New owner of a B7 S4

[beung]

Just signed the papers on an 2006 Silver S4....traded in my E46 (2003.5) M3.

One thing I don't like so far....

The volume control on the steering wheel is on the wrong side....it should be controlled by your left thumb not you right thumb. The right hand is for shifting gears not changing the volume.

I also like the DTM chin spoiler, will it fit on the regular bumper or will it only fit on the DTM bumber? Where can I get the chin spoiler from?

Anyways, I am sure I will have more to post when I get settled in.

[cellg8]

You already know what ppl will say, "this thread is worthless without pics"!!! Come on, you didn't even tell the color of it...LOL...

Congrats and now go take some pics!

[MOFSTEEL]

You could be my twin. What options?
... and yeah

[Auditude2.0T]

Congrats, the M3 is a great car but the S4 is a different animal.

[bsrpilot44]

Welcome to the family.

[nimski62]

How do you like the V8 vs. the I6?

I drove an m3 smg, and i thought it was wayy too jerky and i felt like my s4 had more power

[whartung]

it does have more power............

[beung]

I don't pickup the S4 until Thurs so no pics yet.
Here is one of my old M3....as you can see, there is snow on the ground and that was the morning after I put the summers on.....the main reason for going to the S4.




The one I bought is just the light silver one.

Truthfully the M3 is a funner car but then again I haven't had a lot of seat time in the S4 yet. I had a SMG and until you get the hang of it, it can be jerky. But once you have some seat time it's smoother then an actual manual. Gear changes near redline are instant, it's the gear changes on lots of gas but not near the redline that are harsh. Shortshift and the gearbox will slap you in the back of the head for doing so

The S4 may have more power and more usable power at the lower RPM band but once the M3 winds up the M3 I think is quicker. The lighter M3 just uses the I6 so efficiently. I think I expected the V8 to be have a little more grunt then what I felt and probably just for the fact that it was a V8. The M3 is a great car, I just think the S4 is more of an everyday car.

I am no longer a huge mod guy really but I think that S4 could do with about 15-20 more HPs to really make it a winner over the M3. I was thinking about chipping the S4 but not sure if it's worth it if I don't do anymore mods and I run 91/92 pump gas. I really don't want to go down the exhaust route if I don't have to. My days of loud and droney exhaust notes are behind me and I am well into the sportluxsedan phase....in fact I almost was holding out to find a tips instead of the M6 :P

[beung]

Oh BTW, if anyone has a pic of a silver B7 S4 on the VMR RS4 (gunmetal would be great but any color will probably do) reps can you please post them. I am thinking of using them as summers and the BBS as the winters.

[MOFSTEEL]

Oh BTW, if anyone has a pic of a silver B7 S4 on the VMR RS4 (gunmetal would be great but any color will probably do) reps can you please post them. I am thinking of using them as summers and the BBS as the winters.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO

[EuroB6]

^^^ hahahahahahaha..im LMAO...you'll quickly learn that some people do NOT like the RS4 reps here..cough cough, MOFSTEEL

if you do go that route though, I would go with hartmann wheels, from achtuning.com They look great and the quality is just as good.

Congrats on the S4 purchase. M3 or whatever, im sorry, but phoenix gold is hideous. Good move to silver :)

Also, for that extra HP, definitely go with exhaust and chip. you'll be happy

[RAudi Driver]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO

This is Mofsteel when he hears the words RS4 Reps >>>

[cellg8]

That's my favorite gen M3... even the color, too...that's one of my favorites for that car!

[beung]

I don't know anything about the Harmann replicas but to me replicas are replicas. I can only assume the price on both are going to be the same and the quality is probably going to be the same.

I had VMR CLS replicas on my M3 and granted the quality isn't top notch but what do you expect for a $250 replica? Now what I will tell you is that I did get a rock chip in one of the spines of the hyper black and it chipped all the way down to the bare metal. Shortly after that I barely curbed the same rim and the paint literally exploded off the rim. The finish seem pretty brittle and I would not go with any of the special colors like hyper black on any rim because you can't match it, at least if you go with silver or even gunmetal you can just repaint it to match or all of them to match instead of a new rim.

[colonelburke]

Welcome and do not write off an exhaust yet. There are some that provide a near stock tone, such as the resonated Milltek, and coupled with down pipes could give you the extra power (although I think you gain some sound when you add the downpipes). Now I think you would enjoy a nicer sound and the nicer appearance of the bigger tips. As far as sound, it goes to tastes. I love my resonated Fast Intentions, but others find it raspy (not mine, but FI in general). In any event, welcome and hope you enjoy your new car.

[FastB7S4]

1st off, congrats!

Not sure if the DTM front lip will fit, but you can get a Cupra R splitter shipped for like $100 or so. They look decent and are cheap.

As far as exhaust, AWE makes a great B7 exhaust that looks awesome and sounds perfect. It's not too loud and drone is minimal (only around 1250-1500 rpm).

[littleredwagen]

congrats on the S4 Welcome. As others had said don't discount exhaust just go resonated and you will have a nice tone with little drone. These 4.2s with exhausts on them are intoxicating

[beung]

1st off, congrats!

Not sure if the DTM front lip will fit, but you can get a Cupra R splitter shipped for like $100 or so. They look decent and are cheap.

As far as exhaust, AWE makes a great B7 exhaust that looks awesome and sounds perfect. It's not too loud and drone is minimal (only around 1250-1500 rpm).

I saw tha Cupra lip and it looks good, not really noticable unless you are looking for it, thats what I am looking for.

1500 RPMs....who drives around at such low RPMs anyways

yeah the AWE exhaust and GIAC chip look to be able to bring it up to the numbers I am looking for.

[AudiOso]

I'm partial the APR chip for it's simple method of changing modes. I had the GIAC chip in my TT when I first bought the car and it was a pain to always have to have the Flashloader to switch programs. I didn't switch between stock and 91 (bought the chip when I lived in Pasadena) but I did use the kill function. When I bought my APR exhaust they gave me a killer deal on their chip so I reflashed. I really like the ability to switch programs via the cruise control. It's a very elegant solution that allows you to put the car in kill mode and then lock the chip down with a personal code. Nice execution.

[Kyokio]

Congrats and welcome.. another M3 driver joins the ranks

[cotmfk]

Congrats on the trade. The AWD will make it SO much easier in the snow/ice!!! :)

[beung]

Ok here is the review of the car after a day...still not much seat time but it was a good comparison since I drove the M3 in the morning and traded it in for the S4 in the afternoon.

Here are some of my observations:

The exhaust volume, it's too quite IMO, it needs to be just a little louder. The M3 had a good balance between a good volume and not being obnoxious, but atleast the S4 doesn't have the rasp. The V8 sounds great but it could stand to have a little louder presence though. DPs will probably be something I would do in the near future, this will probably give me the sound and performance boost I am looking for.

The speed sensitive steering is nice and the ride although a bit softer then the M3, it didn't soak up the bumps quite and nicely as the M3 did. It might be some what of a perception thing where I am expecting it to be softer when soaking up the bumps because the ride over all is softer. I had this same feeling when my M3 was on the 17" winters this spring.

The AWD "whine" might get to me, I pretty sure it's the AWD since it still remains when I press the clutch in and let it coast at speed. I am just not used to it yet since the M3 didn't have it, my G35x used to have that same little AWD "whine". I think the “whine” is louder then the exhaust note….that’s not right :P

Why is the gas pedal so much lower then the clutch and brake? I have to lift my left leg so high that I sometimes hit my knee on the steering column. If I adjust the seat them the gas pedal feels too far away. Might have to take a look under there and see what I can do – if anyone knows of a way to adjust this please let me know.

It feels quicker then what I remember from the test drives, not quite as responsive as the M3 but I am more impressed after driving it some then I was from the test drives. Also I am not sure what octane the dealer put in there, the tank wasn’t quite full and think it was at the same level when I last test drove it so I am sure they didn’t top it up for me. Anyways once I refill the responsiveness might improve with the higher octane gas since I would be very surprised if the dealer put anything but regular in there.

I still find myself wanting to “paddle down” sometimes but the manual does give me more control then the SMG did. The gearbox is great, the shifts are a little on the sloppy side but nothing a SSK wouldn’t fix, but not so sloppy that it would be high on the mod list for me.

I wish it had Nav and a back up sensor/camera , but you don't get to choose all the options when you buy used so I guess I will have to live with it. I may retrofit the Nav into it, I think I read somewhere that it can be done and it isn’t all that difficult.

The worst thing for me has to be the trunk, more specifically it’s too narrow. I can not fit my golf clubs in the trunk straight across the back, I have to put them in diagonally across the trunk – heck even in the M3 I was able to put my golf clubs across. There is a lot of wasted space back there and this is a very important step back for me since I play 2-3 times a week and at the range once or twice a week so I am usually doing some sort of golf activity 4-5 days a week. Because of this I usually just leave my clubs in the trunk at all times. This also makes it tough to fit more then just 2 sets of clubs in the trunk, it doesn’t leave much room for anything else if you put 2 sets back there because of the orientation of how the clubs have to go in. There is that “box” with the flap back there on the driver’s side that I may have to see about maybe taking out and replacing with something custom made to give myself some more lateral room to fit my whole bag straight across.

[$4c@b]

dumb question...don't the rear seats fold down?

[johntesi]

The rear seats DO fold down but that isn't always convenient or appealing! I too golf all the time and while you do have to put bags diagonally, I have fit 3 or 4 bags in my trunk a couple of times. It isn't the widest out there, but it actually is impressively big all the way around. Most of all, I'm jealous of your V8! Congratulations on the car, enjoy it!!

[Kyokio]

what's this whine you're talking about? are you sure its b/c of the awd? Asking only b/c this hasn't been an issue for me. Lolz now you got me wondering.. i'm gonna pay extra attention when i drive the car after work.

Btw, you can fit 3 golf bags in the trunk no problem.. the m3 trunk wasn't that big.

[FastB7S4]

Sounds like you regret your decision to trade.

[nealRlett]

M3 to S4. Love it. However, I do get the sense of a little regret here though.

PS- Be careful using the words RS4 Reps! lol

[colonelburke]

That whine may be the chain or whatever just on the other side of the firewall, not the awd. Anyway, congrats and I noticed the same thing about the gas pedal, probably my only peeve. IIRC, someone said it had to do with the auto transmission problems in the 80s but do NOT rely on that.

[channad]

you're having trouble fitting stuff in the trunk??? are you kidding me? I had 4 snowboards w/ bindings, 3 sets of boots and all our snowboarding equipment (3 people) in the trunk. Get creative...change is good, and as the new add says, progress is beautiful.

[Tiesto]

I'll never understand how vomit-yellow could be a popular car color, but welcome.

[beung]

It's not regret but you know how it is when you are used to certain things and when they change it takes some time to adjust is all.

I bought the S4 to get a little less "sport" and more "practical" from a car. The S4 is a Sports Sedan while the M3 is a Sports Coupe. To measure each car's weak point against the other, I think the S4 does the sport part better then the M3 trying to do the luxury part.

[cellg8]

I bought the S4 to get a little less "sport" and more "practical" from a car.

You will soon find out the '4-door' is for show only...

pics, yet?

[beung]

I bought it more for the AWD then the 4 doors - who cares how comfortable the people in the back seat are, you're lucky enough to even get a ride, now shut-up back there......

Sorry no pics yet, maybe when I get home tonight. I didn't have a chance to take any yesterday because I went golfing lastnight - I shot one over, thanks for asking ;)

[colonelburke]

I bought it more for the AWD then the 4 doors - who cares how comfortable the people in the back seat are, you're lucky enough to even get a ride, now shut-up back there......

Hilarious, couldn't agree more. Hush and enjoy the privilege, and 3rd gear.

[beung]

some pix

[cellg8]

beautiful ride!!!

[$4c@b]

nice sleeper!

are those the OE Continentals?

If they are Conti 2's, you will want a set of tires for the snow. My OE Contis were useless. I never drove in the snow. I just put on Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and am thrilled with them in the dry and wet.

I guess you get used to the color of your old M3...to me it looks like a bowl of vomit.

[channad]

I like the Dunlop 3Ds for snow driving...

[beung]

Those are the OEM Contis, the dealer has the winters still, they just have to get them out of thier storage.

[$4c@b]

are they dedicated snow tires? Are the already mounted on a second set of wheels or do you have to change the tires? Did they charge you for them or throw them in as part of the package?