Re: sold the S4

[BelinS4]

Hey all,

I sold my 2018 S4 yesterday. I ordered it from Audi Newport Beach and took delivery in September, 2017. It had 73,112 miles on it when sold and overall was a great, fun daily driver. It was on its 5th set of front rotors and pads, its 5th set of tires, and had spent a good chunk of this summer in the shop fixing some sudden reliability issues. The car was running fine again when sold. I got an above average KBB price for the car.

Overall, I liked the car, but maintenance costs and spending the summer in loaner cars as the dealer chased issues (which this forum seemed to have a better handle on than the dealer), put my mind in a place where I decided it was time to move on. A daily driver should not be a project car to my way of thinking.

I ordered and took delivery on a BMW M340i yesterday. I only have 49 miles on it so far, but I think I made the right call for me.

This forum has been great, and the people have been positive and helpful, not just for me, but from what I have seen, with everyone. I think the forum is the thing I’ll miss most. Thank you to everyone.

Belin

[angrycatmeow]

Enjoy the bimmer! The M cars sure do rip, but their styling hasn't done it for me since the early 2000's. Exception is the new M2, looks especially nice in purple.

Sent from my SM-F936U1 using Tapatalk

[Turbanator]

What do you think of the 340i? Anything you prefer against the S4? Anything you miss? I have an S5 on order, but the 440i was very tempting (as long as I didn't look at the front end).

[BelinS4]

It’s too early to give a meaningful comparison, but the interior fit and finish is a lot more solid than the Audi ever was, although I liked the Audi design a lot.

The BMW b58 engine is fantastic. My wife’s X5 has the pre “tu” version, and I love it. It’s more rev happy and smoother than the Audi v6. Please don’t misunderstand, I do like the Audi v6, but the BMW seems to have nailed it.

My wife’s X5 also always got better gas
Milage than the S4, so I am hoping for a little reprieve there from our insane gas prices here in SoCal.

[Pocket Cub]

5 sets of pads and rotors in that time frame? Damn. You tracked the car or something?

[spacecase]

It’s too early to give a meaningful comparison, but the interior fit and finish is a lot more solid than the Audi ever was, although I liked the Audi design a lot.

The BMW b58 engine is fantastic. My wife’s X5 has the pre “tu” version, and I love it. It’s more rev happy and smoother than the Audi v6. Please don’t misunderstand, I do like the Audi v6, but the BMW seems to have nailed it.

My wife’s X5 also always got better gas
Milage than the S4, so I am hoping for a little reprieve there from our insane gas prices here in SoCal.

The B58 is a solid engine and I would say better than the EA839, but the only downside is the lack of tuning due to most of the MY having a very difficult to crack ECU lock. I know some bench flashing is available for certain years but it seems like a lot of trouble and some are saying it might not be fully unlocked for years. The car is well tuned out the box, but there is just so much potential in it. I like how an S4 can hit around 500HP with about 13-1400 in parts (a simple stage 1 E85 tune).

[SHCKR]

What do you think of the 340i? Anything you prefer against the S4? Anything you miss? I have an S5 on order, but the 440i was very tempting (as long as I didn't look at the front end).

Ask @BrockDM

[INS4NE_B9]

Jesus, I have 40k on my car and just replaced rear brake pads. Still rocking factory rotors and front pads.

Surely you were tracking the car?

[Audi_Andrew19]

I actually went the other direction (well, sorta). Went from a F30 340i to the B9 S5. I loved the B58 in that car and it was definitely a stronger motor than the Audi V6. I think as a package the B9 is the better car, but that probably isn’t saying much since the B9 competes with the G20 and not the F30.

Still love both cars though. Enjoy the BMW!

[Mops@Nemesis]

Congrats on the new ride! Enjoyed working/chatting with you.

[BelinS4]

Thanks, everybody. Here are some comments and feedback:

1. Brakes: I am very hard on cars (daily driver and no track days). Brakes are consumables. That being said, the OEM pads are too soft for my driving and the OEM rotors where cheaply made for me. Alternatives came late to the game, whete scary crap, or too expensive for my needs (except EBC Yellow pads, which were awesome). Please don’t let my experience inform yours.

2. Comparison: I am shocked by how much better the visibility is in the m340. I did not anticipate that. The turning radius is better. The inline 6 is way smoother, but that is to be expected. It is more rev happy which I prefer. Lastly, the passenger side front cup holder isn’t partially blocked by the climate control on the m340 like on the S4 (but the Germans have never had to commute from Irvine to Century City, so Euro cars always seem to fail in the cup holder).

3. Tuning: The Audi V6 was “locked” for a good chunk of the 5 years I owned the S4. I don’t really care if the b58 is “locked” at the moment. It is a daily driver for me. That being said I did “code” the auto stop/start to be permanently off, permanently disabled the iDrive nanny warnings, and the exhaust flap to be permanently open in less than 10 minutes less than three days into ownership (Bimmercode to the rescue, and much easier than trying to hack the stop/start with the AC unit or sticking a golf tee in the exhaust flap mechanism).

Mops, let me know if you cover the BMW universe as well. I think you have my email.

[QuickHandCam]

If I could afford the 340 xdrive then I would have bought that, for sure.

They're great cars and they really stepped it up on the interior.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Audizine Forum mobile app

[rlme36]

I shopped that car when looking at the S4 and thanks for your notes on the S4, will be good to see your experience is an outlier or the common trend. What put me in the S4 was its clean lines. the M340 had really weird door handle placement, yea maybe i'm a little ocd, ok a lot. but it looks like hans and frans phoned that one in from a clean line perspective. I'm in and out of these cars all the time due to track hobby, so I get to ride in a ton of them. Will say the car does move right along and is very composed in track situations for stock. Best of the luck with the bimmer

[gapband]

Sold my B9 S4 for the X3M Comp. I will say that the build quality of the S4 is pretty great as far as fit and finish is concerned. My 85k BMW built in South Carolina came with a handful of quality issues. Body panel misalignment, taillight misalignment, peeling paint, and squeaky door handles. Never had any of those problems on my german-built S4.

The S4 B&O system sounds so much better than the Harmon Kardon system.

At the end of the day though, the BMW is just a better driver's car all around.

[Eddy.S4]

Congrats on the new ride BelinS4. The M340 is a great car from everything I’ve read and seen firsthand (a friend picked one up recently).

I may have missed it, but what sudden reliability issues did you encounter with your S4?