Neighbor Got a New Audi Vert ....WOW

[CFour]

I dont know what model it was its a new one this year 4 seater 3.0L V6. She came over and wanted to know If I would show her how to work the Tiptronic. This car is like a concrete block on wheels. It makes my C5 feel loose and wiggly. Its not very fast but the overall quality of the interior was amazing. No Vinyl on the FIRM seats just high quality leather all over the place. There was not a shake squeek or rattle anywhere. The CVT trans was the first one I have driven and was pretty neat also. This car really surprised me. List was $46,000+. I can tell you this the C6 interior is nice but not this nice. I think its an A4 3.0 or something like that.

 

[LMN8R]

The only 2 audi convertibles are the A4 and the TT, but the TT is not new. The new A4's are great cars, although my friends that have them are very disappointed in the service that they get at the dealership, and are disappointed in the reliability of the car. The all say "the little things" keep breaking. No drive train complaints.

How does the interior compare to the C6? I've always thought that Audi and BMW set the standard for cool interior. I consider Audi to be a bit more "sporty" and BMW a bit more "classic," with the exception of the Z3 which is very audi-like IMHO.

 

[CFour]

I have to say. I really have not been exposed to many German cars. This thing just blew me away for what they paid. The quality of everything inside was expensive looking. It had little touches of wood chrome and scads of really nice tight leather. I really liked the CVT trans it was wild not to "feel" a shift. The C6 interior is much improved but not to this level. Nothing about this car felt askew. In this weeks Autoweek Dave Hill was quoted saying about XLR "this is the highest quality interior in a GM car" I wouldn't ever admit to that. The XLR is a fine interior but to say that when a $46.000 Audi is on par with his $76,000 Cadillac is something I wouldn't admit. They even got a discount on the Audi and paid $42K. I have to say Im almost sorry I drove that Audi now.

 

[Saving 4 C6]

My dad just bought a new A6 yesterday. Awesome car. Interior=:eek

 

[Rob]

Yeah a friend of mine has an Audi A4 and it's the first Audi I've ever been in. The quality of the interior blew me away. It's excellent. Another friend of mine has a BMW 330I and the quality of the interior in that car blew me away as well. I'm hoping that the C6 interior will reach that level at some point.

Admittedly, I was still impressed with the interior of the 2003 Z06 I rode in a few months back but granted, the only thing I had to compare it to was my own C4....not much of a comparison.

 

[CFour]

Rob in my opnion the C4 interior is better then the C5s. Some people would not agree with me but I think the seats are better in my C4 then in my C5. The REAL improvment in C5 inside is the space. The larger footwells in C5 are a plus, but when it comes to the dash pieces and seats I think C4 has a higher quality less "Plastic" look to me anyways.

 

[LMN8R]

I'm confused as to how a CVT works. I guess the main sticking point is how you can have a CVT but also have a Tiptronic gear selection.

 

[LMN8R]

Dave Hill, in the interview from December, was talking about the same thing (as far as interior goes):

"Dave Hill: I would say that on a value basis Audi would be leading the race to finer and finer interiors. However, I don't think the TT is particularly handsome right in our sports-car class. I think when you look at the portfolio of Audi products, they're delivering top results at their price point. And everybody's chasing after them. I'd say they're the best. "

Here's the thread:
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19681&highlight=audi+and+hill

Greg

 

[Rob]

Rob in my opnion the C4 interior is better then the C5s. Some people would not agree with me but I think the seats are better in my C4 then in my C5. The REAL improvment in C5 inside is the space. The larger footwells in C5 are a plus, but when it comes to the dash pieces and seats I think C4 has a higher quality less "Plastic" look to me anyways.

Hmmmm.....you may be right. I haven't spent enough time in a C5 to make a thorough comparison. I do like the extra room in a C5, but I like the tight, cockpit-like seats in the earlier C4s.

 

[Ctfoodguy2000]

I absolutely enjoy my C5 coupe; however if I have one complaint about my '02 Coupe, it is the interior. The controls / knobs are plastic junk. I would have thought at the price it is getting GM would have had a nicer finish in the interior.

This really needs to improve to stay with the other sports cars; Audi, BMW. etc...

 

[veteluvr74]

I currently drive a 98 A4. The most impressive parts of this car are 1) Quattro 2) Interior 3) Drive train. The AWD in this car is amazing. It performed flawlessly during this winter we just had in NY. I was blown away. I had a 96 blazer before that and i thought nothing could top the 4wd in that. Well i was wrong. Quattro is amazing. The interior is nicer then any american car out there. I have a 6cyl with a 5spd and it moves for a car in its class. My only problem is the service i get from the dealership. It has been nothing but crap. I have had a noise and vibration in the steering that nobody can fix. I have had problems with little things like a bad heater core and AC problems. Other then that the car is amazing. I am getting rid of it however for a C5.

 

[CFour]

I'm confused as to how a CVT works. I guess the main sticking point is how you can have a CVT but also have a Tiptronic gear selection.

LMN8R Its hard to explan how the CVT works. There is no shifting. The transmission has like a "sliding" gear ratio (a chain I think) and by computer slides into exactly the right ratio for the task on hand. You feel no shifting at all only added transmission drag (low gear) when slowing. From a stop you feel the low gear just sort of "melt" away to the higher drive positions. Its really neat and Im surprised the big 3 isn't there yet. Im guessing someone holds a patent (Honda I think) and the big 3 refuses to pay for the rights. As far as tiptronic goes the CVT is ideal for this because it haS the ability to slide the trans in just the right spot to make the Shift "feel" real. What happens is the trans starts out in the lowest setting then waits for your "tap" then moves it to the next gear ratio (with a programmed in jerk I must add) to make it feel right. It wont let you down shift at the wrong time a saftey feature im sure.

 

[veteluvr74]

From what I hear about the CVT is that it is really weird to drive at first because you expect a gear shift and then there is none. My friend drove one and said he was at 75 before he knew it. I am not sure what it effect on gas mileage is though.

 

[LMN8R]

Thanks much. Now that I think about it, it is surprising that none of the Detroit boys have started putting it in their cars. I would think that Saturn, of all of the Big 3 brands, would have had some answer to this by now. The new Ion is boasting a 5-speed auto now.

I do love the rumors coming out that the C6 will have a 6-speed automatic tranny in it. Evidently the thing will eventually be used in trucks. As far as my preferences go, I'll always favor the manual tranny, but I think that the 6-speed auto would let everyone have some fun.

 

[ROCKETBLOCK]

Talking about the C6 interior??? Where are we getting this info? I haven't had the priviledge of driving a C6 yet. This thread starts like an ad for Audi with a small mention of C6 seats.

 

[LMN8R]

Here is something that I just now read. By the information present in this writing, I think that it's old news, but the date at the bottom it says 4/23/03. Rocketblock- it does have some mention of the C6 interior in this, and actually compares it to Audi!

I treat the information in this thing as pure speculation, so maybe some of you can confirm or derail it:

http://www.lovecars.com/corvettecorner/c6.htm

Greg

 

[hawaii-5-lo]

hey everyone,
i will gladly sacrifice a little interior quality for the over all performance of the c5,of coarse the car rides better,it does not handle like a vette.remember ride and handling are two different worlds.stiff cars will develop a few rattles,use a little common sense and you can fix every rattle forever.its funny how many owners complain that the car doesnt feel the power band.so the companies are trying to program the computers to simulate shifting,theres a doctor at work that raced me in a TT,he was sure he could win,i beat him so bad i would have been embarresed to post it in the kill section.if im not mistaken,the triptronic and those other weird trannys can not take over 200 ft lbs of torque.it will be along time till you see one in a high horsepower car,they are heavy weak and unprovin.my friends wife has a brand new mini-copper,they took it in will 500 miles for the tranny recall.in my opinion these are comfort cars not sports cars,looks like a VW,thats funny,interior sorry to sound so negitive,cars like these for that money is a joke,there is no better car in the world to match the vettes dollar value to performance.interior later,Todd.

 

[CH CHang]

LMN8R Its hard to explan how the CVT works. There is no shifting. The transmission has like a "sliding" gear ratio (a chain I think) and by computer slides into exactly the right ratio for the task on hand. You feel no shifting at all only added transmission drag (low gear) when slowing.

To expand on CFour's post a little more. The belt or chain connects to two pairs of conical pulleys. The points of the cones are facing eachother and the chain sits in the valley. The gear ratios change by the pulleys being moved closer or further appart allowing the chain to "slip" up or down gripping a larger or smaller circle, thus changing gear ratios. I believe that's a good basic description on how they work.

I think you can compare it somewhat to how a bicycle's gears work. How the bike chains "slide" up and down the multiple cocentric gears to change gear ratios. Except you have an opposing set of "gears", a smooth cone rather than descrete gears/spokes, and the chain straddles both cones. That may help you visualize it, or it may confuse you even more.

From a stop you feel the low gear just sort of "melt" away to the higher drive positions. Its really neat and Im surprised the big 3 isn't there yet. Im guessing someone holds a patent (Honda I think) and the big 3 refuses to pay for the rights.

I don't think it's a patent issue only as I believe the Saturn SUV (VUE?) is available with a CVT. I know it used to be a power issue. CVTs originally used rubber belts and they couldn't handle high power engines (around 200hp or ft-lbs of torque would cause the belts to break).

Audi developed a special chain to handle high power engines. It's somewhat complex. You have "2-Dimensional" chain links connected to form a loop, and there are several of these loops connected to give the chain significant width.

Nissan has a different solution for highpower CVTs. IIRC, they use two pairs of gears, we'll call them A1, A2, and X1, X2. A1, A2 face eachother and are conical in shape with "points" on the inside. X1, X2, are more like normal gears but I believe the teeth are rounded slightly. The Xs connect the As and are on opposite sides of the A's axis. The A gears can vary their distance from eachother, the X gears do the same and can change angles. The varying in angles changes effective gear ratios. I believe Nissan is putting this in their Skyline (Infinity G35) GT-8 model. 8 for 8-speed.

I have read that there are prototypical CVTs that can handle larger amounts of torque, but I haven't seen any in cars. Though Nissan's "gear-based" CVT should be able to handle 280+ ft-lbs as the 3.5L it's mated to puts out about that much HP. When using gears rather than belts/chains, that'd give it much better power handling.

As far as tiptronic goes the CVT is ideal for this because it haS the ability to slide the trans in just the right spot to make the Shift "feel" real.

I wished Audi would have the CVT in their Quattro models. That'd be nice: CVT and Quattro.

I think that Audi seems to set the standard in interior quality. I think Lexus and BMW come in not far behind. But, for a sports car, I care about nice supportive seats and not much else. If a Z06 had no radio, I don't care! I'd have a 8cylinder sound system!

 

[LongTimer]

I'm sure my information is out of date, but a couple years ago I read that no CVT could be adapted to handle high torque engines. Any of you engineers take exception? Is it just a matter of beefier components?

 

[CFour]

NO RADIO??? :eek :L