UH-OH

"jkm7680" (jkm7680) 08/22/2015 at 08:38 • Filed to: None

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My last three posts have been about Allroads. This isn’t good. It’s also not helping that among my favorite cars I’ve ever driven is the 2015 Allroad.

pip bip - choose Corrour > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 08:46

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the Doctor will see you now

8)

georgechristensen > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 08:47

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What have you got to lose? Apart from your financial stability that is.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 09:24

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I’d do it.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 09:49

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Man, I loved my allroad. I think it’s the best car I’ve ever owned.

Textured Soy Protein > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 11:41

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jkm7680 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/22/2015 at 20:11

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I didn’t know you had one! Specs?

jkm7680 > pip bip - choose Corrour 08/22/2015 at 20:11

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ty

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 20:31

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My car was a 2001, Atlas Gray, 2.7t with a 6 speed stick.

I got it with about 90k on it, drove it for 4 years and put another 70k on it. The alternator died when I was due for a timing belt, so I did both at once. The alternator died on the highway, and as I’m trying to limp the car home I can hear the air compressor running slower and slower, and I’m shouting at the thing just to stop trying and save the battery...it died just as I came to a stop in my driveway. Here’s what the timing belt job looks like:

The timing belt and alternator jobs went perfectly, but I guess I took too long. I had the car up on jack stands for about two months, and in that time my front airbags stretched way out and cracked (they were original at 160k, which is basically a miracle). When I put the car back together, it wouldn’t raise the front left corner.

When I went to sell the car, it had a few issues...it smoked a little from the valve cover, the air suspension, some other little things. I put it on eBay with a reserve at $1800 and it sold for $3300. Even when I was selling the car, it never left me stuck.

Honestly, the best car I ever owned or probably ever will. It did everything, and it did everything really well. I worked for Lexus, drove new LS460s all day and I wouldn’t have traded the Audi for any of them.

If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I’m doing is tracking that car down and buying it. Then I’ll take it to my local Audi dealer, leave a blank check, and just say “fix it”.

jkm7680 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/22/2015 at 20:59

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Nice, I think I remember you telling me now haha.

How’s the 2.7tt? I like the concept but the sound and execution is what I’m worried a little bit about. It would be great if you could just give a basic overview about the driving experience if you don’t mind. :P

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 21:14

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The 2.7t is actually a real gem of an engine. The first thing to know is that it’s quiet. At idle you don’t really hear it, and even when you get on it it’s not really as loud as I’d like. Plenty of low end torque, and it pulls nice all the way up to the red line. It’s also a very smooth engine...if you feel the engine, there’s something wrong with it.

On the allroad end, it’s interesting. The steering is light, and one of the popular mods is to pull a power steering relay to make it a bit heavier...feels a lot better after you do that. The ride is nice, I usually drove on the lowest setting, which is like your ‘sport’ setting. Level 2 is the default setting. It has a nice automatic mode that will drop it to level 1 on the highway or up to 3 at low speed, but I usually just left it on manual.

Gas mileage sucks. Do all highway and maybe you’ll squeak out 21, which is admittedly better than its 14 city 19 highway rating. But it’s a fabulous highway car for the actual drive, I was doing 400 miles a week with mine and I was never uncomfortable.

Mine had every option except nav, so I had a heated steering wheel (the most underrated car feature in the world) and a solar panel moonroof that ran the a/c fan to keep the car from getting too hot inside on sunny days. 10 years later, Toyota would put that idea on a Prius and act like they saved the fucking world by coming up with it.

When I got the car, I was worried that I was trying to get it to do too many things. I wanted it to be fun, to be practical, comfortable, and reliable. Usually I’ll get a car that specializes in one of those and just have multiple cars, but the allroad was so good at all of them I just didn’t need or want another car.

Basically, I loved my allroad and could talk about it for quite some time. If you can find a nice one, I can’t think of a car I’d recommend more highly, albeit with the “but it is an allroad” caveat.

jkm7680 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/22/2015 at 21:39

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First off, thanks for the information!

Quiet cars are nice, but sometimes I could do with a little more brap for the price. I’d probably end up sticking an exhaust system of some sort on it, just to remind me that it’s still a car. I actually like light steering to an extent, so that might not be a bad thing for me haha.

About how low is the lowest setting?

The Allroad is pretty much everything I’d want in a car wrapped in one package. Luxury features, a capable twin turbo engine, a six speed manual, dynamics of an SUV, sports sedan and a wagon combined and enough rubber body cladding to tame parallel parking. I honestly can’t think of a better car with all of the features that I want without some sort of compromise.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > jkm7680 08/22/2015 at 21:50

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The picture of it that I posted is essentially level 1. If you have a Ross Tech VCDS program, you can actually change the height of the settings, but it’s easy to fuck up the car doing that. Level 4 is legitimately tall, but if you go over 25mph or so it drops down automatically.

About the only real driving part of it I didn’t like is that the allroad has a really short first gear...so by the time you’ve got the clutch out, it’s basically time to shift. I assume that’s so it’s kind of an off road ‘creeper’ gear. It’s not a big deal, but I don’t remember ever making a perfectly smooth 1-3 shift because of the big difference in gear ratios.

They’re really great cars, well put together and good performers. Yeah, there’s gonna be some upkeep because allroad, but I thought it was worth it in my time with the car.

Plus, all the S4 engine mods work on the allroad, so there's that.

jkm7680 > That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms 08/22/2015 at 21:54

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Ah, I’ve got a VAG Com but fucking something up would not be on my to do list.

My ‘97 A4 has a really short first gear also, might just be an Audi thing.

I’ve never actually wanted a car so badly, seriously it just suits my needs so perfectly.

Did you ever take it offroad?

Chris Clarke > jkm7680 08/24/2015 at 16:34

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Speaking of brap... here’s a quick, halfway decent audio clip of my S4 during a donut session last winter. That motor make a great noise.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > jkm7680 08/24/2015 at 16:40

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Just won the lottery and looking for a way to lose tens of thousands? My friends that had the originals said that the engine was great, but everything bolted on and around it was garbage, a description that fit my Rabbit GTI back in the day. They’ve probably depreciated enough to the point where you can pick one up as a project to hack on.