I always get annoyed with people (especially dealers) trying to say something is fully loaded, or similar, despite missing some substantial options. That Mazda one is very annoying, indeed. (My mother had a 2014 Mazda 3 Sport GT with Premium Pack but no adaptive cruise, since she didn’t want it. We agreed to disagree…

My last two trips to BMW dealers would like to contest that theory. (We were not pleased once we’d left, let’s say that.) On the other hand, visiting most of the other ones is quite pleasant, especially Audi. (That might have to do with us actually buying cars from them.) On the other hand, I actually had a more…

To clarify, you cannot change the sensor sensitivity? In my B8.5 allroad, I’ve got a nice little switch with something like four positions on it. If the rain sensor is disabled via MMI then it functions to control the intermittent timing. If the rain sensor is enabled (I’ve never turned mine off other than moving the…

Absolutely! And I think Audi has done it very right in my B8.5 allroad. Stalk, push up for auto. I leave it there unless I’m getting the car washed or sometimes if I'm expecting quite a bit of snow or ice on the windshield. The sensor works amazingly well, at least for my taste, on minimum sensitivity. And if you need…

BMW 1 Series? They’re rather fun. Plenty of manuals, too! Or perhaps an Audi TT? (I must defend my allegiance to Audi... but I’d probably have the BMW.) I found a few manual BMW’s in Texas under $10K, and I’d consider them! 

Ah, but how did it handle the roundabouts with a ton o’ crap in it? I feel like a ton 0' crap might affect the handling a bit. 

They didn’t actually mention the clunk, I remembered wrong. However, I think they assumed anyone who had read the manual could put two and two together and figure out that the noise was probably coupled to the fact that the car is in fact not rolling backwards (or forwards) down the hill you just started off on. (Same…

This is a huge point. My B8.5 A4 allroad, for example, makes a distinctive clunk when pulling away from a stop on a steep hill. This is the automatic system which has held the car in place on said hill disengaging. The owners manual mentions the existence of this system, but to an owner who can’t be bothered to check…

I think I remember that on our old A6. On both the B8.5 allroad and the 4G8 A7, it’s two seperate buttons. This helps quite a bit. However, I think they removed the parking light feature, which is a bit annoying. 

We have 2 of them, an A4 allroad and an A7. Both have rear fogs. Both only go on in low visibility, or to impress my friends, but never in traffic. Audi actually colour codes the front and rear. One is yellow, one is green when the light telling you they are on is illuminated. I think they’re great for safety, but…

They were excellent. Our car was Nighthawk Black Pearl (5AT). I'm not a huge fan of triple black, but the black paint and grey wheels with black and grey leather actually worked really well. It looked both understated and sporty, which I find is something less and less brands pull off.

Absolutely! So, well, it’s a very good car. Now, again, we’re very odd shoppers, and it did have some things we really liked and some we liked less. First off, our first choice would probably have been a CLS400, but we found (at the time) there wasn’t a substantial price difference (used), and the 550 was much easier…

Funny you mention that point. We had a Legend Coupe LS. (Sirius White Pearl, 4AT.) Arguably, it was the best car we’ve ever had. It did everything really well and was sort of quietly massively competent. We kept it for more than 10 years and 300,000 KM. Eventually, a car or two later, we got a 2007 TL Type S. (Which…

As Tom mentioned, no air suspension on the B8 or B8.5 allroad. As well, no, it’s 220HP and 258IbFt. Still a punchy motor. Does have an offroad mode, if you need that. It is surprisingly capable in mild offroading. 

Owning an A4 allroad, in many ways I can agree with you. The Volvo wins hands down for cargo space, at least in my experience. However, I’ve driven my friend’s 2016 (I think) XC70 T5, and I found it very soft in comparison. It just rolled a lot more. And I like the Audi’s motor more, it just seems smoother and more…

As the owner of a 2016 B8.5 A4 allroad 2.0T Technik, I would tend to agree. The trunk isn’t exactly overly spacious, and nor is the rear seat. But the rear seat has decent legroom and good headroom (keeping in mind that mine has a pano roof). I’d be curious to see if the Alltrack really does have less room, because it…

Ya! Another car for Canada that the US doesn't get! 

Oh, yeah, it’s legal here in Ontario too, as far as I know. And yes, it’s a german thing, although my father, who learned to drive in Sweden does it as well. 

We need that here. There have been so many times that I’ve done the polite “signal left in fast lane” thing, which produces no outcome, so I’ve done the flash beams once, signal. Nothing. Flash beams twice. Nada. Pass on the right. It’s annoying, and high beam etiquette should be taught in Driver’s Ed.

I wholly agree about the LED and HID upgrade kits. I was somehow in front of an Accord the other day with such a kit, and it somehow managed to be very bright but also provide very little illumination for him. (Oh, the irony). As for auto-dimming side mirrors, they’ve been around for ages. Our 1999 A6 Avant 2.8…