B9 Audi RS4 Carbon Edition

[RS Grant]

As is tradition on my threads/journals, there will be a bit of background to the purchase first... so feel free to scroll down the first few paragraphs to miss that out and get to the new car details/photos, I won't be offended.

This purchase came about after looking at the cars I currently had and seeing how little the majority of them were being used. The current line up (with clicky links to make it easier/remind me to update the threads!) was:

2015 F80 M3
2008 E90 M3
2010 8P S3
2002 EP3 Type R (Supercharged)
1996 Volvo 940
2000 EJ9 Civic 3dr

- The S3 was being used as my daily driver, however, it's not the most practical solution with Barney the labrador to cart around.
- Both of the M3s have sat and done next to nothing this year.
- My EP3 track car had done 21 miles between MOTs and the test station is an 18 mile round trip.
- The Volvo 940 and EJ9 Civic have been put away in a workshop/unit and forgotten about for years.

Initially I had thought about selling the F80 and replacing it with something a bit more of a sports car than an uber-saloon so I test drove a few cars: V10 R8, Aston 4.7 V8V, 981 Boxster S; with varying levels of success/enjoyment.

However after really thinking about it and realising I have very little time to actually enjoy an occasional/weekend car just now (hence the lack of use my cars have seen) and that I now spend most (>95%) of my time in my daily driver going to work, visiting friends/family and taking Barney out.. the idea of continuing with the S3 as a daily driver and having something worth a large chunk of cash sitting doing a thousand miles a year or so didn't seem sensible. So I started to look at upgrading my daily driver with something a bit more special that could cover a multitude of bases and therefore mean I was getting more use and enjoyment out of my purchase.

Options I was considering were:

- Macan GTS/Turbo
- Panamera Sport Turismo
- W205 C63 Estate
- F31 Alpina B3/D3 Touring
- B9 RS4

The two Porsches were counted out because I eventually decided I didn't want an SUV and the Panamera ST was too big (part of the reason an E63 and C7 RS6 didn't make the list) to thread around villages/towns locally to me or take on a run down some Scottish B-roads.

F31 B3 Alpinas are like hens teeth and when they do appear, they looked to be more than I was comfortable paying for a car. I found a grey F31 D3 which was within budget, but while I'm not a stance junkie, the sizeable gap between the arches and wheels looked awkward. Ultimately I want to be able to tweak something to my own taste visually/handling-wise if needs be.. and having felt a little constricted in that regard with a couple of rarer previous cars I've owned.. I felt like I'd be in the same position with the Alpina. Also, the ride/handling is a bit of an Alpina signature dish so throwing on some aftermarket suspension would feel like I'd removed a big chunk of what makes an Alpina special.

This generation of C63 was a strong contender. I really like the look of them and with a bit of searching I could find an attractive (read: not white/grey/black) specification car. However after going to look at a couple of them in person, I was left a little disappointed by the quality/feel of the interior on them.. some trim pieces felt a bit low rent... unlike the engine, which was absolutely fantastic.

My budget allowed me to look at both B9 RS4 and the facelift B9.5 RS4, however, given that there are no mechanical differences between the two cars which I could find.. there are a couple of things which steered me towards a B9 rather than later B9.5 cars.

Firstly the infotainment has been altered on the later cars; removing the spinning MMI wheel in front of the gearstick with a (larger) full touchscreen instead. Being very used to having BMW i-Drive set ups in my cars for the last decade or so and luckily having lived with a B9.5 A5 Sportback courtesy car with the touchscreen set up recently; I knew that I didn't want to lose a manual wheel to spin through the menus with. I actually think it's a bit of an oversight from Audi.. it is nice to have a touchscreen, but the later BMW F-series i-Drives manage to have both the touchscreen and manual wheel to navigate the various menus. The wheel/shortcut buttons have only been replaced with an awkward little cubby in the B9.5 too, so I can see no reason for it other than cost cutting.

The second reason is a very subjective one; I prefer the the exterior design of the earlier cars with the more angular/sharper lines of the headlights, the frame on the grille (facelift cars are frameless) and solid indicators rather than sectional versions that reminded me of my eyebrow when I was a wee boy and tried to copy Jonah Lomu with the '11' he had shaved in to his eyebrow.

So after all that, these are the details of the car which I've ended up with:

B9 RS4 Carbon Edition
Audi Exclusive Nogaro Blue
RS Sport Suspension Plus with Dynamic Ride Control (DRC)
Comfort & Sound Package
Parking Assitance Pack Advanced
Dynamic Steering
TPMS
Folding/Dimming Mirrors
Heated Front & Rear
Electric Memory Seats
Storage Package
Heated Steering Wheel
Audi Phonebox with Wireless Charging

Link to the Audi brochure at the time for the full spec list: RS246 Link

The obligatory 'first fill up' photo:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Some interior photos courtesy of the advert/dealer:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Gratuitous V6 Twin Turbo shot:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

562 miles from dealer to my front door, including the hellish M25, hellish M1, hellish A66 and then making reasonable progress on the M6/M74 returned:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

I don't think that's bad considering the terrible traffic that I had to deal with and the pace at which I managed to cover the last leg of the journey. Before I reached the M6 the average consumption was sitting at ~37mpg.

...and here it is after I'd arrived home:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Once the monsoon has finished here and I get a chance, I'll be cleaning it up and taking some more photos of it.. a wee shakedown up my favourite B-road is on the cards too. However so far I'm really impressed and happy with it, covered the mileage up the road with ease and in total comfort.

[RS Grant]

Thanks everyone, I know I'm still firmly in the honeymoon period (and will be for a while yet!) but I'm over the moon with it and have no regrets or irritations to report.

I was semi-considering a Sonoma Green car too... but as rare and lovely as that colour is, I've wanted to own a Nogaro Blue car since I saw pictures of an RS2 as a kid so there was only ever going to be one winner there.

[RS Grant]

Percy. said:

Looks great, such a great colour too!

Invest in a Hatchbag boot liner to keep the boot and rear seats tidy.

https://www.hatchbag.co.uk/

I've been looking at boot mats/liners. I've had good service and longevity from Boot Buddy solid liners before, so I'm tempted to go that way again.

Does the Hatch Bag fit snugly with heavy duty/strong velcro? I've only used cheaper liners with fairly average velcro fastenings before which became a bit of a PITA after a while, when the dog(s) jumped in and pulled the velcro away from the carpet/trim so the liner flopped down... which is the main reason that we switched to the solid Boot Buddy system.

[RS Grant]

Court_S said:

That’s a great colour (although not as good as the S3). Fuel economy is pretty impressive too given the performance available.

I agree about the wheels for the infotainment; they’re so useful in the real world plus they cut diwn on finger prints in the screen which I can’t handle

Is the S3 staying or getting sold now you’ve bought this?

It's a colourful driveway for sure!! ...although depending on which car I'm in at the time, I may have to avoid certain areas of Glasgow.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining cars yet. As you know, I'm very unsure about the E90, which is now due for collection after the bumper has been resprayed... and the S3 certainly fulfils the 'fun' brief for me given the little handling upgrades I've made and the fact it has a manual gearbox.

That being said, if I'm to reach my '2-car only' target and given the breadth of the RS4s talents.. I'm wondering if I maybe should look to have something a little more sporty tucked away; finally getting into my first flat 6 from Stuttgart would be the obvious choice, although I really miss my old S2000 too.

[RS Grant]

Gio G said:

Very nice OP. You can now join the Noggi Edition Club and yes it is a thing..

G

Haha there can't be too many members of that surely?! Is it a Facebook thing?

[RS Grant]

T_S_M said:

That is LOVELY! The colour looks great with the silver trim and wheels. Much better than the usual Nardo Grey too!

How does the performance compare to the F80?

My F80 was a non-Competition LCI model and a 6spd manual, so may not reflect a true auto-to-auto comparison.

Given the age of my F80, the power delivery was 'sudden' and pretty brutal. I wouldn't have liked the car as much as I did if it had been DCT gearbox. With traction control off, the sharp DCT kickdown and gearchange ferocity screwed up to the maximum it's little wonder a lot of people climbed trees or ended up in ditches/armco and forced BMW to dial the power delivery down with the later/Competition cars.

The RS4 is much smoother power delivery; you can still be travelling very fast very quickly but there feels like a lot more control to it. That's probably partly/mainly due to the 4WD system I guess, the F80 would flick the rear out at will with the traction control in MDM or fully disengaged. I've obviously not had the car for long and this may be a sweeping statement, but I can see why people who like the rowdy M-cars and AMG stuff get bored if they switch to the RS-cars.

In a straight fight between the F80 and the RS4, rolling from 30-40mph onwards, I'd think the BMW would pull away a touch... but it's a good chunk lighter and only slightly down on power.

But it's the usability of the RS4 which is the big appeal to me because I plan to use this car every day and (aside from freak winter periods) want a car with 12 month ability in Scotland and that's not something the F80 would ever get close to managing. Had BMW made an F81 M3 Touring, then I might have been tempted to give it a crack on winter tyres... but they didn't... and while I've softened to the front of the G81 M3 Tourings a little, in my world £90k-£100k is absolutely wild money for a daily driver.

[RS Grant]

georgejoshington said:

Out of interest what's the tax on these? Quick check I just did says £180 for 12 months but surely not...

I believe that's correct, I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to the tax when I was collecting the car and hurriedly signed up to the DD for tax at the dealership before I failed to beat the M25 traffic.

I know that for the first 5 years you have to pay the extra £390 per year tax on top of the actual/normal £180 per year tax because the car was >£40,000 list price when it was new.

[RS Grant]

andy43 said:

Nice car mister. Wheels absolutely make it. Don’t even think about painting them black!

Absolutely no chance of that.. I can't abide black wheels.

I also won't be changing the alu-trim to black either, which I know is popular, but I really like the spec of the car as it stands.

The only thing I can see me doing just now is possibly fitting some wheel spacers to bring the wheels out a touch as they look a little too tucked in the arches to my eye.

[RS Grant]

T_S_M said:

I completely understand what you mean about the power delivery in the F80. I had a non-comp M4 (DCT) and after 2 weeks of ownership that ended up coming to an early death The power delivery really is on/off in those.

Ouch!! Mine was an LCI and I believe BMW made some changes to the suspension over the pre-LCI cars.. but it retained the same sledgehammer power delivery, which I loved. I feel like it was a lot more controllable in a manual car too and, personally, I found it a lot more engaging and fun than a DCT too.

[RS Grant]

Got the V5 document through from the DVLA in record time.. so wasted no time getting my registration on the car when I got home last night, aided by my Ring floodlight camera.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

[RS Grant]

cerb4.5lee said:

RS Grant said:

T_S_M said:

I completely understand what you mean about the power delivery in the F80. I had a non-comp M4 (DCT) and after 2 weeks of ownership that ended up coming to an early death The power delivery really is on/off in those.

Ouch!! Mine was an LCI and I believe BMW made some changes to the suspension over the pre-LCI cars.. but it retained the same sledgehammer power delivery, which I loved. I feel like it was a lot more controllable in a manual car too and, personally, I found it a lot more engaging and fun than a DCT too.

I wouldn't mind a manual in my F82 M4 regarding controlling it a bit better as well. I have to put my big boy pants on with the DCT when I stamp on it, and just hope that I'm good enough/quick enough to catch whatever it decides to do! I found my manual E92 M3 really controllable in comparison.

I would say that although it was more controllable having the manual gearbox and a clutch pedal, the F80 could still be quite hairy. It was extremely rowdy on the OE fitment Continentals but once it was switched to the MPS4S, the difference was night and day. I changed all tyres for the new owner who wanted Continental SC7s but I didn't get a chance to wear them in and only drove the car ~40 miles home from the dealer, so I can't comment on how good or otherwise they were on it. They do seem to get good reviews though so I'd expect similar/better grip levels to the Michelins.

[RS Grant]

cerb4.5lee said:

RS Grant said:

Got the V5 document through from the DVLA in record time.. so wasted no time getting my registration on the car when I got home last night, aided by my Ring floodlight camera.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

That is such a sexy number plate Grant!

Thanks Lee... nice way to mark my 40th year.

I actually watched the plate going through at the DVLA auction a few years ago but wasn't in a position buy at the time. I couldn't believe that it was up for sale again so soon when I saw it in the summertime and I wasn't gonna miss out a second time.

[RS Grant]

Court_S said:

That sounds like a plan since there’s quite a lot of cross over (on paper at least).

I proper sports car would be a good counter point to the RS4’s abilities.

I've got an update to share on the E90 thread shortly and... *cough*I'm tempted to keep it now*cough*.

[RS Grant]

Mannginger said:

Wonderful looking thing, the blue really pops int he pics. Also kudos to whomever hoovered that boot!

Haha, all credit to the detailer at the dealer who I bought the car from... I have neither the skill nor the patience to stripe the carpet in a car.

[RS Grant]

FMOB said:

Colour is fab, had a b6 S4 in that colour.

Wheels, I think they are horrendous. If you aren't skipping them, painting black maybe less offensive. A lot of modern wheels are horrific and that is before you see what is on an EV.

Don't sit on the fence mate, tell me what you really think about the wheels..?!

I must say, when I first saw them, I thought they looked a bit like the wheels you get on the small 'Hot Wheels' toy cars. But in person, I really like them... and they're pretty cool, having been milled from a solid billet.

That being said, I assume given the finish, that a British winter or two will see them start to go a bit milky.. so I'm currently keeping a passive eye out for wheels to run through winter/salty months instead.

[RS Grant]

RS Grant said:

I've been looking at boot mats/liners. I've had good service and longevity from Boot Buddy solid liners before, so I'm tempted to go that way again.

Does the Hatch Bag fit snugly with heavy duty/strong velcro? I've only used cheaper liners with fairly average velcro fastenings before which became a bit of a PITA after a while, when the dog(s) jumped in and pulled the velcro away from the carpet/trim so the liner flopped down... which is the main reason that we switched to the solid Boot Buddy system.

Have decided to pull le trigger on another Boot Buddy liner, with the extra mat and bumper protector.

Downside is the time it takes to get to me, so in the meantime I'm using an Impreza boot liner which I've had lying around for more years than I'd care to admit...

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Not that Barney cares:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

I knew it would come in handy one day... who says that hoarding doesn't pay off?!

[RS Grant]

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Having never really been bothered about whether a car had the 360° camera option... I was bloody glad of it when I got back to the car the other day and saw that I had been wedged in. The PDC beeps were flatlining on both front and rear, so having an actual image from the front/rear of the car was very useful in getting out of there.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Also got the Boot-Buddy through, as expected it fitted perfectly and Barney is loving life. However there has been a bit of a downside with it; the smell. I'm not sure if it's the rubber floor insert/or the actual shell part of the kit.. but it's very like an old tobacco smell and not something we've had with any of our previous BB purchases.

So unless they've changed their material (which it doesn't look/feel like) or the manufacturing process, then it must just be the environment at their workshop/packaging facility; which is pretty disappointing. I'm waiting for them to reply to my email asking what the smell is and whether it can be rectified.

[RS Grant]

sunnyb13 said:

wonderful stunning car, but please please please do get some security fitted to your RS4. A ghost immobilizer or similar.

These RS4's are currently in high demand, in stolen to order thefts.

I did think about fitting some additional security to the car and Ghost seems to be a name that pops up a lot.

Obviously I'd rather that I never have to wake up to an empty space on my driveway and I may misunderstand how a Ghost works. But if someone is so intent on stealing a car that they will break into my house to steal the keys; they are a complete headcase and/or a professional who will think nothing of risking an assault charge if interrupted or challenged.

I would rather not be woken up by someone like that threatening me/others in the house for the code or combination to a Ghost immobiliser. Instead I'd prefer to see what's happened in the morning, swear profusely and report it to the BiB/my insurance.

However I have looked at fitting a Disklok, more as as a visible deterrent. The hope being that along with the increased security which I had fitted when I was renovating my house, it would make the RS4 a marginally less attractive target than a-n-other car in the area instead.

[RS Grant]

d_a_n1979 said:

FWIW the boot liner I had in my F31 that I replaced with an OEM BMW one yesterday; had that smell to begin with. It dissipated after a week or so; think it must be a chemical smell from the making/releasing of the mat etc

It was quite pungent though, so know what you mean

As you predicted.. the smell has all but gone now. I removed the heavy duty mat an stuck it in my garage (which then started to smell!) and replaced it with some other rubber mat, so I think it was the mat which was the culprit.

Very glad too, because the BB is a great solution and I didn't relish the thought of having to send it back/find an alternative.

[RS Grant]

This weekend was the first time I've had nothing on since I bought the car, so I managed to get out for a good drive of the car down my favorite roads in the Cairngorms.. nothing crazy because I had Barney with me.. but enough to make solid progress.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

A welcome sight on the way back from our wander along the side of the water/up the hill.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

The obligatory picture at 'The Bridge' which all my cars get.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

On our way home, just off the A93.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

Last one taken with Night Mode on my phone, which still amazes me.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

I really rate it and it continues to be a great do-it-all car for me.

Only niggles that I've noticed after some time with the car is the rear washer is pretty weak, so I'm assuming it needs a new washer head the same as my S3 did when that had a clogged washer head; so I'll get one of those ordered up and stick it on when I give it a wash.

The other one is the creaking/squeaking exhaust valves when they open and close. I've given them a couple of blasts of Wurth Ultra 2040 (WD40 equivalent) but I think I'll need to throw something with a higher temp rating on them if I want it to stop for more than a couple of days.

I'm also still looking for some winter wheels to try and maintain the OEM finish of the milled 20s and save them from all of the winter road salt, so will see how I get on with that over the next few weeks.