Audi A4 TDI SE
£23,940
Miles per gallon: 51.4
Seats: 5
Good for: Writer's block
Bad for: Road blocks
Audi's cars have always reminded me of Ian McEwan's novels - models of understated elegance built around the kind of precision engineering so flawless you forget it's even there, carrying you forward, and yet somehow lacking a sense of fun. A little middle-aged were the words that came to mind. So it was reassuring to learn from the promotional bumf that the Audi A4 driver is 'male, married, middle-aged, successful and enjoys hiking, reading or travel'. I am not yet any of the first four, but by happy coincidence I'd decided to travel to Cornwall for a spot of hiking and reading, so I felt partially qualified to drive it.
Audi calls it 'discreet' and 'restrained', which makes it sound like an affair in the Fifties, but there is still plenty of fun to be had in the driving seat, as Auto Express magazine and its 25 European sister publications have just confirmed - the A4 saloon was voted Europe's Number One auto for 2008.
Longer, wider and lower than its predecessor, the new A4 is built on a completely new chassis with the longest wheelbase in its class, giving what feels like acres of legroom in the back and the largest boot capacity among its immediate competitors, which is handy for those hiking boots. Out on the open road, it was a dream; my 2-litre diesel hummed quietly to itself, smooth as cream even when asked to pull out a bit extra to overtake on a hill. Driving in congested towns caused me slightly more consternation at first, as the new A4 doesn't have a handbrake. My hometown is hilly, and at red lights my left hand would start flailing instinctively around in empty space as I held it on the clutch. Once I'd worked out how you're supposed to do it, though, it was perfectly straightforward. There's an electric parking button that does the job of a handbrake, and for a hill start you simply accelerate as you would with an automatic. Piece of cake - if you had one of these, you'd soon forget how to do a hill start since the car is doing all the hard work for you.
In fact, the car is so helpful it wants to do everything for you; there are parking sensors which get very het up if you come within feet of an object, a light which warns of approaching vehicles in your blind spot, and a 'lane assist' which promises to 'assist a driver when distracted, tired or inattentive'. I can't help feeling such a driver would do better to pull in for a Little Chef coffee rather than switch on a substitute attention span. There's also a 10-speaker sound system that recognises your CDs, though scrolling through tracks on the colour screen while travelling is a distraction which might justify switching on the lane assist - one innovation to save you from the hazards of another. Like an entire continent, the A4 has three separate climate zones, meaning the driver and front and rear passengers can all choose their own temperature.
By the time I reached Cornwall, I was so at home in the A4 I never wanted to drive anything else, even if people did assume I'd nicked it from my dad.
If this is middle age, bring it on.
· Martin Love returns next week
