Who else is disappointed by another under powered Audi? Come on... Even the Nissan Maxima is up to par with this new A4. There are regular cars like the new G37/G35 which put out more HP and cost & size are similar. Of course you can always by a S4, but thats a different league.

a steel chassis with the same wheel base as a g37 and put a meeelion HP motor on it.

JATO

<img src="http://www.broodjeaap.nl/xdarwin1996.jpg">

There is not point in using light weight material and putting a weak power plant in it.

The rest of the car is special but the engine isn't. That's just the way that Audi does things. They always find a way to make their non-"s" or non-"rs" cars slower than the competition. With the exception of the 2.0t from a few years back, Audi has always done this with the A4. I guess the slogan "Never Follow" also could mean "Never Lead".

Take it or buy the S4, S5, or RS. Audi doesnt say.. oh G35, ok lets make our car fit in. They make the A4, they just make it. And its beautiful.

But I wouldn't call the A4 underpowered, its still faster than the equivelent Mercedes and BMWs, I checked the official Websites.

Its really not that bad, to be able to do 0 - 100 in 6.2 seconds is still in the fast catagory IMO. But as you have put it before, the US prices are weird and put it near the 335i while the AU prices put it at $19,000 less.

My advice, get an S4 (new one when its out) or S5. I'm not sure how they are priced in the US either, but in AU, S4/S5 are much closer to a 335i.

The BMW 3.0 makes 230hp and 200 lb-ft. of torque for a power output of 76.6hp/l and 66.7lb-ft/l while the Audi 3.2 FSI makes 265hp and 243lb-ft from 3.2 liters or 82.8hp/l and 75.9lb-ft/l.

The Audi hp and torque numbers compare very favorably to the BMW motor when compared in this way. In fact, the Audi motor produces 8% more hp and 14% more lb-ft per liter than the BMW engine.

While no-one questions the smoothness and power delivery of the BMW 3.0, lets actually drive the Audi 3.2 FSI and see what it's like before it is condemned for being underpowered.

The BMW 3.0 liter engine is capable of making 272hp. The 3.0 liter engine that you have listed is a detuned version (designed for the 328) that doesn't include goodies like the 3 stage intake, etc... A fair comparison would be with the 272hp engine. No? And when you compare the engines you will find that the BMW engine puts out more power and torque, with .2 liters of less displacement. All while getting better MPG.

But all of that doesn't matter because BMW has the 335, and that will be the car that will priced at the same level as the A4 3.2. There's no comparing the 335's engine with Audi's V6. The Audi V6 doesn't even come close to the 335's engine (the 335's engine even beats it in fuel economy)

0-60 in 6.2 seconds? That's what my 6 year old BMW 330 did. My 330 isn't a slouch, but after 6 years, I'm more than used to the power and expected my next car to provide more of a thrill. I know that I'll like the S4, but 14-15 mpg scares me. There are better things that I would like to do with my money rather than give it to the Oil Companies.

290hp or even 300hp still wouldn't put it close enough to the S5's 350hp. There's room to improve.

It does for sure, i hope they bring it over to the A5 in 2009

Its really so stupid to brand a car with having a weak engine etc without even having driven it. Some people are in a constant cycle of doing this. I'm sure they will be pleasantly surprised when they drive it.

But I guess Audi has a bee in its bonnet about keeping the S models more distinctive. Maybe as time goes by they will introduce a few more powerful engines, wasn't there a rumor about a 3.6L V6 being added to the lineup?

I heard that the 3.6 would replace the 3.2LV6 in the TT as the top engine, and thus work its way into other mdels from there.

Please read a bit more carefully.

You think the engine does not change, just because the displacement stays the same?

Compare the S4 and RS4's 4.2 V8's--very different engines, same displacement.