Goodbye allroad, hello S4 avant (anybody want tires?)

[DavefromVA]

After 11 months of trying to eliminate a pesky pull to the right in my 03 allroad, the saga is over, and I'm very happy with Audi for standing behind their product (albeit with some prodding from me). They continued to claim that the handling of my car was within normal design limits, but they did repurchase it out of goodwill (maybe helped by the fact that I buy at least one new car per year, and the allroad was my 4th Audi).

Because they maintain that the handling of my allroad was normal for that car, they suggested that I might not want to replace it with another allroad. So yesterday I turned the allroad in, cashed my repurchase check, and purchased an 04 S4 avant. I will miss the back seat room of the allroad the most, but I'm thrilled with the S4.

Which brings me to the tires....I have 4 OEM Goodyear allroad tires with approx 17K miles on them, sitting in my attic. (I replaced them with Falkens in an attempt to cure the pull to the right. Audi insisted I surrender the car with the tires currently on it.) SO, they are available for the price of ONE COLD BEER, to the first person who wants to come to Williamsburg to get them. Take one, or take all 4. Cheers!

[Asgor]

[NYallroad]

But for completely different reason: more power & fun factor !

My '02 allroad (41K miles) has been flawless but I would hate to lose alot of room, I have 2 small children.
How bad is the storage/room comparison ?

I know that v8 is sweet !

Thanks,

[DavefromVA]

Glenn,

It's incredibly sweet. The clutch takeup is a little tricky, as has been discussed in the S4 message board. But I personally have no problems with the drive by wire throttle; I think it's only a problem if you want to hold higher revs and then dump the clutch. Personally, I try to drive smooth and fast, with no dramatic clutch drops, so it hasn't bothered me a bit.

The cargo area is pretty generous...I haven't measured, but it doesn't appear to be much smaller than that ar. It's a bit narrower, and less tall, but they made great use of space. The biggest change is back seat legroom...it's downright skimpy. But if your kids are small, they won't care! And it is fun.

[Shabbis]

I would like a V8 S4 Avant someday.

[NYallroad]

s4 avants are really scarce here in the NY, was yours hard to find ?

thanks again,

[DavefromVA]

Funny enough, my avant came from a dealer in upstate NY. Normally the dealers won't let go of them, but this dealer owed my local dealer in VA a few favors ( I think my dealer DX'd them some cabriolets), so a trade was worked. But my general understanding is that it's pretty hard to do a dealer exchange. Better to use autotrader.com to see who has them, and then deal with the fleet/internet sales manager directly. As of last week, there were Avants in PA (Allentown), NJ (northern), and a few in upstate NY.

For anyone looking: do a new car search on autotrader.com; you can't specify just avants, so you'll have to scroll through all the S4's. And you can't always tell what options or even what transmission they have. But that's what the telephone is for, right?

[DavefromVA]

I've only had my S4 for a couple of days, so these are early impressions. My S4 avant is a 6 speed manual, and my 2003 allroad was a 2.7 tiptronic, so they feel like completely different cars.

The power difference is absolutely amazing. I test drove some 4.2 liter allroads, but the motor in the S4 puts out more power, revs more easily, and has less weight to haul around. No comparison...the allroad feels like a very quick luxury car that happens to be able to go almost anywhere. The S4 on the other hand feels like a sport sedan with a fanny pack. It's got that buttoned down feeling of a bmw 330, for example.

The S4 steering is great...I love the way it weights up at speed. Much more feedback than through the allroad. Brakes seem great so far too. My biggest complaint is the clutch takeup...it's difficult to master and hard to launch smoothly. But after a few more days, I'm sure i'll be much smoother.

The allroad, though, absolutely trumps the S4 in terms of utility. Even being a wagon, the S4 is much smaller. The back seat leg room is minimal, and the deeply contoured "recaro" back seats mean that only 2 people can ride in back, realistically. The cargo area has a decent sized footprint, but the rear glass is more sloped, so the height is cut down significantly.

Also, despite the quattro, this is never going to be a snow machine, let alone be able to go offroad like the beloved ar. The S4 rides low enough that, even with snow tires, I suspect that it would have trouble navigating more than 4-5 inches of heavy wet snow...i'm afraid it would build up under the low body panels, and create a ramp effect that would lift the body and rob the tires of traction.

The interior is pure Audi. My wife has a B6 series A4, and it's true that the current allroad/a6 platform feels a bit dated compared to the B6's. Nothing major, just details, like the easier and more intuitive cruise control stalk, the lane-change signal function, the improved gauge lighting, etc.

One thing I really appreciate though is the way that the cargo net (or DOG net, in my case) has been designed. In the allroad, if I wanted to fold down the rear seats and raise the net so I could take my dog along, I also had to detach and remove that retractable cargo cover. I got the side panel of the cargo area dirty from banging the cargo cover into it, and it was a pain to have to take it out of the car. On the B6 platform cars, the retractable cargo cover and the retractable mesh divider/net extend from the same assembly. This means that if I want to take the dog along, I retract the cargo cover, flip down the seats, and simply extend the mesh divider. No more taking out the cargo cover! I would expect this design to show up in the next gen A6 avant (and the allroad variant if there is one).

I know that I'll miss my allroad, but I'm also thrilled with the S4 avant. We can't go wrong.

[DavefromVA]

I'll keep my eye open for your avant around town.

[arob]

I will need to go there two weekends from now. My fiancee is from there (Kingsmill), and we need to take a trip down there. Please let me know if you still have them. )