Audi Quattro vs Front wheel drive?

Front wheel drive vs. all wheel drive has NOTHING to do with any of the stuff you're all talking about here. It has nothing to do with road vibrations through the steering wheel, jerking the steering wheel over pot holes, etc... You're comparing an Audi (German, well engineered, solid car) to crappy Japanese cars. The stiff steering is just an Avalon thing, not a FWD thing. Avalons (and Scions) really cannot be compared to Audis.

The only times you're going to notice the difference between FWD and AWD is under hard acceleration from a stop, or coming out of a corner fast (understeer). A car with only front wheel drive is more likely to have the front wheels break free from the road and "peel out." Most modern FWD cars take care of this with Traction Control Systems (TCS) though. You'll also notice "torque steer," which will tend to pull the steering wheel to one side under hard acceleration from a stop. Not really a big deal. My Saab 9-5 Aero has FWD and the same amount of power if not more than your A6 and it handles amazingly. It wouldn't compare to an Avalon or Scion. It's all in how the car's suspension was engineered. The Avalon is meant to be an old-lady floaty-suspension comfort-cruiser. Not a performance sedan.

Bottom line, if you're in Florida and aren't planning to convert your A4 into a track car FWD will be absolutely fine for you. You'll even get better gas mileage as there's less loss of energy through the AWD hardware and you don't have to haul around all the extra weight of the AWD system.

Audi Tt All Wheel Drive

I live in Florida also you don't really need the AWD here the Quattro system takes about 20% HP to the wheel... A friend of mine at 1552 Tuning in Sarasota has a FWD A4 1.8T with 500 HP I have driven it a few times and for 500 HP on front wheels it was amazing. I would get the FWD as I said we live in Florida we don't deal with snow and ice (luckily) therefore no real need to have Quattro and lose your wheel power

The Audi will last longer and AWD is definitely a plus. I had an Audi 5000 1.8 that made it to 194,000 miles before it finally gave up (still running but failed emissions test). The Mazda 3 is known as being noisy and has a very harsh ride. The interior is poorer quality than the Audi too.

i used to have an audi tt quattro and it being awd i never noticed pot hole jerking or vibration in the wheel. now i drive a scion tc (fwd) and the steering wheel jerks whenever i hit pot holes now, but no vibration. only difference ive noticed.

I drive an A4 awd, its great if you need it, makes launching the car very easy, i would recommend AWD. And who ever said that the Audi has 500hp on FWD is bullshitting, No fwd 1.8 would have 500 hp, let alone any 1.8 Audi. 500 horse power on your front wheels would rip the transmission out from underneath you, litterarly.