S4 OR RS4 Avant ???
Discussion
Gents I recently sold My much loved Audi 3.0 Sport Cabriolet . Leaving Myself and My wife with just Our 2.0 TDI S line Avant B7 (2006) Our plan was to trade the Avant for a Q7 But the Wife after a test drive thinks its a bit large ! So as My Wife is more comfortable with a auto box (Because of a back injury)We have ajusted Our plans and are now looking at Either an S4 Auto or an RS4 Auto (Our TDI Is a six speed manual) Opinions on the Pros and Cons on both models Please ??
JRM said:
A mate had both and was so dissapointed with the S4, he then swapped for an RS4 Avant and said it was a world apart, the S4 has a big engine, but the RS4 has the set up to make ti worthwhile, so based on that I wouldn't go near an S4 if I were you.
The S4 is like the Boxster in some respects. It feels like Audi have purposly not made it as fast as they could of. The S4 is a 4.2 and so is the RS4... But the RS4 is a trillion times better than the S4...
Ive had both, a B6 s4 (it was chipped mind) and a b7 rs4 avant and coupe; the S4 was an awesome car - what I loved was that is just did everything effortlessly... BUT the RS4 did handle much better and was a truly exciting drive. If you have the extra cash go for the rs4 all the way; but the b6 s4's are defo a bargain at the moment...
What are cars such as the B6 S4 like in terms of running costs? Obviously the fuel economy will be horrendous, but who buys a 4.2l V8 for fuel economy?! What i was wanting to know is what are the servicing costs like? How much are parts when something goes wrong? Do things generally go wrong often? Comparable to BMW M car costs?
If anyone had a 12month "off the top of your head" list of the costs involved with owning an S4, i'd be very interested as i've seen how much of a bargain these are becoming now a days and i can't find much to do with running costs.
cheers
If anyone had a 12month "off the top of your head" list of the costs involved with owning an S4, i'd be very interested as i've seen how much of a bargain these are becoming now a days and i can't find much to do with running costs.
cheers
Gaygle said:
What are cars such as the B6 S4 like in terms of running costs? Obviously the fuel economy will be horrendous, but who buys a 4.2l V8 for fuel economy?! What i was wanting to know is what are the servicing costs like? How much are parts when something goes wrong? Do things generally go wrong often? Comparable to BMW M car costs?
If anyone had a 12month "off the top of your head" list of the costs involved with owning an S4, i'd be very interested as i've seen how much of a bargain these are becoming now a days and i can't find much to do with running costs.
cheers
In my profile under my cars - check out the audi s4 amd all the costs there for about 18 months of motoring... Few years back mind.If anyone had a 12month "off the top of your head" list of the costs involved with owning an S4, i'd be very interested as i've seen how much of a bargain these are becoming now a days and i can't find much to do with running costs.
cheers
Ah lovely. Cheers for that. Is it just me, or excluding fuel, do they not seem THAT expensive to run? And i'm assuming yours was more expensive to run due to the AMD conversion.
Did your servicing costs/repairs include any work carried out under warranty?
Did your servicing costs/repairs include any work carried out under warranty?
Edited by Gaygle on Monday 8th December 16:06
I have owned a few nice cars over the last few years and have to say the S4 avant was the worst car I have had the misfortune to drive!!
Where to start???
Pedals - The accelerator pedal is so high that I got cramp after an hour of driving, had to pull over and jump around like an idiot to get rid of it on the side of the road.
To get an idea of what I mean, sit with your feet in front of you as if you are driving and then try and touch your shins with your toes. Give it a few minutes and you will see what I mean.
Never had this with any other Audi but heard a few people say the same.
Understeer - The big heavy V8 is in front of the front axle, I thought people were having a snipe at Audi when I used to hear this, but it is true. Try and take a corner at even slightly faster than normal speeds and you have to fight with the car to get the front end round.
I put much stiffer rear anti roll bars on to try and balance it out a bit but there is nothing you can really do with that engine hanging over the front axle.
It meant you could never take advantage of the Quattro because you couldn't really push the car hard enough on a corner to need to.
Gearing - Now this was my biggest bug bear.
To get the acceleration times down to sub seconds there is a 3.91 final drive on this car.
This means that you are swapping cogs far too quickly, round town it is an absolute mare.
Most drivers admit they use 2nd, 4th and 6th only.
Crusing at 90mph and the car is at 3500 rpm and doing 17/18mpg, it is a 4.2 litre V8 FFS!!! It should be doing 1800rpm and therefore nearly 30mpg.
This was something I posted on tyresmoke regarding the gear ratios...
[i]Lets see what speed we are changing gear at at 4000 rpm (normal driving) and 6000rpm (having fun), (these are as close as I can see them using a chart, but shgouldbe within a couple of mph).
Final Drive 3.89:1
1st Gear Ratio3.67:1 20mph 30mph
2nd Gear Ratio2.05:1 40mph 55mph
3rd Gear Ratio1.46:1 50mph 78mph
4th Gear Ratio1.13:1 68mph 102mph
5th Gear Ratio0.92:1 83mph 123mph
6th Gear Ratio0.78:1 97mph 145mph
Final Drive 3.6:1
1st Gear Ratio3.67:1 24mph 38mph
2nd Gear Ratio2.05:1 43mph 64mph
3rd Gear Ratio1.46:1 60mph 90mph
4th Gear Ratio1.13:1 78mph 115mph
5th Gear Ratio0.92:1 93mph 142mph
Anbd what about making 6th a little shorter, 142mph ragging it should be fine for 99% of driving, so if 6th had a .65:1 ratio instead of 0.78:1 we would get the following figures...
6th Gear Ratio0.65:1
4000rpm 130mph and at the limiter you would be doing 4800rpm.
You could sat crusing at 80mph at 2300rpm and at 100mph at 2900rpm.
This would see the S4 returning 29mpg at 100mph, and make it alot more useable through the gears.
Just my humble opinion and I am sure Audi know far better than me![/i]
Now I think the auto does have a final drive of nearer to 3.6, but I would definitely check that out, and see what you think.
Everything else was great, looked nice, practical, nice nav system in there etc. etc.
Buyt I only managed to keep it just over a month, truly horrid to drive.
RS4 is completely different. It's balanced, better gearing and definitely worth the extra!!
Where to start???
Pedals - The accelerator pedal is so high that I got cramp after an hour of driving, had to pull over and jump around like an idiot to get rid of it on the side of the road.
To get an idea of what I mean, sit with your feet in front of you as if you are driving and then try and touch your shins with your toes. Give it a few minutes and you will see what I mean.
Never had this with any other Audi but heard a few people say the same.
Understeer - The big heavy V8 is in front of the front axle, I thought people were having a snipe at Audi when I used to hear this, but it is true. Try and take a corner at even slightly faster than normal speeds and you have to fight with the car to get the front end round.
I put much stiffer rear anti roll bars on to try and balance it out a bit but there is nothing you can really do with that engine hanging over the front axle.
It meant you could never take advantage of the Quattro because you couldn't really push the car hard enough on a corner to need to.
Gearing - Now this was my biggest bug bear.
To get the acceleration times down to sub seconds there is a 3.91 final drive on this car.
This means that you are swapping cogs far too quickly, round town it is an absolute mare.
Most drivers admit they use 2nd, 4th and 6th only.
Crusing at 90mph and the car is at 3500 rpm and doing 17/18mpg, it is a 4.2 litre V8 FFS!!! It should be doing 1800rpm and therefore nearly 30mpg.
This was something I posted on tyresmoke regarding the gear ratios...
[i]Lets see what speed we are changing gear at at 4000 rpm (normal driving) and 6000rpm (having fun), (these are as close as I can see them using a chart, but shgouldbe within a couple of mph).
Final Drive 3.89:1
1st Gear Ratio3.67:1 20mph 30mph
2nd Gear Ratio2.05:1 40mph 55mph
3rd Gear Ratio1.46:1 50mph 78mph
4th Gear Ratio1.13:1 68mph 102mph
5th Gear Ratio0.92:1 83mph 123mph
6th Gear Ratio0.78:1 97mph 145mph
Final Drive 3.6:1
1st Gear Ratio3.67:1 24mph 38mph
2nd Gear Ratio2.05:1 43mph 64mph
3rd Gear Ratio1.46:1 60mph 90mph
4th Gear Ratio1.13:1 78mph 115mph
5th Gear Ratio0.92:1 93mph 142mph
Anbd what about making 6th a little shorter, 142mph ragging it should be fine for 99% of driving, so if 6th had a .65:1 ratio instead of 0.78:1 we would get the following figures...
6th Gear Ratio0.65:1
4000rpm 130mph and at the limiter you would be doing 4800rpm.
You could sat crusing at 80mph at 2300rpm and at 100mph at 2900rpm.
This would see the S4 returning 29mpg at 100mph, and make it alot more useable through the gears.
Just my humble opinion and I am sure Audi know far better than me![/i]
Now I think the auto does have a final drive of nearer to 3.6, but I would definitely check that out, and see what you think.
Everything else was great, looked nice, practical, nice nav system in there etc. etc.
Buyt I only managed to keep it just over a month, truly horrid to drive.
RS4 is completely different. It's balanced, better gearing and definitely worth the extra!!
Edited by gizlaroc on Tuesday 9th December 10:59
chuckh said:
Thanks all for the replies Unfortunately it will have to be an S4 if thr RS4 doesent have an auto in the range Though Im sure Ive seen an RS with tiptronic (Auto ?????) Perhaps I should book up with Specsavers !!
No need for Specsavers! The RS6 is the only one available with tiptronic auto.Have you considered a SMG equipped BMW?
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