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Comment by daveguy | Hacker News Reader

Yup. It was a turbo. I thought that turbo issues had been resolved in the early 2000s with proper transmission tuning and turbo-on. Apparently audi did a piss poor job of it until the the last 2-3 years (according to other posters).

I'll take a few less horsepower with better responsiveness any day. I'm not trying to beat anyone in a 1/4 mile -- i'd much rather the car be enjoyable and responsive. Half a second can easily mean the difference between getting out of the way of someone coming up on you not paying attention and getting rear ended. Hopefully they got their shit together.

TL;DR: .,-' is better than ___/

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A turbo is a better driving experience on the highway. So, it's really just about buying the right car for your driving tastes.

There is no way to "solve" turbo lag. The compressor needs torque before it can produce boost. At the high end you can do a twin turbo. Not in an a4. And you could say something similar about having necessary power on the highway to avoid a collision.

Tldr: It's all subjective.

A turbo is a better driving experience on the highway.

How so? I would perceive no difference between a turbo'd engine and a Naturally Aspirated one while driving on the highway at a constant speed. Engine responsiveness as per the parent poster would be the same within the city vs. on the highway.

There is no way to "solve" turbo lag.

I'd suggest researching variable vein turbos. BMW has done it very successfully in their e92 335s. Even resulting in a flat torque curve at very low RPM. It's impressive engineering.

I'm not sure how you drive on the highway, but I don't usually drive at a constant speed. Instead, when I need overtaking power, I have fast throttle response with a turbo that is already spinning.

I'm not familiar with what BMW did for a 335, but I do know that the 335 is quite a bit more expensive than an A4.

Even at idle the turbo is spinning. Engine RPM at highway speeds isn't vastly different than engine RPM at city speeds (perhaps a few hundred RPM in the average car). Therefore turbo lag also isn't vastly different.

Variable vein enables turbos to match engine speeds more quickly. Greatly reducing turbo lag.

Come on; it's not producing boost at idle which is clearly the point. Excuse the slang term "spinning".

And I call bs. You're being argumentative. The debate wasn't highway vs "city speeds" it was highway vs cold stop.

A more advanced turbo solves the problem in a car that is $15k+ more, and I believe you that it can reduce turbo lag. For that price range a twin turbo can as well. But there is still physics that cannot be overcome.

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