7 Months/12,000 Miles with my B8 S4

[IanHo]

Well I’ve had my S4 for 7 months now & covered just under 12,000 miles so I thought it was about time I did a bit of a review.

Build Quality

I’ve thought long and hard about build quality on the B8. If you compare it to its direct competitors 3 series, Merc C-Class neither of which float my boat then the B8 is IMHO the best put together car. The guy across the road from me has an E92 M3 and the interior just feels bland & very minimal to me, getting out of that in to mine the Audi just feels, looks & functions better. Of course this is all subjective and BMW/Merc owners will no doubt have their own take on what constitutes a great interior.

A better comparison would be against a B6/7 A4, both of which I have owned. This is where the B8 falls down a little. It is evident that Audi have cut certain areas no doubt in the interests of cost. It’s all little things like the quality of plastics on the dash areas like the plastics on the CD/DVD player heater/aircon controls were on the previous model a nice rubberised plastic now they are just a hard black plastic not terrible but not as nice as the previous model none the less. Other small things like the rear mats having no locating studs, the boot hinges and the well documented plastic instrument surround just cheapen the interior very slightly. All minor details and if this was your first Audi probably something you would never notice.

Still despite those minor quibbles the interior seems to be standing up well, no rattles, squeaks or other signs of wear & tear.

Performance

Of course this is why you by an S/RS/M/AMG etc. and the S4 doesn’t disappoint. It can be a nice relaxed cruiser which is what is for me 90% of the time and then when you want it to be with a prod on the loud peddle it turns in to an S4. Drive Select helps here as well more of which later…

There is a lot of discussion at the moment particularly on the US forums about the actual power output of the S4 engine. Official Audi figures are 333 bhp, but a few guys who have had their cars on a dyno are reporting wheel hp at 310+, which puts the engine HP at around 360-370. We know that Audi have a habit of underrating the output of their engines and given the supposed gains you can get with the various MTM upgrades, going up to 430 bhp with minimal boost increase, it could be that there is something to these claims.

Of course with the nanny state spoiling everyone’s fun, the condition of our roads, amount of traffic & other drives, the hardest part is actually using the performance even when it is safe to do so. I think that is the most frustrating part of owning this or any performance model is most of the time you are forced to drive it like a “normal” car. I don’t use the public roads as a race track and I’m not out to prove “my car is faster than yours”, but sometimes it would be nice to be a little bit naughty when the conditions are right…

The only way I’m really going to get the most out of this car is to track it, so that’s what I plan to do. Hopefully within the next month or so I’m going to do a track day so I can get a real feel for the limits of the car. A mate of mine races Jags has his ARDS license and is a qualified instructor so he is going to take me out and show me the ropes and hopefully stop me from stuffing it!

I opted for the S tronic box mainly because I do a lot of Motorway driving & sitting in start/stop traffic. This was my first auto but I’m pretty much converted now, it’s a fantastic gearbox smooth as silk in normal mode and a rapid fire hard changing sports box when as soon as you ask it to be. It really has Jeckle & Hyde characteristics, coupled with the crackle & pops you get from the exhaust on hard up/downshifts make it worthwhile for that on its own.

I’ve never been in the V8 S4 so can’t make comparisons on the noise, but I’m more than satisfied with the exhaust note of the V6. The engine itself is virtually silent, that or drowned out by the exhaust as all the noise under medium to hard acceleration is out the back. I am looking a doing some mods to this car eventually and I’m sure a Milltek zorst would bring aural and performance benefits but at least to my ears Audi haven’t done a bad job with the stock one.

Ride & Handling

This is where there is a huge improvement over my previous Audi’s. I have the full drive select and rear sports diff on mine and I would say essential options if you are looking at an S4.

For those who don’t know you have 4 options with Drive Select Auto (Default), Comfort, Dynamic and Individual (Full MMI required). With the full system Drive Select can adjust the following systems Engine/Gearbox, Steering, Suspension & Sports Differential. For day to day driving I use the Individual mode and have found the following to give the best combination of drivability, comfort and dare I say it economy:

Engine/gearbox: auto

Dynamic Steering: auto

Suspension: comfort

Sport Differential: comfort

I was a little sceptical when I ordered Drive Select on how much difference there would be between the various modes and if it would be noticeable. Well there is a huge difference on all aspects of drive select, the only one that is difficult to judge is the Sports Diff as obviously that should only makes a difference when you are really pressing on or pushing the limits. It is a relatively expensive but IMO a very worthwhile addition. Only thing I can’t compare is the ride to a non drive select car as I’ve not driven a B8 without it. Most people criticised the ride of previous generation A4’s particularly those with S line or sports suspension but the B8 really is in a different league.

The Sports Diff makes a huge difference to the handling; it’s like having the hand of god attached to the back of your car, putting it back exactly where you want it to be when there is the slightest hint of things getting out of shape. The way it does it is also really subtle and flatters you in to thinking you’ve just sorted out that little slide or potential sideways moment. The whole thing is just so controllable and with all the snow we’ve had recently has also been good fun to get the back end out a little where safe to do so. Really looking forward to getting it on the track to see what a difference it makes to the handling when pushing it (a bit).

Economy

One of the biggest claims Audi makes for this car is the improved economy. The answer to that is Yes & No. If you want to rag the car everywhere of course it will drink fuel. If you drive it “normally” as you can an S4, you will get reasonable fuel economy.

My daily commute to work is a 106 mile round trip. Around 50 miles of motorway, and about 3 miles each end of A & B roads. On this run I can average about 27-29 MPG (DIS) which is pretty much what Audi claim. Around town you can expect 22 MPG (DIS). Since I’ve had it my average is about 25.5 MPG.

Best I’ve ever seen on the DIS is 33 MPG, but that was taking it very very steady.

On my previous B7 2.0T Q, I could get around 350 miles out of a tank but my MPG was in the low to mid 30’s again on the DIS. On the S4 I’m seeing around 300-350 out of a tank, never less than 300 and I think the tanks are only around 1 litre difference in size.

To my mind that isn’t too shabby, I know you don’t by a car like an S4 for it’s fuel economy, but given I’m filling the car up on average twice a week I’m grateful there is a move towards economy with this engine.

Reliability

Over the last 5 years I’ve covered 120,000 miles in 3 different Audi’s and none have them have ever let me down (kiss of death there). At the moment the S4 is proving to be just as reliable, only issues I foresee is the amount of software that is now present in cars.

It has been back to the dealers for a software upgrade on the gearbox, to improve the smoothness of gear changes at low speed. This was a required upgrade which was released last November; of course Audi didn’t tell me about this I had to find this out for myself off one of the other forums.

There is another software upgrade I know I need to fix the “take the first exit off the roundabout” problem in the SatNav where it is the second I need to take helpful that being the fundamental function of a SatNav.

The sports diff has its own ecu, so no doubt there will be upgrades to come for that as well. I’m guessing when it goes in for a service you are going to need to ask for the latest “Service Pack” to be applied as well…

This car will be a 4-5 year vehicle for me so given it will have done 100,000 miles + when I change it I’m hoping it proves as reliable as my previous Audi’s as there are a few more expensive bits on this one!

Modifications

I have spent many hours, sorry minutes/seconds modding the S4, so far I have added the essential dipstick as I was fed up arsing about with the MMI to check the oil level, so I spent the princely sum of £6 on providing the bit what Audi now consider to be an optional extra…

I really need to get hold of VAG-COM/VCDS to do all the essential tweaks to the car.

In the future I am considering the engine/exhaust upgrades but that will probably be at least a year away.

Conclusion

Overall I am extremely satisfied with the car it excels in pretty much every area and more than met my expectations of what I thought the car should be.

The only thing that lets the car down is the quality of the dealers; I had a really bad experience even trying to buy the car and an even worse experience with the overall ordering/delivery process. I’m assuming the dealer eventually sold the first S4 which got delivered, that they ordered incorrectly?

Edited March 6, 2010 by IanHo

[cruiser647]

Nice one!

Can you hear the supercharger at all? That's a fair commute you do, hope they pay for the fuel!

Forgot to ask - was it good in the snow?

Edited March 6, 2010 by cruiser647

[IanHo]

Supercharger is very muted apparently you can hear it, although I'm hard pushed to hear it.

From all I've read Audi designed it that way I guess it depends if you want to hear the whine of the supercharger or not. On the road I'm not fussed would rather have the refinement. On the track I guess it might be good to hear more of the supercharger.

In the snow it was great, S tronic is superb if you judge it right you can just roll to a stop a apply the brakes for the last couple of feet. No problems with traction & you can provoke the tail out by tickling the throttle but it is just so controllable.

Only moment I had in the snow was when I was forced on to a patch of deep snow on a roundabout got a little bit of understeer, and then the sports diff kicked in and sorted it all out. It's an odd feeling as you expect to go straight on but then the diff tweaks the backend and points you exactly where you want to go.

Yes they do pay for the petrol; otherwise it would have been a diesel!

[Sponge]

Excellent review - very informative and well written.

[Scotty]

Nice review

For those who don’t know you have 4 options with Drive Select Auto (Default), Comfort, Dynamic and Individual (Full MMI required). With the full system Drive Select can adjust the following systems Engine/Gearbox, Steering, Suspension & Sports Differential. For day to day driving I use the Individual mode and have found the following to give the best combination of drivability, comfort and dare I say it economy:

Engine/gearbox: auto

Dynamic Steering: auto

Suspension: comfort

Sport Differential: comfort

So I guess you'd like that to be the default rather than having to select it each day ?

It's just been discovered how

All 4 Channels below need to be changed:

Code:

[09 – Cent. Elect.]

[security Access - 16]

[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 63

change to XX

[09 – Cent. Elect.]

[security Access - 16]

[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 64

change to XX

[09 – Cent. Elect.]

[security Access - 16]

[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 65

change to XX

[09 – Cent. Elect.]

[security Access - 16]

[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 66

change to XX

Where XX can be:

1 = Comfort

2 = Auto (default)

3 = Dynamik

4 = Individual"

Mrs Scotty is really happy with this change

So there's another reasons to get VCDS. The Ambient Lighting I've just activated is another nice one you'd like too.

[IanHo]

Cheers Guys.

Thanks for the info about Drive Select Scotty; I saw the Ambient Light one yesterday funnily enough. Just trying to justify the 230 quid + any import duty for the cable. Does anyone know of any UK suppliers?

[theduisbergkid]

Great review

[Mook]

Damn, why can't I write stuff as well as that? No, not Duisberg's comment above, I mean Ian's review...

[IanHo]

Cheers Mook, I didn't know I could write something that well either!

Must be all the time I've spent writing pointless management reports!

[Chris_B]

Just trying to justify the 230 quid + any import duty for the cable. Does anyone know of any UK suppliers?

£205 or so will pick you one up with a thankyou to the organiser that should be going off to charity, over on Briskoda.net

Very, very decent of the chaps there to open up to other forums. You'll have to be quick though, funds have to be cleared with the organiser by the 15th.

I'm quite looking forward to my S4 Avant, and your write-up gives me a bit more comfort that I'll enjoy the agility and perhaps I won't miss the performance of the RS 6 quite so much.

[IanHo]

I'm quite looking forward to my S4 Avant, and your write-up gives me a bit more comfort that I'll enjoy the agility and perhaps I won't miss the performance of the RS 6 quite so much.

Obviously you've got a bit more power in the RS6, but it is a bigger car so you should find the S4 more agile & just a fast in the real world . Did you go for full drive select & sports diff?

If you find yourself left wanting for more power, then there is always the upgrade option...

[Chris_B]

Yup, the '6 is a fair bit heavier, and a lot of that is engine nose weight, so the S4 should be very different.

I didn't go for the variable steering - I've got it on the S5 and I don't like it much in Comfort mode, and I was happy with the feel of an S4 Avant without.

I've got dampers and sport diff though - looking forward to that!