George W Bush

Does anyone have any experience with the Audi S4. I am being put under a lot of pressure by the other half to get a more mature(!) car. Will the S4 appeal to me as a scooby fanatic? All I know about them is they look good.

chuckster

I've got an S4 Avant and it doesn't appeal in the same way at all as my STI. I'll happily give my wife the keys and let her do all the driving when we are going on an Ow!dy trip.
It is a great car though, quick, quiet and comfortable. But it ain't a drivers car IMHO.
Don't get the leather interior , get the Recaro's. We have leather and it's very very slippery, wanted to retro-fit the recaros, but then found out they were a factory build option - bugger!
Chuck

vmax

I Work for a company that has a fleet of them. Nice quick cars. Sounds Lurvely..... Not has nice on the twisty bits as a scooby. MPG is even worse.

Veracocha

S4 has a great engine but is let down by handling. However it has massive potential for upgrade. The twin turbo engine will easily take 350 bhp before needing any mods, and changing the springs transforms the handling from lacklustre to exciting.

It is well worth it if you are prepared to mod it, plus it is a great cruiser and is much better built than the scoob. With a chip you would be looking at 170+mph and 0-100 in about 12 seconds (probably 11 with a stage 3 chip).

Grant.revan

Don't do it - for a fraction of the price you can get a legacy B4. It is directly comparable to the S4 - Its a 4 door family saloon with 4 wheel drive and 280 BHP (30 more than the Audi). Its got a twin turbo WRX engine under the skin and shares most of the mechanicals with the Imprezza (Which is based on the legacy chassis). You can buy new from Litchfield imports at about £21.5K - thats about £16K less than the A4!!!!!!

Veracocha

Lets get one thing clear, standard the s4 is 265bhp and 302lb/ft. Also you can get a low mileage S reg s4 for about 22-25K. As new S4's are 32K now.

They are very different cars. The Legacy is cheaper but again has useless interior and looks crap. The S4 is easily as fast as the legacy so it is up to you as to whether you are willing to pay more for what is a far better car overall.

BTW the lagacy is not a true twin turbo like the s4. It has sequential turbos, one small one to operate at low revs and then a bigger one to take over at higher revs. The s4 has bi-turbos that both spin up at under 2000 revs and work together untill 7000 revs. Then there is the small matter of a 2.7 litre V6 versus a 2.0 litre flat four!

Chins

I owned an S4 earlier this year. It not as others have commented a great drivers car as std. It does have a great engine, which loads of torque. Where you change gear in the scooby, the S4 can stay in the same gear.

I had Recaros in mine, but 99% of the cars you find with Recaros will be leather. For resale, your best with Leather anyway.

The car can be made into a fantastic car with some money. One guy I know has fitted RS4 Turbo's, Remap, H&R adjustable suspension, quickshift and Porsche brakes. This makes for a very quick car, with good handling.

Std car has a poor gearchange, floaty suspension, poor fade resistant brakes.

Jonathan

chuckster

Gear change was particularly horrible, I had bought a quickshift within 2 weeks of getting the car, but had planned to anyway after a couple of test drives proved how nasty it was.
There are lots of toys you can add as Jonathon stated, but luckily I have the other car for fun, so not desperate to fiddle with the S4. Still

Grant.revan

Someone got out of the wrong side of bed today! I was trying to point out that that for a saving of £11K you can get something just as quick as the S4 and just as practical. I disagree that they are very different cars. The S4 is the only car I can think of that is comparable to the B4.

(4 wheel drive, 4 door family saloons, twin turbos, understated looks, high build quality etc.)

Ed Hodgson

Grant - you forgot one thing....

the S4 doesn't compare well with the B4 because there's no room inside!

The Legacy is nearly as big as the A6 inside - thanks to compact 4cyl boxer etc... but is shorter than my last car (C-Class merc)

Also has very understated looks - much more "mature" than the Impreza. General ride comfort is better, & interior miles better - esp. with full leather.

never driven an S4 & don't intend to, so am a little bit biased towards the B4 (especially black ones with red 22b calipers ) Audi don't make habit of building great driver's cars though. If you want German badge etc.. & have that sort of money to spend then I guess there's only 1 option - BMW. M3 or 330 - both great engines!

Buy a B4 & spend the rest on a Westfield

Ed

Veracocha

I can't see how you can say that they are very similar cars. In terms of build quality the S4 is as good as BMW and Merc etc, where the build quality of the Legacy is similar to an old shape mondeo. The s4 has a bi-turbo v6 and the Legacy has a twin turbo flat four.

In terms of driver involovement I'm sure that the Legacy is better, but it is not really a similar car.

MarkCSC

Have a look at these for more info.

Grant.revan

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Veracocha:
<B>I can't see how you can say that they are very similar cars. In terms of build quality the S4 is as good as BMW and Merc etc, where the build quality of the Legacy is similar to an old shape mondeo. The s4 has a bi-turbo v6 and the Legacy has a twin turbo flat four.

In terms of driver involovement I'm sure that the Legacy is better, but it is not really a similar car.[/quote]

Build quality?????? The legacy B4 has awesome build quality - The top car in the JD power survey last year was the Legacy (The imprezza was 2nd). My car has done 25,000 miles without a hickup. No rattles or squeaks. Panel fit is superb and the whole car exudes a solidity that can only be truly appreciated when you drive it. Are you thinking of the old shape legacy?

If in you think the B4 is not comparable to the S4 then what is? (PS. Personally what is under the hood in terms of numbers of cylinders makes not the slightest bit of difference to me - It's the amount of power and torque that matter- It could be a diesel like in the BMS 330 but so what as long as it goes reliably.)

PS. Its a shame Subaru dont turbo charge the flat six they have put into the legacy outback - then we could have a B6 with 420BHP that would see off the Audi RS4.