Want a luxury sedan with all-wheel drive and a manual transmission? In the U.S. at least, your list of choices grew significantly with the 2017 Audi A4 Quattro.
Audi announced Wednesday that the 2017 A4 2.0T Quattro will officially be offered with a six-speed manual as a no-cost option. The 2017 A4 went on sale in the spring, but only with the seven-speed S tronic dual clutch setup.
The manual will be offered on all three variants – Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige – so you have a wide choice of equipment, as long as you’re OK with all-wheel drive or nothing. Manuals get access to a new Sport plus Package with the dynamic steering and sport adaptive suspension that previously came only on the faster S4 model.
Right now, your only bets for a manual transmission on a car in this class in the U.S. come from the BMW 3-series and the Cadillac ATS 2.0T. And BMW is the only one letting you pair it with all-wheel drive in the form of the considerably more powerful – and considerably more expensive – 340i xDrive. Acura, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz have all done away with their manuals in recent years.
In our testing, the new A4 2.0T Quattro with S tronic is an amazingly competent car that does tend to fall short in the excitement department, despite swift acceleration with its 252 horsepower, a smooth ride and tenacious grip. The six-speed version may be more fun to drive, but it’ll actually be 0.1 seconds slower to 60 mph, at 5.7 seconds, according to Audi’s estimates. Still, your left leg and right arm will finally have something to do.
The six-speed A4 Quattro will start at $40,350 when it goes on sale this fall.
Photos: Zac Estrada/Carscoops
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