Just before I went on vacation to Europe, I read some posts here by people who wanted the V6 TDI engine for the A4. While as of now, this is a possible engine for the A4 in Europe, I doubt that it makes any sense.<p>My father has a new A6 V6 TDI-Q (tip) and I could put some 5000km onto the car while in Europe. Yes, the A6 TDI-Q is about 1700kg when empty, bigger, and "softer", but still I think it's a reasonable comparison:<p>Noise: oh boy is it loud! When cold anyway, and when warm then the interior noise in city traffic is simply too much for a car like this. And when you hear the engine from the outside, it's an insult. At night bad enough to wake up the neighborhood.<p>Power: Ok, we have the 1s lag for the turbo, and then another 1s lag for the tip to react - if I want to accelerate and leave it to shift. This left aside, the car is quite powerful. Especially the torque is impressive - on our Swiss alpine roads the car pulls like an Ox, just noisier :-)<br>On the German Autobahn I measured a top speed (downhill tho) of 239km/h with my portable GPS, which corresponded to 255km/h on the clock. Uphill I couldn't touch 200km/h, while a convoy of the new Mercedes S500 pulled by at 250. Quite nice cars btw :-)<p>Gas mileage: 7.0L/100km city-to-city in hilly Switzerland, 8.5L/100km over 1000km around Europe, very mixed conditions. <p>When I came back to the US, a friend picked me up with my own A4 30v-QMS. I had considerable troubles to drive "smoothly" - the car is much, much jumpier than the TDI. <p>Thus, for me the question arises: in a place like the US, where gas is for free, why would someone want an engine that is about the same as the 1.8T in power, eats a bit less, but is BY FAR noisier and "tired"? I just read an article in a German car magazine about the TDI in the A4 and the gas mileage was pretty disappointing there, which makes me wonder why you would want a super-powered V6 TDI with all its drawbacks, since saving fuel can't possibly be the reason.<p>Anyway, just in case you cared :-)<p>Cheers,<br>- Stan

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Well, you make very good arguements against the TDI. Let me make some for. The TDI is first of all a beautiful engine. The techonology impresses me to the extent that I want to own one. Diesel is great in my book. Abundent torque, and you will NEVER not have diesel gas (if we ever get into war with the Arubs again) because they will cut gas before they cut diesel because America is dependent on it's trucks, and they all run diesel. The gas mileage is great, and the range is great as well. You can chip the car and it would then be coughing up close to 190 horses and the torque is just insane. I'm not looking for a "fast" car per say, I want one that's fun to drive and torque is what makes the car fun to drive. Noise, well, I was going to buy a saturn so the noise is not really an issue with me. <p>But the biggest reason is, the engine has over 700+ less parts than it's gas counter parts. Diesel engines are simple in design and are bulletproof like superman. If you are someone that likes to keep their cars for their grandkids, then this is the engine you want in that car. Maintanace free, trouble free, and incomparable reliability. The fewer parts there are, the less likely it will break. If there was an engine that I would bet money on to go 1 Million miles, the TDI's would be the ones I bet on. <p>Theft. Why I wanted a A4 TDI in stick. Some stats say that thieves are idiots and so half of them don't know how to drive stick. The other half will try to sell your car for as much $$$ as possible and sticks are hard to sell, and stripping it down, the auto trannies for parts is a much better value (look how much a TIP costs vs. a Stick). But the biggest deciding factor in car theft is gas vs. diesel. Why do you think MB 190D's are among the lowest number of stolen cars in the states? :-)<p>Also, the A6 is much heavier than the A4, so that engine would be a better mate in the A4 than the A6. <p>Oh, and did I mention Torque again? 150 horses but 229lb-fts and you can chip that tto kick it up close to 300 lb-fts and 190 horses... Sounds like pretty good numbers to me! Hell, you can start towing contests with Chevy pickup trucks and win! Mate that with a Quattro and you got a Pikes Peak winner in my book. This baby pushes up the hills with abosolutely no problems whatsoever... It'll keep up with the S4 on high speeds, read the review link. <p>Albert<ul><li><a href="http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/_carmag/_roadtests/audiA4.htm">A4 2.5L TDI review</a></li></ul>