Not To Be Dismissed
by David Finlay (30 Oct 08)

I can do no better than tell you the first thing I scribbled in my notebook after I'd driven the A4 2.0 TDI 120. This, I wrote, is a "lovely car". And I meant it.

I was surprised by this, and you may be too. The TDI 120 is, after all, nothing more than the economy special of the A4 family. Its two-litre turbo diesel engine is the same already used elsewhere in the range, but detuned in this case from 141bhp to 118bhp (the 120 in the title refers to the power output in PS rather than the good old British brake horsepower our grandfathers fought for).

With the drop in power comes an improvement in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions to 55.4mpg combined and 134g/km respectively. Obviously there's a cost in terms of performance - the TDI 120 isn't exactly quick, with a 10.7-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 127mph. A4s do not get slower than that.

On the other hand, the TDI 120 demonstrates that a high-quality car doesn't need to be especially quick for it to be pleasant to drive. There is as much power as you're going to need in most situations (you only feel the lack of grunt if you're accelerating flat-out, and how often does that happen?) and there is certainly no question whatever that the engine will give the rest of the car a hard time, so the handling will always be precise and predictable.

Audi reckons that the 118bhp TDI will find only a third as many buyers as the 141bhp version, which is a pity. True, the two models are very close in most respects, and you have to add up all the 120's qualities to make it seem like a significantly better buy. Assuming identical trim levels, it costs only £700 less than its more powerful stablemate, insurance will be only slightly cheaper (Group 11 rather than Group 12), that combined fuel economy figure is just 2.1mpg higher, and the 5g/km improvement in CO2 emissions has no effect on taxation - according to current plans for VED, both cars will cost £120 to tax now, £110 from April 2009 and £115 from a year after that.

If an A4 is within your budget, the resultant savings will seem minimal, though perhaps more significant in the current economic climate than they would have been a year ago. But if I had to choose between the two I suspect I would go for the 120 anyway, simply because it is cheaper to buy and run yet does not lose out in any major way except for the noticeable reduction in acceleration.

The car tested here is the SE, which costs £23,150. If you want to spend less there's the slightly less well-equipped standard version at £22,150, while in the other direction there's the sportier S line at £25,650 (must admit I can't really see the point of that one).

All of them share a couple of odd features with the rest of the A4 range. I find that the footrest is too far away, so that you need to bend your leg quite a long way to reach the clutch pedal, while rear legroom is very limited, to the point where I assume Audi doesn't believe many people will ever be carried in the back of an A4.

So this is not the most practical car in its class, but it's a very nice one. The last reference to it in my notebook says that it provides "real quality feel without unneccessary expense", and once again I can't find a better phrase to sum it up.

Price: £23,150
Capacity: 1968cc
Power: 118bhp
0-62mph: 10.7 seconds
Maximum speed: 127mph
Economy: 68.9mpg extra urban, 55.4mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 134g/km
Towing capacity: 1300kg braked
Insurance: Group 11
Audi figures.

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