2009 Audi A4 Avant: Size Matters This Time

I love how when you turn it on, the gauges go up all the way, then back down.

Impressive instrument panel by the way. Simple and elegant. No "luxurious" chrome rings or "sport" instruments stuck deep down in cylindrical tubes...

What is with the stupid 180mph speedo?! 60mph is at 9 o'clock?!
They could just use a quarter moon for the speedo and have plenty of space left over for larger gear display and a slew of other things

There should be a mode where the entire center LCD only displays the gear. That'd look cool.

You need a display to tell you what gear you're in?

uncanny_man: My thoughts exactly.

Or just get a car with a HUD. Lexus, BMW, GM.
Why all cars don't have a HUD as an option is a mystery to me.

cruiserhead: I agree. The speeds you'll most likely be traveling are in such a small space. If Audi wants to go all the way to 180 to make laypeople think the A4 is fast then at least group the higher numbers closer, and spread the rest, like SAAB does.

uncanny_man: It's an automatic, so when selecting gears manually it's nice to have is displayed bold what gear you're in.

uncanny_man, i'll third what you said.

you shouldnt need a display in the dash to tell you what gear you are in, regardless if it is a manual or automatic or dual clutch or single clutch or CVT. you wouldnt expect such a feature on a manual car, and you seem to know what gear you are in just fine. granted, it is a little different when driving a manual, but still.

jm1212- how the hell would you know what gear you are in in an automatic car? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Automatic transmission cars NEED an gear indicator if they have a manumatic function.

I agree the speedo needs a variable interval dial. 180 is preposterous for a 211 hp engine and would even be overkill on the RS4.

Contrast the tiny manual gear readout with the HUGE display on the CTS.

Chavis10

The picture clearly states M1, that means the driver selected manual mode. If im driving in my car and im going 50 miles an hour and my RPMS are at 6000 then i KNOW MY CAR IS IN SECOND GEAR, thats how you know. If you really hustle your car from time to time, you know how it behaves, you know at what gear your in based on speed and engine speed. I have the same indicator but i NEVER use it. WHat for?? If your driving fast, you should be paying attention to the road not trying to figure out what gear your car is in.

you don't need a gear indicator in auto gearbox with manual mode. If you need to downshift you downshift...

Agreed. Put the clock down in the lower left corner and gear indicator where it can be seen. I've noticed the same problem in some BMW's. While slightly better (more bold font), it doesn't exactly stand out either. The last thing you need to be doing when blasting your favorite backroad is TRYING to see what gear that you are in.

When the top makers pretty much get the mechanicals right, they go inside the car to look for trouble. When they can't find any, they make some. You could take out 95% of the displayed info., various adjustments, buttons, zones, warning bells, flashing lights, reminders, etc., and I'd be just fine then with my '09 A4. Maybe then they could afford to upgrade the quality of the interior materials to where they were a few years back. While they were at it (with all that extra time and money saved), they could put back some soundproofing too. It seems that the idea of "leaving well enough alone" is never enough!

Uh, yes, he probably does ride the train to work. And on weekends he drives a tiny car with manual transmission. Europeans, you know....

Those damn Europeans and their sensible and affordable mass transit!

Okay, I usually don't care too much about stuff like this, but I have to say that displaying the DATE anywhere in my car, much less in the middle of my gauge cluster, is absurd. And they should put that gear indicator somewhere in the tach, since that's where I'll be looking if I'm playing with the flappy paddles.

You can change the info display. I have the speed posted there where's it's real easy to read (since the guage isn't:).

I agree the information in the display in many cases is superfluous. What caught my eye however is the the display on your test car.
a color lcd display. My 2009 avant display is a red led display and not lcd. Wonder if this type of display is only on the premium line (my car) vice the premium plus or prestige?

1vwgroupfan
The color information display is part of the nav package