Rants and Raves
ERIK JOHNSON
Had I no knowledge of the near-perfect awesomeness that is the Audi RS 4, I might have enjoyed the S4 a bit more. As it is, however, I constantly felt cheated out of the extra 80 hp that the RS 4 provides from its similar 4.2-liter V-8—until I remembered the price difference. The S4 can be had for something near $20,000 less than the RS 4, in which case it begins to look like a far more palatable option. After all, how much is too much to pay for horsepower?
DAVE VANDERWERP
Since when did S4s start wearing PS2s (Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires)? Looks like these are becoming the tire to have on your sporty car, although I dare anyone to drive an S4 in the snow with these babies—you'll see how much all-wheel drive doesn't do for you.
This is still a strong and solid sport sedan with comfortable and supportive front seats (including grippy Alcantara inserts), although the shifter could be a touch more precise, the steering more communicative, and why is the refined V-8 so muted? As it is, the S4 seems biased slightly more than we'd like towards high-speed highway manners, which are impeccable, and it's perfectly suited to everyday use with this caveat: fuel economy. I averaged 21 mpg in the S4 on a couple-hour mostly highway trip. The bad news is I made the same trip in the Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black Series a couple weeks ago and, despite having an extra 160 horses and two liters of displacement—and even outweighing the all-wheel-drive Audi—that Benz got the same 21 mpg.
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