Audi S4 Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Audi S4 range
Prices: £34,260-£35,600 - on the road
Insurance Group: 18 [est]
Emissions: 225g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 5.1s / Max Speed 155mph
Fuel Consumption: (combined) 29.1mpg
Safety: Twin front, side & curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, ESP
Dimensions: [4dr] Length/Width/Height 4703/1826/1427mm

S CLUB HEAVEN

Our Rating: 6.3 / 10

Audi’s third generation S4 sports saloon is faster yet cleaner and more frugal. Jonathan Crouch reports

And you thought power was everything. Proof that it isn’t comes with Audi’s third generation S4. Though equipped with less power than its predecessor, it’s significantly faster. Perhaps more importantly, it’s also greener and considerably more fuel efficient so you can have your pleasure without so much of the guilt.

Audi’s S4 has always been rather over-shadowed by two rivals, the most galling thing for fans of this variant being that one of them lay in-house. First, the obvious: BMW’s M3. The second generation V8 version’s 344bhp output was almost identical to the last generation M-Beemer’s output, yet M3 sales out-stripped those of the S4 by a considerable margin. When the new M3 was launched in 2007 with much more power, Audi had already thought ahead and trumped it with the 414bhp RS4, the first and sometimes only car you tend to think of when fast Audi A4s are being discussed.

As a result of all that, the S4 has, over the years, continually been relegated to a supporting brief in the Ingolstadt company’s line-up. Time for it to re-assert its independence. That opportunity has come with the demise of the RS4 (not to be replaced for some time) and the M3’s move up-market. In the current climate, is it really necessary to spend £50,000 on a car of this kind, especially when in the M3’s case, that cheque doesn’t even buy you four-wheel drive? The S4 suggests not.

Before it reverted to a naturally aspirated V8 in MK2 guise, the S4 was originally offered with a 2.7-litre 265bhp twin-turbocharged V6 engine that was no slower and certainly much lighter. With a new 3.0 TFSI engine on their books developed for the larger S6, it made sense for Audi to revert to six cylinder power for the MK3 S4 model, though a fall in power from 344 in the old V8 to 333bhp will initially give Audi centres some explaining to do. That shouldn’t be too difficult given that rest to sixty is now dispatched in 5.1 seconds, half a second faster than the old car and only half a second slower than the old RS4. For reference, a current M3 saloon is only 0.2s faster.

To ride in, the S4 is more akin to the softer-sprung (but vastly more expensive) Mercedes C63AMG; yes, you can attack the country lanes but, as with the Merc, there isn't the drawback of a fidgety ride on the motorway. The gearchange is one of Audi’s best efforts; smooth with a decent weight to the change linked to a heavy duty clutch, yet at any speed between 20mph and 120mph, it’s tempting to just leave the S4 in fourth gear and hitch your surfboard to that huge swell of torque. Lazy? Maybe. Fun? Oh yes.

The design of the S4’s 3.0-litre V6 is interesting in its use of a compact supercharger chosen because it delivers keener response than even two turbo chargers could achieve. With the compressor’s help, this unit generates a healthy 440Nm torque peak available from 2,500rpm right through to 4,850rpm, enabling an appropriate 0-62mph sprint time of just 5.1 seconds for the manual Saloon (or 5.2 seconds for the comparable Avant estate). Top speed as usual is limited electronically to 155mph.

Optional is a seven-speed S tronic twin-clutch automatic transmission, which delivers a lightning fast manual shift with virtually no interruption of the engine’s power delivery. On the road, this car feels more agile than before, thanks to the new generation A4’s redesigned chassis and repositioned front axle. Also important here is the improved quattro all-wheel-drive system with 40% / 60% front-to-rear torque distribution and the option of a clever active sport differential. This enables the quattro system not only to transfer torque between the front and rear axles to counter traction losses, but also between the rear wheels.

The active sport system is one of three elements in the optional Audi drive select adaptive dynamics package that in its simplest form, enables the driver to fine-tune throttle response, steering assistance and transmission shift points (where S tronic is fitted) via dashboard-mounted buttons to suit personal preferences or prevailing road condition