2014 Audi RS4 Avant

[graeme4130]

Hi all

Today I picked up my RS4 Avant. It's my third rs4 having owned one B7 Avant and one B8 already (and an RS5 too)

The spec's as follows ;
Misano Red
Sports Pack with Vspokes
Ceramic Brakes
Black leather with grey piping and black headlining
Stainless steel mesh interior trim
Privacy glass
Adaptive cruise
Lane Keep assist
Brake Guard
B&O sounds system
Reversing camera
Panoramic Roof
Hill Hold Assist

It's a day to day car for me, and generally gets used for ferrying round my kids or lugging my bikes around muddy mountainbike centres
It's not going to see much track use, but I've found the way the car tracks bumps and poor surfaces is lots better with the unsprung weight reduction of ceramics, and also no more brake dust, which is a real pet hate of mine

Initial mods will be to get hold of some carbon mirrors and then go for an exhaust, maybe Miltek, Capristo or Akrapovic

Edited by graeme4130 on Friday 26th September 19:04

Edited by graeme4130 on Tuesday 25th November 22:55

[graeme4130]

clowesy said:

Looks awesome; they have such amazing road presence. How, in your experience, does the B8 compare to your old B7? Every review of these I read always seems to hold the B7 in higher regard. Would be interesting to hear your opinion having owned both.

I'm sure I'm going to get shot down for this, but other than the steering feel, the B8 is hugely superior in every way over the B7 for what I want it for
I loved my B7, and I covered 40k miles in it, but for day to day driving and safely being able to have a blast, the B8 is miles better
I know a few other B8 owners, and they've largely all had B7's before, and they'd all agree wholeheartedly
However, I'm aware the B7 has some die hard fan boys who'll swear blind the b8's not for them, but I'm not sure any of them have tried living with a B8 for anything other than a short test drive or are just put off by the huge price difference between current market values

[graeme4130]

Hi
I cruelly bought both my b8's through Bath Audi
Swindon Audi is literally a mile or so from my house, but I choose to go to bath instead for anything other than very quick/simple jobs
That, perhaps, tells you what I think about Swindon Audi sales, although the tech guys there are actually quite decent

I've seen the car they have in the showroom, and it's a lovely looking spec
I'd push them for a demo car though as I suspect they can source one
Re the next model. My understanding from conversation with Audi UK is that although the next a4 is obviously imminent, the rs4 is at least 3-4 years away
However, how much truth you ever get out a sales team is another matter altogether

Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 23 November 18:50

[graeme4130]

copperband said:

Interesting Graeme...Maybe i should give Bath Audi a try. I found Swindon Audi in the new location quite helpful but not exactly falling over themselves to get me into the car.
The car they have has all the options i wouldn't go for, i'm honestly more interested in the car for the drive that the things like red painted callipers!

Actually the spec i want is really basic, i want a non white car, Leather and could be swayed towards the sports pack (although still undecided if I'm better without the dynamic steering?
I'm going to keep looking around at what stock is about and see if there is a deal to be had? I'm reluctant to wait for a new build as it will be almost when the new A4 comes out. I think you're right the new RS4 will be some time after but it will no doubt show its age once the new A4 comes out and will no doubt be stuffed with tech like the new TT dash for example?

I've just sold my Cayman R as I have a 6 month old baby and it was really a good time to sell and get something more practical but still fun! I will miss the R though, i don't think i'll ever find the dynamics matched on track days. Have you done much with the RS4, how do you find it?

To be honest, I only used bath as the sales guy there was very good and Bath Audi do more RS models than most of the other southwest dealers combined. However, the guy there who dealt with RS cars (Martyn jones) has recently left and done his own thing, so I've not got much experience of any of the others there
If you're after a certain spec and you're not fussed about using a particular dealership, then go the broadspeed route and save a few quid

Regarding using it a track toy : it's not really its speciality as, to be frank, the steering isn't great for that final level of feedback around the edge of adhesion that you would've previously enjoyed with your Cayman
The forte of the RS4 is as a very fast every day car with aggressive looks and good noise, but still capable of all the mundane tasks of doing the shopping and lugging kids to football games and mountain bikes into Wales
I'm between 'sunday cars' at the moment, but I wouldn't want to have only an RS4 if you have a track day agenda
I did a couple in my last one, and it's a 'good' track car and very fast/capable, but it's not a 'great' track car
Hope this helps ?

[graeme4130]

The options are very personal, although I'd suggest having sports pack will aid resale massively
Probably the easiest way to help is if I give you the reasons I chose the options I did second time around, and you see if any fit the bill for you (I think most are for my weird ways) ;


Sports Pack with Vspokes - like sports exhaust/vspokes
Ceramic Brakes - option for track days and I personally hate brake dust, and ceramics create zero
Stainless steel mesh interior trim - I prefer it over the std carbon. It brightens up an otherwise black trim
Privacy glass - regularly keep bikes etc in the car and like to keep preying eyes out
Adaptive cruise - spend a lot of time in motorway traffic
Lane Keep assist - only good for impressing kids, but came as part of tech pack with with brake guard and adaptive cruise
Brake Guard - safety first
B&O sounds system - std system is only ok, B&O is very good, and I really like music
Reversing camera - I'm crap at reversing
Panoramic Roof - taking my 8yr old to castle Combe and watching from within the car stood on seats with heater on in winter / keeping an eye on bikes on the roof
Hill Hold Assist - was cheap at £60

If you're ever over by j16 and want a nose around mine, feel free

[graeme4130]

likesachange said:

Awesome.
I currently have a c63 estate that I love but have to admit the current rs4 is the best looking estate ever made IMO.

Not seen one in red in the flesh but there's a couple of ones in the dealer round corner from me that look amazing (one white and one an "off white"?!)

Out of interest what's the life expectancy of those ceramics and what kind of cost would replacements be? Are they still 1000's for replacements?

It's decent still. Audi quote 150k miles and I know guys with RS6's that are up around 100k with no issues
Replacement isn't cheap though if you damage one. I think it's around £5k/pr

[graeme4130]

coyft said:

graeme4130 said:

I'm sure I'm going to get shot down for this, but other than the steering feel, the B8 is hugely superior in every way over the B7 for what I want it for
I loved my B7, and I covered 40k miles in it, but for day to day driving and safely being able to have a blast, the B8 is miles better
I know a few other B8 owners, and they've largely all had B7's before, and they'd all agree wholeheartedly
However, I'm aware the B7 has some die hard fan boys who'll swear blind the b8's not for them, but I'm not sure any of them have tried living with a B8 for anything other than a short test drive or are just put off by the huge price difference between current market values

Hmmm I'm not so sure. I've had my B8 RS4 for 18 months and covered 30,000 miles, my previous car was the B7 which I did over 100,000 miles in.

I think the B8 has a few shortcomings, the steering feel is nowhere near as nice as the B7, even without the dynamic steering. Whilst the auto box is superb it does take away some of the pleasure of driving whilst pressing on. The ride is compromised because of the daft electronic settings, dynamic is unusable unless you are driving on the smoothest of surfaces and then what's the point?

The MMI buttons are in a stupid and dangerous place and have a horrible plastic feel to them. The footrest for the now redundant left foot is unusable as it's at the bottom of the footwell.

If you want the nice deep throaty sport exhaust note, you also have to put up with having the gears held for longer, if you put it in manual you can't select 7th gear.

All in all I preferred the simplicity of the B7. The B8 is a good car but imo the B7 was a great car.

Re the exhaust noise, if you have dynamic engine/exhaust selected in individual, you can have the exhaust valves open on D on the shifter. You will start with them closed, but select S to open them and deselect D to go and valves stay open
It sounds long winded and complicated, but it's actually just two tugs of the stick

Fwiw, I don't have an issue with the button positions, but would prefer them not to have been chrome

[graeme4130]

coyft said:

I want the valves open but not dynamic engine. Anyway to do that?

I'm not 100%, but I belive dynamic engine is only valves. Throttle response and shift speed is determined by D/S options on the gear selector

[graeme4130]

coyft said:

graeme4130 said:

coyft said:

I want the valves open but not dynamic engine. Anyway to do that?

I'm not 100%, but I belive dynamic engine is only valves. Throttle response and shift speed is determined by D/S options on the gear selector

I'll have a play, thanks. It was so simple before just press the s button on the steering wheel

I most admit I do miss the simplicity of the S button on my old B7
I never use dynamic suspension, so would prefer a 'one set up fits all' approach, although comfort works ok for me

[graeme4130]

coyft said:

graeme4130 said:

coyft said:

graeme4130 said:

coyft said:

I want the valves open but not dynamic engine. Anyway to do that?

I'm not 100%, but I belive dynamic engine is only valves. Throttle response and shift speed is determined by D/S options on the gear selector

I'll have a play, thanks. It was so simple before just press the s button on the steering wheel

I most admit I do miss the simplicity of the S button on my old B7
I never use dynamic suspension, so would prefer a 'one set up fits all' approach, although comfort works ok for me

I think car rides suffer when they have changeable suspension modes, manufacturers no longer need to find an optimum setting, they just give you a button instead.

I bet you miss the B7 just a tiny bit?

If I was pushing on, I'd miss the directness of the steering a bit
However, I'm sold on the DSG box, the looks of the new car (I find the b7's look very out of date now compared to the b8's)
I've dragged my b7's against a few b7's and the b8 leaves it standing too

Saying that, I do still see B7's on the road and think they were the best looking car of their generation

[graeme4130]

likesachange said:

graeme4130 said:

It's decent still. Audi quote 150k miles and I know guys with RS6's that are up around 100k with no issues
Replacement isn't cheap though if you damage one. I think it's around £5k/pr

Wow 150k I was expecting 80-100 ... Do they use pass quicker or are they a similar compound?

By the time they need replaced they'll be so mass produced that they might only be a tenth of the price anyway!

I think the pads, although a little more expensive to replace, last 40-60k
I'll keep the car a couple of years, which will be 40-50k miles, so hopefully I'll miss having to replace them

[graeme4130]

Just to give a bit of an update : I have winter wheels and tyres coming next week and will post up some pics

Knowing my normal luck, we'll have the mildest winter ever and it'll stay at min 10deg

In the meantime, here's some pics from my phone ;

Normal duties




Soon to be stable mates

Edited by graeme4130 on Friday 28th November 09:21

[graeme4130]

Just to bring the thread a bit more up to date, I fitted 265/30R20 Conti winter tyres today on new Rs4 rotor wheels
Bring on the snow

[graeme4130]

Just to bring this thread up to date a bit
The car's on nearly 8k miles now and is showing its first service due. Faultless motoring so far and the engine's loosened up nicely
Went to Surrey rolling road yesterday for an RS246 meet
The car made 421bhp, which considering it's on winter tyres, which rob about 20bhp at the wheels, makes it about right for the claimed 444bhp

Edited by graeme4130 on Sunday 18th January 13:48

[graeme4130]

Lancia888 said:

Loving the YT, what model is it?

It's a Capra pro. Had it about 8 months now, so it's pretty battered

[graeme4130]

WokkaWokka said:

Had one of these as a courtesy car recently. I absolutely loved it. Cracking cars.

I just can't justify one with my 20/25k a year!

Might just do it though one day!

I do similar mileage, I just try not to think about it (or tell the wife)
At least v-power is currently £1.16/ltr

[graeme4130]

WokkaWokka said:

graeme4130 said:

WokkaWokka said:

Had one of these as a courtesy car recently. I absolutely loved it. Cracking cars.

I just can't justify one with my 20/25k a year!

Might just do it though one day!

I do similar mileage, I just try not to think about it (or tell the wife)
At least v-power is currently £1.16/ltr

Well it looks like you've laid down the gauntlet! Launch control is great too. I used that a few times up in North Yorkshire.

Petrol's cheap, life is short
I use launch control pretty regularly - Wife and kids seem less keen !