Best Redesign: Audi A4 Raises the Benchmark

In the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” a flustered Bud Fox asks Gordon Gekko, “How many boats can you water ski behind?” to learn how much money was enough for a greedy billionaire.

A similar question could be asked of Audi AG: “How much better can you make your interiors?” It's easy to redo a mediocre interior, then take a bow for creating a new masterpiece. But what do you do to improve interiors already benchmarked as the industry's best?

Because the bar already is set so high for Audi, and designers solved this riddle so well with the '09 A4, Ward's editors single it out for a Best Redesign award.

Without tampering with success, Audi has created smoother-flowing surfaces and a new modular driver space that is more like a cockpit, with the gauges and controls now canted toward the driver.

Improved ergonomics, luscious soft surfaces and metallic trim create a first impression of sophistication and functionality that is warm and welcoming.

From the careful way designers matched material and textures on the A-pillar to the headliner, to the more convenient positioning of the man/machine interface knob on the center console, judges loved every minute with the A4.

The car's top marks from the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are more icing on the cake.

Certainly, there have been more dramatic interior designs in recent history, but none has been saddled with such huge expectations to make a superlative interior even better.

It is change even a jaded billionaire could appreciate.