More Car for Your Money

Okay, I am back to Epinions and I have couple of new products and new reviews. Just a week ago I got my first NEW car! It was a very tough choice and I'll tell you why I've chosen Audi A4 2009.  
Summary (for those who do not want to read all my literacy): 
Out of all cars in its class (BMW 328i, Volvo, Infinity G35 and Lexus 250) Audi gives you most bang for the buck. It has more HP, room and torque than Lexus, it has much better safety and AWD than BMW and it has a moon roof and better MPG than Infinity. And it is just a much better car than Volvo.
  Review Market overview 
I hate when people tell me: "Well, this car sucks because BMW 328xi is much more powerful" or when they tell you "Why did not you get Mercedes S300? It is a better brand". No, you have to compare apples to apples and there Audi beats everyone. My budget was enough to get a pretty damn good car, but I did not see a point in doing so because your cost of owenership goes up exponentially with every extra feature you install, that is why I was only looking at a base configuration entry luxury vehicles (i.e. ~$28-33K price range). This range, arguably, included Infinity G35, Acura TSX, Audi A4, BMW 328i, Lexus 250 and Volvo. I did not look at American cars for one simple reason - I needed a lease and their value goes down so quickly that you will never get same deal on an equally price US-made car as you would on foreign one.
  Why Audi? 
I do not want to go into all of those lengthy discussions about little nuances that only a car mechanic or a racer would notice. There is edmunds.com, cars.com or whatever else. I know I may not get highest ratings for that, but I do believe that other things matter to most of us. Here they are: Every car I looked at had some MAJOR drawback: 
Acura TSX: it was just another Acura a year ago and now it's supposed to be a luxury car? It still has very rough design and is not ready for luxury, in my opinion. 
Infinity G35: very sporty, very powerful, but has no moon roof (costs extra $1000 to install) and eats gas as if there was a hole in its tank. It's got 19mpg... 
Lexus 250: beautiful car, but has very small rear window (I need to park in garage and may easily scratch someone and I do not want to pay $3000 for navigation package with camera) and it is the least powerful car int he class ~200 HP and ~150 torque 
BMW 328i: beautiful sport car, great handling, but no AWD.... Plus it has a very Spartan design inside, not really a luxury car. 
Volvo: just worse than Audi across the spectrum.
On the other hand, Audi has all of the above features. It is not the best in MPG, neighter it is the best in HP, but it has a combination of things that make it feel better than any one of them.
  Downside: 
Obviously there is downside... There always is at least one. The problem with Audi is that it is a very good car across the spectrum, but it is not a leader in any single category, but safety. Audi has 5 start rating on all safety metrics, but that's it. BMW and Infinity beat it in horse power game, Lexus in luxury... You can actually see the difference between 4 cylingder turbo and 6 cylinder engines when you are trying to speed up on the road.
  Driving Impressions: 
One thing I really appreciated in the first week is a steel bumper - I've got into two accidents and in both cases my Audi only got few scratches. The other clear advantage - a lot of space in the cabin. The driver seat unfolds all the way down and moves back enough to almost stretch my legs completely. It also goes all the way up and down to allow you a lot of flexibility. Rear space is kind of limited, especially if I move flont seat all the way back, but still much better than that in BMW or Lexus.
  Driving impression is mixed: 
it seems to be hard for the car to accelerate in the beginning (4 cylinder 2 liter engine), but then it goes like crazy. The clear benefit starts in in the rain or during snow - AWD works great and you can make really sharp turns where BMW would never go.
  Conclusion: 
Audi A4 is a great car, but what really matters is what matters to you. If you care abour HPs and have little $$, take Infinity, have more - get BMW. If you want some more luxury and steering wheel that moves automatically - get Lexus. However, if you want to get something that gives you a bit of everything and 5 star safety - get Audi. 
Oh yes, I did get a decent deal on it: $373 a month with $1500 down including taxes.