip to this heartthrob engine.
