Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50
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Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

These sedans have 654 hp. for two, but they don't even try to appear athletic. Superheroes among cars are shy about special series like RS or AMG with huge body kits and prefer to stay in the shadows

Peter Parker did not like to be pointed at him with a finger, so he tried on a superhero costume only in exceptional cases. Bruce Wayne's story is slightly different, but he also never donned a Batman mask just for the sake of bragging rights. Top versions of the Audi A4 and Infiniti Q50 are superheroes among cars. They do not boast of obscene body kits, lowered suspension, styling or nameplates like AMG, S-Line, GT, RS, ST, M all over the body. But at the same time, there is definitely something with the prefix "over" living in them: powerful, uncompromising and very attractive.

“It would be better if you didn’t come here,” a tile seller somewhere in the Moscow region warned against deep snow porridge, where “GAZelle was sitting yesterday.” The all-wheel drive Audi A4 is not a crossover, but it copes with snowdrifts without too much fuss. A little more "gas" - and Audi immediately finds itself on the pavement. The Russian winter does not frighten the new A4, and this is especially surprising, because no one prepared the sedan for the harsh realities. The “four” has the same ground clearance as the version for Europe (140 mm), the interior warms up dramatically slowly, and I have not heard of the A4 steering wheel heating even in expensive trim levels.

Infiniti Q50 with a barely noticeable letter S on the trunk lid on the slippery surface is also not very shy. Huge 19-inch wheels are not the best choice for slippery Varshavka, but they can cope with the frozen rut with confidence. In difficult sections, Infiniti begins to dance aft, but the electronics are immediately corrected: a little more traction on the front wheels - and the sedan no longer fusses. Infiniti, like Audi, did not specially prepare for reagents, snow slurry and endless temperature changes: with a clearance of 126 mm, the Q50 cannot enter every yard, let alone a car wash in the industrial zone. The difference of one and a half centimeters in ground clearance was critical for the "Japanese": where the A4 takes the drifts thin, the Q50 is forced to slow down and look for a detour.

Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

But on dry asphalt, Infiniti is driven in the best traditions of Driver's car: predictably, accurately and almost without errors. It is surprising that a car built on a chassis from the early 2000s looks almost the best in its class against the background of its competitors. On potholes, the Q50 with electronically controlled shock absorbers shakes decently, and the joints give off to the steering wheel too clearly. But who promised that it would be very comfortable on low-profile tires in December?

The secret to the natural feel of the car comes from Direct Adaptive Steering, a steering that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. Three electronic units process information from sensors and send a command to two electric motors located on the steering shaft, where there are also two gear shafts. One of them is connected to the steering shaft by an electromagnetic clutch, which is normally open. Thanks to this sophisticated design, the Q50 has an almost weightless steering wheel that is equally responsive at all speeds and devoid of unnecessary information on bad roads.

Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

Although the Audi A4 is built on the front-wheel drive MLB evo architecture (which, by the way, formed the basis for the Bentley Bentayga and Audi Q7), there was no need to complain about the lack of turnover during the test. Yes, maybe the A4 Quattro does not drive sideways as skillfully as the Japanese competitor, whose electronics always focus on the rear axle, but certainly the "German" is not inferior to the smoothness of the ride. At the same time, the A4 gives an indescribable feeling of ease in movement: it prescribes a given trajectory with filigree precision and scrupulously follows even the smallest steering wheel turn. Surprisingly, the engineers from Ingolstadt did not try by all means to reduce the curb weight of the sedan. The A4 has an all-steel body, and only the A-pillar supports are made of aluminum. But even without this, the "four" turned out to be lighter than the Q50 by more than 200 kilograms.

In general, Audi and Infiniti cope with snow slurry, reagents and puddles from non-freezing on the Moscow Ring Road, but still the real habitat of these sedans is dry asphalt with interesting corners. And it's not even about the perfect chassis and honest all-wheel drive systems, but about what is hidden under the hood. The most expensive Q50 is equipped with a 3,0-liter biturbo engine. The Direct Injection Six produces a dizzying 405 hp. and 475 newton meters. In the middle rev range, Infiniti is bursting with anger: it mutters, hisses and begs to drown the gas pedal to the floor.

Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

Audi A4 with supercharged "four" is quieter, but it can hardly be called calm. The two-liter engine produces 249 hp, far from being a record by modern standards. and 370 Nm of torque. However, the sedan gains a “hundred” in just 5,8 seconds - a result that “charged” sedans were proud of just a few years ago. This is, among other things, the merit of the seven-speed "robot" S tronic, which works faster than the manual gearbox.

Dynamic performance is an important metric for comparing cars with a power difference of more than 150 horsepower. The Infiniti Q50 is, of course, faster (5,4 seconds to 100 km / h), but the lag on paper does not look colossal. In addition, it feels like when the A4 accelerates in dynamic mode, snorting with a resonator, it does not lag behind Infiniti, at least in terms of excitement.

Q50, even on a very slippery road, struggles to deceive the laws of physics, accelerating, it seems, already on the ice and not losing hope to bypass everyone in the stream. The tachometer needle jumps within 5-6 thousand revolutions, the switched off stabilization system does not interfere, and the seven-speed "automatic", anticipating something was wrong, does not even try to go a couple of steps up. The Audi A4, although by its nature much quieter than the Q50, is by no means lost when you need to drive sideways or accelerate in a snowy rut. Due to the permanent all-wheel drive, acceleration in any speed range is linear and predictable: two or three gears down - and the "four" begins to turn the asphalt underneath.

Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

And yet, Infiniti gave up: a 405-horsepower sedan is already far beyond the bounds of an exclusively civilian car, so it has a nondescript letter S stuck on the trunk lid. And that's it. No aerodynamic body kit or carbon spoilers - the Q50 is limited to stylish 19-inch rims and modest chrome parts on the body. But even without this, Infiniti looks the most elegant in the segment - for three years, the design of the Q50 has not aged a day. Adjusted side stamping, licking the front fenders, a very muscular hood, self-confident squinting head optics and a branded fin on the rear doors - Infiniti cannot be confused with anyone else.

The violent temper of the top-end Audi A4 does not give out extra letters. The fact that this "four" is capable of bypassing any hot hatch is hinted at only by 18-inch wheels - there are simply no such wheels in the middle trim levels. After the change of generation, the Quartet did not change as radically as, say, its competitors in the Big German Three. Those who have never owned an Audi may not be able to tell the difference between the new A4 and its predecessor the first time around. But if you look closely, there are not so many common features. The current A4 is given, first of all, by headlights with notches, lamps of complex shape and straight stampings throughout the body - the predecessor was more modest, rounder and did not tolerate chopped lines.

Test drive Audi A4 vs Infiniti Q50

Inside, Audi has a complete revolution: a wide display instead of an analog dashboard, a multimedia tablet screen, Alcantara on door cards, LED backlighting, a sports steering wheel and a compact joystick instead of the usual transmission poker. With the change of generations, the A4 has greatly improved the quality of the finish: there are no more controversial materials that came from Volkswagen, and the fit of the elements is carried out at the level of the flagship A8 and Q7. The interior of the Infiniti Q50 is much more modest: the usual instrument scales with fonts from Nissan, high-quality but too black seat upholstery and lurid stitching. Only two monitors, located one below the other, look unusual here, but the touch control of climate and music can hardly be called convenient. But there are no questions about the quality of performance. As, however, is always the case with Infiniti.

Top-end Audi A4 and Infiniti Q50 are off-market vehicles. They are too powerful to claim sales records, but not daring enough to beat competitors like the BMW 340i or Mercedes C43 AMG. The main trump card of the "German" and "Japanese" is the price (from $ 34 and from $ 496). With dynamics comparable to the class leaders, without pretending to speed records and bragging about extra letters on the trunk lid, the Q37 and A379 remain the most democratic proposals in the segment of very fast sedans.

       Infiniti Q50       Audi A4
Body typeSedanSedan
Dimensions (length / width / height), mm4800 / 1820 / 14554726 / 1842 / 1427
Wheelbase, mm28502820
Ground clearance, mm126140
Cargo space, l500480
Curb weight, kg18011585
engine's typeV6, twin turboR4 turbocharged
Working volume, cubic meters cm.29971984
Max. power, h.p. (at rpm)405 / 6400249 / 5000-6000
Max. cool. moment, nm (at rpm)475 / 1600-5200370 / 1600-4500
Drive type, transmissionFull, 7АКПFull, 7RKP
Max. speed km / h250250
Acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h, s5,45,8
Fuel consumption (average), l / 100 km9,35,9
Price from, $.37 37934 496
 

 

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