Anyone else think SD4 is Sluggish?

Had my first half decent drive in it today as I pinched it off the Mrs! I was expecting it to be very torquey when you put foot down but have been somewhat disappointed,feels very very slow to me. I would have expected it to be pretty quick at lower revs and pull like a train, but it doesn't seem to, i didnt hammer it though. Or is it just because I am used to my own car which is Rapid? Other diesels I have driven have felt pretty quick up to a point, where this just doesn't, very disappointed, is it just because it s so new? Only done 330 miles

Yep, Still far from happy with mine and I have to use the box more than I was expecting. As highlighted in a separate thread.

Am off for a long run tomorrow to Filey so we'll see how things pan out over the next week. It's still very hesitant when cruising around 1800-2000. In 6 weeks I've broken 2000 miles so you would think it should have started to loosen! If things don't improve it's back to the dealer for a look.

Its by no means a super-quick car and can feel like you expect a bit more ooomph from it if overtaking (main reason for getting SD4 over TD4), but its my first diesel and a bigger car with 4WD so not sure if it just all that making it very different to what I'm used to, so have been happy with it. Its also deceptive in that you can be going a lot faster than expected and dont feel the acceleration. Having seen what it can do offroad you can see its not going to be top dog in sports, but itill leave 'em standing when the going gets rough!

I wonder if it is the way it hs been driven in the early days as the car learns how you drive. I took mine to 110 mph in its first 50 miles and I cannot believe how fast it is!

Thats only on Auto boxes to my knowledge, I have a manual and wouldnt expect the engine maps to change with driving style.

(30-03-2012 10:59pm)broady43 Wrote:  I wonder if it is the way it hs been driven in the early days as the car learns how you drive. I took mine to 110 mph in its first 50 miles and I cannot believe how fast it is!

Your fast and my fast may be two separate things! It's just I was expecting it to feel Very torquey and somehow it just doesn't. My regular drive is an E92 335i BMW, not the fastest thing in the world but it is extremely quick. But the Sd4 supposedly has a slightly better torque output than my BMW. I know it ain't no rubber burner, not even the petrol one is quick, but I expected it to have half decent performance, from all that I have read in road tests they say the Sd4 in real world performance is as quick as the Si4 maybe the Auto is much much quicker not just from a standing start, which I just wouldn't expect, I can understand it is slightly quicker to 60 though through its gearing.

Anyway, I will take it out on my own and give it some beans see what I think

I had a manual sd4 for a week and 1st gear is very short but once 2nd car pulled well but as noted ran out of puff when overtaking. Ed4 doesn't feel a great deal different in fact a little more spitely in low gears as does not have the off road and towing crawler gears, it set up for economy. On the motorway however the sd4 felt much stronger..

From memory dont think auto made a vast difference but have to say for an SUV I think the RRE sd4 is about right, anything and it would need lowering etc as more performance orientated

I think the SD4 is an extremely good motorway cruiser but quite sluggish when going through the gears

*** WARNING - Physics Lesson! ***

Sadly, the two main things which influence performance are engine power and mass. The basic equations which determine how fast the thing gets up to speed and can go round corners both include the mass, so the more passengers you have, the more stuff you carry needlessly around with you and the more Big Macs you've consumed in your lifetime, the worse it will be.

People tend to think torque is all you need to provide performance. Not so. Only engine power will do it. The power output of the engine is Torque * Engine Speed (for the pedants among you, engine power in watts = torque in Newton metres * 2 * PI * Engine Revs/Second), so it follows you will only extract best performance by operating at peak RPM for as long as possible.

That's what a close ratio box allows you to do in a sports car but otherwise, you have to resort to revving the nuts off it (engineering term).

Diesels have higher torque because of a higher compression ratio which leads to greater pressures on the pistons and turning forces on the crank - torque. However, they are lower revving than petrol engines so however good they are for drivability (ability to put your foot down without changing gear), they ultimately run out of power. Petrol engines have lower torque but higher maximum revs and overall greater power but you have to be prepared to work the gears to keep the revs up. Going to extremes, I have an ageing Ferrari which has rather little torque but which revs to 8500 rpm to compensate; put your foot down in 6th gear and it does nothing, change down 3 gears in preparation to overtake and all hell breaks loose...

The SD4 may be perfectly adequate for round town pootling and motorways but the time when you need the engine power the most is on A road overtaking and this is where the diesels let you down. Here, the Si4 is adequate but there are times when I have to be content to remain behind an artic and gaggle of cars which my 911 (double the power, slightly less weight) or Impreza (less power, much less weight) would have dispatched safely in an instant.

I would certainly like to see a more powerful Evoque but they would need to sort out the suspension and especially body roll at the same time.

Isn't the auto a full 1.5secs quicker 0-60 than the manual?
Thats the main reason I've ordered the auto.

My dealer said the difference was because the auto saved 0.75secs per gear change.
Also loooking to add a tuning box which I think should knock a further 0.5 secs off the 0-60, and more importantly greatly improves the torque so the 30-70 times should drop away and give me better overtaking performance.

Got to wait until September to actaully find out though