[p1tse]

Looking out for one

Missed out on a few so just playing the waiting game
For the right spec, budget

Looking probably for a b6 version 2004 model

Any pointers on things to look out for appreciated

[rogerxp]

PJS has one. PM him as he doesn't post here much. I'll tell him about this link though.

[rogerxp]

I'm a numpty, he's got an S5, not an S4. Sorry.

[gIzzE]

I had an S4 V8 avant.

Hand on heart the worst car I have ever had the misfortune of owning.

Bad in so many ways it is untrue.

So front heavy it is unreal.
Understeers so badly when pressing on that it is scary.

Manual gears set up for 0-60 so it is a sub 6 second car, but means the gears are so close they are really, really hard work, as you are changing all the time.
Pedals at different heights, brake is almost 2" higher than the gas, so I could never get comfy and got cramp after an hour in my shins.

Final drive ratio is crap, does 3000rpm at 80mph so averages 18mpg round town and on a run!!

If you go auto most of the real issues disappear, but make sure you try one before you decide. I read all this before buying it and never really noticed any of it, kept reading from owners things like 'in the real world you don't want the back hanging out like on an M3' etc. etc.
Bollocks, my M3 was quicker in all conditions, the S4 understeers well before you find the advantage of Quattro imho.

I like Audis, but thought the S4 was crap.

Fiona had a 3.0 A4 Cab and that was a good car, did what it said on the tin.
The S4 just constantly disappointed.

I sold it after about 16 weeks, I swapped the exhaust so it sounded like a proper V8.
I put on decent anti roll bars to try and dial out some of the undertseer and I really wanted to love it, I liked the styling and the interior, but it was so far behind Fiona's 120d M-Sport that it was a fight for who got the BMW keys each morning, so I sold it and bought another M3.

Looks 9/10
Ownership experience 2/10

It really was that bad.

[p1tse]

Thanks
I will try and find one to test but I'm pretty much set on definitely not going for a manual

Not much else I fancy for £6k area

[gIzzE]

I do think if I had had an auto I may have kept it longer.

The auto has a much better final drive compared with the manuals, think it is around 23mph per 1000rpm vs 29mph per 1000 on the auto.
That makes a massive difference when cruising.

Sit at 80mph and you are doing 3400rpm and 20mpg, where as the auto is 2700rpm and 28mpg, and more importantly, far more relaxing.

However, I always thought it was a joke when everyone said the engine is in front of the fornt axle, when I got it I soon realised it was not!
The understeer is crazy.

[gIzzE]

Also look at CLKs, CLK500 and CLK55 are both awesome, much better drivers cars.

[gIzzE]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...Cnew?logcode=p

[Icekube]

B7 RS4 rear anti roll bar will solve a great deal of understeer, as will quality tyres.

things to look out for would be timing chain noise (big one) and also front arm knocks (multilink front suspension has 5 balljoints per side)

check out the www.audisrs.com forum for some useful info, there are a few active owners over there (including a few with cab's).

personally, go for the manual, the auto is crap, and if your looking for a 4wd V8 i doubt economy is on your radar.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by Icekube

B7 RS4 rear anti roll bar will solve a great deal of understeer, as will quality tyres.

things to look out for would be timing chain noise (big one) and also front arm knocks (multilink front suspension has 5 balljoints per side)

check out the www.audisrs.com forum for some useful info, there are a few active owners over there (including a few with cab's).

personally, go for the manual, the auto is crap, and if your looking for a 4wd V8 i doubt economy is on your radar.

The RS4 bar did nothing, well, it turned it from dangerous to just crap.
The Eibach bar helped a bit more, but not much.


The manual 'box is not crap because of the economy, it is crap because firstly the gear ratios are so close together, this is to try and make it feel fast, but it becomes very tiring as you are constantly swapping cogs, in the end many owners say just use 2nd, 4th and 6th!

You then have the pedals, the brake and clutch is 2" higher than the gas pedal, so you simply can't get really comfy, anything more than an hour with a bit of traffic and I got cramp in my shins.
This was brought in after a law suit when someone sued Audi as they trod on the gas instead of the brake or something, terrible design.

After years in BMWs I was really looking forward to my S4, but it was a big shock.
If I had gone from my previous A3's and A4's would have probably thought it was great, but going from a 535d and an M3 it was an absolute pile of shite!!


I know loads of S4 owners who have the gone BMW and all say it is not until you have gone back to Audi again that you realise how bad some of the older cars were for handling.

[p1tse]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Also look at CLKs, CLK500 and CLK55 are both awesome, much better drivers cars.

Not a big fan to be honest
But thanks for the recommendation

[p1tse]

I've read that about the manual from all the factors mentioned

With the high percentage of town drivin or stop start I think an auto would be more suited for this car for ME

I won't do huge mileage in it so not too concerned about the 20mpg

I'll rather continue to drive around in the daily commuter 2004 ka which costs next to nothing to run than buy something for the sake of it

Just need something for a bit of fun, able to fit two little ones in for school and nursery run

330ci would probably be a good car but I don't fancy an e46 if the e93 were in budget then yes, but its not

If I had a bit more over that budget to spend a TTS would be good too

For now I'll continue to use the daily cheap runner

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by p1tse

I won't do huge mileage in it so not too concerned about the 20mpg

20mpg was 80% motorway work mate.

Worst tank on all short journeys was 14mpg, often saw 12mpg after a 10 mile trip across town.


This is someone that monitored his MPG, the nerd!!

Originally Posted by TonyHetherington

Hi all

First off, I have an admission; my name's Tony and I'm a geek.

Ok cool, now we've got that out the way, with many people asking about the S4 (as it represents such good value for money now) I thought I'd post the stats sheet that I keep a record of. I record the data on my iPhone (using a program called AccuFuel), but then just transfer it to an excel sheet and work some graphy magic.

With superunleaded petrol getting more expensive, the total cost of fuel is going up slightly. Interestingly, as well, the headline total figure of average MPG over 3k miles is calculated by me at 16.81mpg, whereas the car thinks it's 18.5mpg. The liar

So, for interest and geeky-ness alone, my facts...
||=Date=||=Odo=||=Litres=||=Price=||=MPG=||=Cost=| |
||22/05/2009||34643||20.53||103||.||£21.15||
||24/05/2009||34745||59.9||103||7.7||£61.70||
||24/05/2009||35001||53.3||103||21.8||£54.90||
||02/06/2009||35220||58.19||103.9||17.1||£60.46||
||19/06/2009||35424||54.54||107.9||17.0||£58.85||
||22/06/2009||35685||55.63||105.9||21.3||£58.91||
||29/06/2009||35899||56.4||106.9||17.2||£60.29||
||07/07/2009||36107||57||107.9||16.6||£61.50||
||14/07/2009||36328||53.39||107.9||18.8||£57.61||
||23/07/2009||36525||54.06||106.9||16.6||£57.79||
||26/07/2009||36779||58.58||106.9||19.7||£62.62||
||07/08/2009||36989||58.58||106.9||16.3||£62.62||
||16/08/2009||37141||44.53||108.9||15.5||£48.49||
||24/08/2009||37359||55.31||109.9||17.9||£60.79||
||01/09/2009||37587||56.13||109.9||18.5||£61.69||

So, the total over 2944 miles in fuel (super unleaded) is £849, at an average of 16.81mpg. That's mostly town driving, with occasional tanks of long motorway journeys every so often.

Here's a graph of what it all looks like because, well, because I can



So, I hope this is all interesting or useful to someone. The only other costs I have had are replacing front brake pads myself, and getting gearbox oil changed. Other than that, I have over a year before next scheduled service. Before that, I imagine another set of pads and probably tyres - though they look fine, I imagine the weight will shine through in tyre wear.

||24/05/2009||34745||59.9||103||7.7||£61.70||

7.7 mpg from a tank, now that is enjoying the power!!

[Icekube]

here is a much better view of the cars economy:
http://www.fuelly.com/car/audi/s4/2004

personally, they are a good car, excellent V8 engine, and 4wd. not going to set the world a light with only 340hp (but not exactly a slouch either), and it wont handle anywhere near as well as an M3, but for a top down cruiser with a bit of poke, they are a nice place to be, much better than any Mercedes in the price range too...

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by Icekube

here is a much better view of the cars economy:
http://www.fuelly.com/car/audi/s4/2004

personally, they are a good car, excellent V8 engine, and 4wd. not going to set the world a light with only 340hp (but not exactly a slouch either), and it wont handle anywhere near as well as an M3, but for a top down cruiser with a bit of poke, they are a nice place to be, much better than any Mercedes in the price range too...

You seem very passionate about them?
You got one or something?

[Icekube]

nope, I'm just being the ying to your yang (as you seem to be properly hating on them) to give the OP a balanced perspective. I had the previous generation B5 S4 (saloon and subsequently avant variants), and have had a very good poke around the B6's when I was looking for a change into an avant, as well as being an active member on the SRS forums where many owners of both reside.

[gIzzE]

I loved the B5, and I love the new S4.

Just that manual V8 was wrong in so many ways.

Yeah I am properly hating on them, if you had just bought a 2 year old car and it failed so badly at delivering a fun experience you would hate on it too.
Especially when your wifes 120d was far better.
On the twisty roads her mapped 120d would leave the S4 behind, that's not what you want from your new S car!!

Problem with the Audi forums is they are the most blinkered set of owners, after TVR, that I have ever come across. Nearly all of them have just gone through the VAG cars and not experienced other stuff from BMW, Mercedes etc. They just write it off.
Yeah and S4 is great compared with a 1.9tdi Golf, and yeah the 3.0tdi A4 is beter again, and yeah the S4 is faster than the 3.0tdi, but unless you have experienced the competition you can't slag it off.

However, going back onto tyresmoke.net now it is amazing how many have now moved away and laugh at how numb they were looking back, and they are/were die hard Audi owners.

When I used to see S and RS owners talking about M3s loosing the back end all the time I just lost all respect for their opinion, they sounded like complete twats.
Most are just completely ignorant, but that is no excuse.

I went and bought a 3.2fsi A6 avant after I had gone back to a BMW with the 335i, so I like Audis, and I like them a lot, but the B6/7 S4 was not their finest hour.

Looked nice though...








Anyway, if you think I am hard on them you should read the write up of the guy who bought it from me!
Search for Jonathan Turner, or JT, S4 review.
He was an Audi fan, but had been in an M5 and an X5 for a while and wanted to buy it as he had been on an RS4 weekend on the ice and fell for the RS4.
He makes me look like I think it is the best car in world!

He kept it even less time than I did.

[gIzzE]

I'm not saying don't buy one, but you have to think of it as a fast cruiser, albeit one that averages 15/17 mpg.

But too many buy it thinking it is going to be sporty, it is not!


As strange as this sounds I would actually own another one, Avant with the auto box would be fine, as I now have different expectations of them, I know what they are like, I am not listening to deluded owners who have no experience of anything else, which is what I did first time round.

[p1tse]

Thanks for all the feedback
I like to hear opinions of true owners from different angles

I agree some are clouded by Bhp, audi fan, Quattro, or nothing else to compare to.

I had a mk1 tt 225 in standard form it was dull and numb, remap, arb, exhaust made it marginally better

Strange thing is I would be tempted again in 3.2 dsg form but its too small to fit kids in the back

I know the s4 has flaws versus what it should be and competitor, but for the budget of £6k they offer a fair bit

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by p1tse

I know the s4 has flaws versus what it should be and competitor, but for the budget of £6k they offer a fair bit

Agreed.

I think the main problem is it wears an S badge, and I feel that is like Audi are taking the juice.

But, as a big wafty V8 cab for some roof down cruising the £6k price point changes everything!

[p1tse]

Another month goes by and search still continues

Decided not to go manual
Prefer colour combo, grey with red leather, tip, heated seats, bose, nav like this
S4 Cabriolet 4.2 V8 Auto - 2 Owners Cost £47500 New! Sat Nav, Xenons etc. | eBay

Otherwise a sprint blue

Saw this grey and silver no nav, also IMO had wonky aftermarket rear parking sensors
Audi S4 converible 2004 Tiptronic | eBay
I offered c.£6k but the owner wanted close to £6.5k
If it was in my preferred spec then maybe, but holding out