You want this occasion: The Audi S4 is an affordable adrenaline rush
Autovisie is always on the lookout for used cars for enthusiasts and therefore searches the listings on the Gaspedal.nl sales site. This time we found an Audi S4 Avant.
In 2003, Audi introduced the third generation (B6) of the Audi S4. Autovisie already drove the model this year and answered the question of whether the new S4 was in the regions of the BMW M3.
Occasion with thick V8
“What BMW and Mercedes leave to the tuners, Audi simply does itself: the brand with the four rings has foisted a V8 on the A4. And not without reason. Of course, the S4 needed an engine with plenty of horsepower to keep up with the M3 and the C 32 AMG.”
“And of course the S4 needed a lot of torque to counteract the additional weight of the (of course existing) all-wheel drive. But all of this would also have been possible with a twin-air blown V6, which the predecessor S4 used, or, if necessary, with an extra-large, unair-blown six-cylinder.”
“The Audi S4 has to sell 50,000 units in its career, almost twice as often as the old S4, and the American market in particular has to take care of that.” Audi wants to shift two-thirds of production to the country where the saying “It there is no substitute for cubic inches” is perhaps less heard today than it was about a decade ago, but is still entrenched in the hearts of many enthusiasts. Ergo: a V8.”
A horse more than the BMW M3
“Before the 4.2-litre V8 was carried over from the S6 to the S4, a few things were changed. The stroke became shorter by a fraction (0.2 millimeters) and power increased slightly to 344 hp at the expense of torque. Whether it’s coincidence, marketing strategy or – who knows – German humor, we’ll never find out, but the S4 has exactly one horsepower more than the BMW M3.”
Impressed by the Audi S4
“The S4 got harder springs, stronger dampers and thicker anti-roll bars and was placed 20 millimeters closer to the ground. The whole thing is rounded off by low-profile tires with a diameter of 18 inches. At the Misano circuit, near the Italian resort of Rimini, we put an S4 sedan through its paces. We drove the car in both dry and wet conditions and were consistently impressed with its capabilities in both cases.”
“Especially because the Audi S4 feels a lot lighter than the 1660 kilos it weighs at least. The body remains remarkably quiet, hardly tilts or sways and the Audi reacts responsively to steering commands.”
“Equally a pleasure is the new six-speed gearbox, which shifts gears with very precise, short and pleasant movements.”
“The question we asked ourselves in the opening lines remains: Has the S4 converged on the M3? Absolutely. Well, as an entertainer, as a real adrenaline rusher, the tightly tuned BMW with its “racy” six-seater is one step higher. But when asked whether the Audi S4 as a whole package is just as beautiful and desirable a car as the monster from Munich, the answer is clear: “Yes.”
The Audi S4 Avant as an occasion
Autovisie finds an Audi S4 Avant as a used car. The bolide is from 2005 and has just over 200,000 kilometers of experience. The seller asks almost 13 grand for the train station.