How can you tell apart an Audi test mule from a prototype wearing a next generation model’s production body? Well, welcome to our world…
With Audi, it’s a difficult task as their designs live on for ages with minor styling alterations, the sort that other carmakers brand as facelifts, and this holds true for the next A4 we spied testing in Southern Europe.
At a first glance, you will likely question if this is indeed a new model, and rightly so, but look closer and you start noticing differences such as the door- instead of window-mounted mirrors, the altered angle of the headlamps and taillights (…), and slightly shorter overhangs – things like that.
Audi could momentarily lift our right eyebrow by a few millimeters with a new interpretation of its grille, as the tester was not fitted with a production part, but all said, don’t expect anything revolutionary on the exterior design front.
Inside, we could see a brand new styling for the dashboard and perhaps a fully-digital instrument cluster on certain models.
Beneath all that will be Audi’s new and lighter MLB-Evo platform that ditches the traditional steel monocoque structure for a mix of aluminum and steel, with Ingolstadt to offer again an array of turbocharged diesel and petrol engines, plus an e-tron plug-in hybrid variant. Sitting at the top of the range will be the S4 and RS4 editions, with the series to be available in both sedan and Avant body styles.
Audi has confirmed that it is currently re-tooling its Ingolstadt factory in Germany to prepare for production of the new A4 in 2015, which means we could see the car if not in Geneva next March, at the Frankfurt motor show in September.
Photo Credits: CarPix for CarScoops
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