BMW's beautifully proportioned 3-Series cars are still the design pacesetters in this

realm, but the A4 is a graceful piece of work, with a distinctive presence of its

own--not quite as aggressive as the Bimmers, but smoothly purposeful nonetheless.

In fact, this strikes us as the best-looking design to come out of an Audi studio

since the radical aero look of the Audi 5000 back in 1985.

One area where the A4 does run neck and neck with the BMW is price.

Even though Audi has been fighting its way back in the U.S. market with pricing

rollbacks, you still pay a premium for that German pedigree and Autobahn breeding.

The A4's $26,500 base price isn't the sort of number that would make you clutch your

heart, but when you start adding goodies like the $1550 Quattro system--it's now

available as a free-standing option on all Audi cars--the bottom line inflates quickly.

You could get better straight-ahead performance and more room behind the front seats

in a number of less expensive cars--the Pontiac Bonneville SSEi, Pontiac Grand Prix SE,

Oldsmobile LSS and Nissan Maxima SE, for example.

But people obviously don't buy Audis and BMWs strictly on a basis of value. There's

that old prestige intangible involved here, and when you look at competing makes that

factor prestige into their pricing--BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac, Lexus, Infiniti and so

on--the A4 stacks up as a pretty good buy.

So let's talk nuts, bolts and floorpans.

Introduced late last year, the A4 is the direct descendant of the Audi 90, a car that

never quite caught on here, due in part to its high price.

Direct descendant doesn't mean freshened-up in this application. Although a few Audi

90 components found their way into the A4, this is basically an all-new car--redesigned

exterior, interior, suspension and chassis.

The A4 is a bit shorter than the 90, and it's also an inch and a half wider, lending a

more aggressive look to its stance, and its much stiffer chassis lends real authority

to its reflexes.

Suspension tuning is a trifle softer than the 328i, and even though BMW has also taken

some of the suspension starch out of its recent sedan offerings, the A4 gets the edge

in ride quality.