A Teutonic Tonic for Past Woes

By PAUL DEAN

Aug. 28, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Audi continues its return from the dead.

Resuscitation began earlier this year with the new Audi 100, a mid-size, near-luxury sedan offering the maturity of V-6 power throughout a three-car lineup--with four-star options rising to Kodiak glove leather seats and Canadian elm inlays.

High acceptance of the very competent, high-value 100 has seen Audi sales for the year surging almost 10% over 1991 numbers.

Obviously there is a diminishing of public concern over the unintended acceleration slur that slugged Audi in the early ‘80s.

Now comes the 1993 Audi 90.

It should bury the past for good.

Gone is the entry-level Audi 80 that staggered through life on four cylinders, was rebuilt around a five-cylinder engine but remained the Dan Quayle of automobiles: nicely groomed, good looking but quite gormless if asked to get up and do anything.

Last year’s Audi 90 Quattro--with the same five-banger but all-wheel drive and thinking traction control that distributes torque to the wheels with the best grip--also has been laid to rest.

In their places are the revitalized 90 four-doors that come up short in a few interior areas, yet manage to reflect Audi’s commitment to survival by building performing automobiles of Teutonic solidness and Old World quality. Hence all three Audi 90s are longer, more rigid sedans powered by the 2.8-liter, V-6 engine handed down from the expansive, more expensive Audi 100. It delivers a healthy 172 horsepower and some respectable performance numbers.

The second portion of Audi’s marketing equation is to price the 90s at levels matching the Asian competition while underselling the German by a Geo or two.

So the base model 90S with a five-speed and fabric seats costs $25,850. The intermediate and leather upholstered 90CS sells for $28,700. The 90CS Quattro Sport with the trick transmission--useful in the slippery states, but no great asset on California’s warm and gummy highways--sells for $32,250.

Those prices are right alongside the Lexus ES300 and Acura Vigor, the car’s chosen rivals from Japan. They also are slightly beneath the base BMW 325i and $8,000 less than the Mercedes 190E 2.6. Or about 1.2 Geo Metros.

Each Audi in the series comes well-loaded. Even the base S has a driver’s-side air bag, anti-lock brakes, leather-wrapped steering wheel, alarm system and cruise control as standard equipment. The CS model adds a sunroof, infrared locking, leather upholstery, wood trim and an 8-way power driver’s seat.

Unique to this sedan are rear seat backs that fold forward and flat, allowing total access to the trunk. Adding the rear cabin to trunk room increases freight space from 14 cubic feet to almost 25 cubic feet, and your mid-size sedan now becomes a mini-pickup.

Fans of chunky, more-upright-than-elongated styling will like the marginally streamlined looks of the Audi 90. Those who admire the tough, pugnacious squat of the Mercedes 190E just might think that Audi has done it a little better.

Not that anyone will confuse the two. Not with Audi’s four-circle symbol--a hangover from ‘30s racing and Audi’s partnership in Auto Union--gleaming the size of a Chinese ring puzzle from trunk lid and trapezoid grille.

The interior of the car is exactly what we have always come to expect from Audi. And that’s an easy, visually relaxed design with vinyls that do not shriek of plastic, and chenille velour that would fit the furniture in the Ritz-Carlton.

There are only four large, very visible, primary instruments to worry about. Excluding the radio and heated-seat controls, five function buttons decorate the dashboard. The visage and function are spare, efficient and quite elegant.

The debits:

On a car of this price and quality, one would expect a tilt steering wheel and one-button locking of doors from the inside.

Rear seat room is not generous, and even the medium-legged will be twisting sideways and rasping haircuts against headliner.

Whoever designed the center armrest certainly didn’t consult with the engineer in charge of hand brakes. With the armrest down, the only way to release the brake is to crook wrist and forearm around and under the rest.

Rear seat headrests are removable and may be stored in the trunk. Most owners probably will leave them there. For when in place, the rests reduce rearward vision to a square the size of a doggie door in the center of the back window.

Maybe it was one unit. Maybe it was a bad batch of units. But the air conditioner in the test car blew cool air, not chilled breezes. Set on full blast all day, one notch down from North Atlantic gale, it barely kept the glisten from passengers’ foreheads.

That test car, incidentally, was the lowliest of the bunch--an Audi 90S with a five-speed manual and tweedy upholstery.

But the performance was precisely that of the CS costing almost $3,000 more. So if your preference be mechanical muscles before optional baubles, why not invest the savings in a small motorcycle?

The five-speed is a slick-shifting dream with a short-to-medium throw clean as a hound’s tooth. Gears are quite long, pitching the car into freeway speeds and beyond while moving into third.

Initial acceleration is good. But you have to order it up by spirited work with gears and throttle. Take it easy on either and the machine will pick up on your laziness and yawn into action.

There’s enough engine for any situation with surging, exhilarating power instantly available between 60 m.p.h. and 80 m.p.h. If aiming to get out of harm’s way, however, better to pour on the coals after shifting into third. Go from fifth to fourth at 60 m.p.h. and forward progress becomes a little doughy.

The steering is rack and pinion with quick response to even tiny corrections allowing the easy, professional passage of an Andretti through corners. Assisting this is a suspension setup and increased body rigidity--23% more than last year--that keeps the car flat and firmly planted for enhanced handling with optimum driver control.

But if high spirits are never your mood, the car will accommodate your taste for solid and reliable motoring with that wonderfully tight, almost heavy feel that seems to be the patent of BMW, Mercedes, Volvo and other European royalty.

The Audi 90 also is chapel quiet. Maybe too quiet. With windows up and radio on--especially with an air conditioner impersonating Hurricane Andrew--the mild engine note is drowned. Anyone inattentive to tachometers and the seats of their pants just might find themselves grinding along at 70 m.p.h. in third.

Of higher note is something called the Audi Advantage.

It’s a three-year/50,000-mile warranty covering the cost of all services recommended by Audi, including oil changes and certain items of wear and tear. Included is a roadside assistance program through a 36-month membership in the U.S. Auto Club.

That should establish the Audi 90 as a car of the ‘90s.

1993 Audi 90S

COST:

Base, with 5-speed manual: $25,850

As tested, $26,250 (including optional sunroof, standard anti-lock brake system, driver’s side air bag, six-speaker sound system, and cruise control).

ENGINE:

2.8 liter, V-6 engine developing 172 horsepower.

TYPE:

Four-passenger, front-drive, near luxury sedan.

PERFORMANCE:

0-60, as tested, with manual transmission, 9 seconds.

Top speed, as track tested, 130 m.p.h., electronically limited.

Fuel consumption, EPA city-highway, with manual transmission, 20-26 m.p.g.

CURB WEIGHT:

3,500 pounds.

THE GOOD:

High cachet, well-equipped European four-door.