DETROIT -- It's longer, wider, and beautifully crafted inside. But the real reason you'll love the new Audi A4 is that Audi put the MMI controller on the center console where it belongs. MMI, or MultiMedia Interface, is Audi's more intuitive form of BMW iDrive. But on Audis smaller than the midsize A6, MMI was a dinky button halfway up the center stack. With the 2009 A4, a compact sports sedan unveiled here Sunday at Detroit's North American International Auto Show, MMI gets its rightful place on the center console (photo). Cockpit controllers matter because - iDrive jokes aside - they do decrease the number of switches and buttons.

Audi's brilliance is surrounding the controller with fixed function buttons around the MMI knob: Nav, Info, Car, Setup, FM/AM, CD/Aux, Name (phonebook), and Tel. For most drivers, that's easier to figure, at least at the outset. (Veteran drivers may prefer that your hand never leaves the BMW iDrive button, but by the time veterans appreciate iDrive, many others have given up in disgust.) All that was too hard to handle when the MMI knob and the function buttons were on the center stack (on the right of the display), with no place to rest your arm except the top of the gearshift.

The rest of the A4 is notable especially for its roominess, especially in back, better than the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Infiniti G37, and BMW 3 Series. It goes on sale in the second half of the year as a 2009 model.