Test drive Audi A4 B6 2001 - 2004 sedan

St. Petersburg tract

Audi A4 swallowed the road to St. Petersburg and back, like a sweet tooth - chocolate
 
For a good car, one and a half thousand kilometers - that for the athlete morning run. Only to the benefit after smoky and cramped Moscow, like a sip of fresh air. At some point, I even caught myself on the feeling that Audi herself really like it, and she somehow runs especially willingly and fun, wrapping a kilometer after a kilometer playfully. But this is the first road travel for her, which began when there were no 6,000 kilometers on the odometer.
 
It so happened that I started at the most unsuccessful time - on Friday summer evening, when the hordes of summer residents unsuccessfully try to break through the blockade they created on Leningradka. All this was well known to me, and therefore I used more than once a proven maneuver: along the Dmitrovskoye Shosse before turning to the third ring near Moscow, near the village of Iksha, and then on concrete. As a result, without any problems, you can go to the Leningradskoye Shosse already in the area of \u200b\u200bSolnechnogorsk, that is, passing traditional traffic jams in the Sheremetyevo and Zelenograd area.
 
Everything happened, although it was impossible to call the third ring desert. It was necessary to overtake heavy trucks (where do they go to the weekend?) And the same slow summer residents. And at the same time, the entire power of the 2-liter engine is needed, since you have to go into the oncoming lane and quickly integrate into the stream. In general, Audi had enough strength, although the climate control system with the air conditioner turned on and selected the dynamics in the range from 90 to 130 km/h. So for some time I used the ECO mode, when the system is trying to provide an acceptable temperature for the body's life only with a fan. Let a small one came out, then a useful increase in power and torque. In such situations, it is possible and the ability to manually switch the programs of a 6-speed variator.
 
But now I escaped to the St. Petersburg tract, and, without denying anything, I easily maintained a cruising speed of 120-140 km/h. It got dark, and the flow of lovers to relax outside the city did not run out. It's funny, but the farther from the capital, the more effectively the light of xenon headlights on summer residents acts - most of them strive to give way as possible.
 
After Tver, it became very spacious, and the speedometer's arrow fluctuated between the marks of 140 and 160. One thing here is bad - the quality of the roadway. The pendants conscientiously worked out irregularities, but sometimes it nevertheless shook, although they had never been pierced for all the time of the trip. They coped with their main tasks perfectly: they provided quite decent comfort, and at the same time they did not allow the body too much in prolonged turns. There is time to pay tribute to the clear settings of the steering, which allowed to control the car almost flying over the expensive car at any time. And the tenacious brakes were especially useful in the Novgorod region. Why here? Because on the Moscow -St. Petersburg highway, it is these places that are famous for by police ambush and godless traffic cops.
 
Here is an example. Near Novgorod himself, two mobile traffic police posts were deployed at once, one from the other two kilometers. As the reader can guess, they were happy to wait for me to both. And the first guard of order on the roads did not fail to note excellent brakes: they spectacularly braked, I did not even have time to go out! It was necessary to add - to leave from the bushes. But I paid a fair fine without confusion, since the speed was evident. But the second fine is already pure extortion. Well, he would stop, came up, and just introduced himself - Sergeant Ivanov, three children. I would give the same half a hundred, given the difficulties of police life. So no, I began to interpret that, they say, I was driving at a speed of 65 km per hour, and there is a limit of 40 km/h on this site. And there is an appropriate sign in the semi -axial paragraph. True, why is it incomprehensible. Although - why, just understanding ...
 
In general, he upset me, and not because of money. I had to restore the mood in the tavern, where for just 150 rubles I ate a full and tasty dinner, even with a cup of coffee, albeit soluble. In total, on the way to St. Petersburg for fines, if anyone is curious, it took 450 rubles - a little less than for gasoline ...
 
Beautiful Petersburg, but at home better
 
Incidentally, the Audi A4 looked great against the background of the monuments, which was otparaden on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the northern capital. It is a pity that there was no way to capture this: vigilant police were intractable, and they were categorically forbidden to drive up to objects.
 
St. Petersburg, we must pay tribute to the authorities, in the year that I was not here has changed amazingly. The center shines with restored beauty, a new smooth asphalt, crowds of tourists. But on the way to Peterhof, I was in vain leisurely, absorbing the surrounding beauties. If he rushed like presidential cars, he would have noticed only new, obviously imported traffic lights, whose signals are visible for several kilometers, and fresh road markings. And he would never have paid attention to an abandoned estate, covered with a fence and with windows drawn on the plywood in the window openings. Funny and sad at the same time.
 
One way or another, and the weekend in St. Petersburg flew in an instant, and it was time to return to Moscow. The return trip was surprisingly calm. And although I got very quickly, only 100 rubles took the fines (of course, in the Novgorod region). Despite the almost complete load (the company was composed by two friends whose things almost all the useful volume of the trunk), the Audi A4 seemed to have rested and showed abuse, unless a lack of power was felt with sharp overtaking.
 
The average fuel consumption during the trip was about 11 liters per 100 km. Which is very good, given the almost unspent operation of the air conditioner, speed, stops and congestion at the entrance to the pioneers. Moreover, a 70-liter tank without problems is enough for a mileage of six hundred kilometers. Another thing was pleased: the oil level after the trip to this day (when this material was prepared, about 8,500 km was already on the odometer) remains normal. So - no additional expenses, except for the board for sinks and cleaning the salon.
 
Andrey Osipov
 

Source: "Automobile Izvestia"