Audi Announces New Engine for the U.S.

Justin Berkowitz
by Justin Berkowitz

For the second time in a week (clock analogy again), Bob Lutz made an accurate prediction. GM's Car Czar told journalists he'd like to put a 200 horse turbocharged four in a big car, tuned for torque and fuel economy. Sounds like a good idea. So good, Audi's doing it… The current Audi A4 has a great engine– the 2.0T– that's most useful with either a manual transmission or DSG. But since some 80 percent or more of the A4 2.0T sold in America have a slushbox (six-speed or CVT), acceleration is less than idea (i.e. slow). So Audi's boffins bumped-up the horsepower (from 200 to 211) and added scads 'o torque (from 207 lb ft now to 258 ft.-lbs.). That's more torque than Audi's 3.2-liter V6 provides. If Audi really wanted to test the turbocharged waters for Maximum Bob's dream (nightmare?) of big ass cars with 200 horses, Ingolstadt should offer Yanks the revised 2.0T in the A6. You can just hear the bankers whining. "I'm not spending 55 grand on a car with four cylinder engine!"

Justin Berkowitz
Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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  • SaturnV SaturnV on Mar 25, 2008

    @menno There are a actually a couple of V4 engines in production now - but in motorcycles. The Honda VFR has been a V4 for a while now, as has the ST1300 (and before that, the ST1100). Aprilia's also got a V4 in development, although who knows if we'll actually see it in the real world. To deviate a little, I had a VFR750 and in addition to being a V4, it had gear-driven cams which when wound up sounded like a seriously pissed off supercharger. I'm actually a fan of the V4 layout, but with two cylinder heads and associated bits, there's a significant cost delta over an I4. -S5

  • Mjposner Mjposner on Mar 25, 2008

    As someone who lived with this engine for 19 months I can add that it is a powerful engine with great gas mileage. On a trip to New York from Florida I averaged 32 mpg with speeds mostly in the 75 to 80 range. Car was a six speed manual. With help from APR my HP and Torque were both over 250. Only reason I gave up on the car was the massive torque steer due to the front wheel drive. I would definitely go for this engine in a quattro or rear drive config.

  • Joeaverage Joeaverage on Mar 25, 2008

    Reminds me of story my buddy told me. He was in the 7th grade or so and they had a "now-it-all" kid in his class. One day my friend was talking about cars to someone with the "know-it-all" started bragging about how his Dad had a 4 cylinder V-6 engine in their car... Made my buddy's day...

  • Yankinwaoz Yankinwaoz on Mar 25, 2008

    The number of cylinders is not the only variable. Look at the Mitsubishi Motors Astron motor that they put into their Aussie sedans. It was a wopping 2.6L 4 cyl motors. Talk about huge cylinders. Volvo used to have similar large volume 4 bangers. The author is right... in the US at least 4 cylinder motors have a bad rap. Just like the US auto makers, the 4-Cyl continues to pay for the sins of its past.

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