I am currently looking for a daily driver <18,000. I was wondering if anyone had any exp. with these model year S4's.


Also other suggestions are welcome.


Thanks in advance,

Justin

 

I believe pre 2001.5 S4's have a turbo oil starvation problem so they go through turbos quickly. I know a lot of people who own/owned a last gen S4 and they all have had problems. But I bet an S4 forum could shed more light on problems.

 

Not true.

I have a 2001 S4 6-speed. The turbos are designed to run near full spec when stock. They are tiny K03 units designed to spool quickly. Correct oil usage and changes (with filter) on a regular basis will ensure long life. A 1-bar chip for the S4 is safe assuming proper maintenance and correct warm-up/cool-down. The chip keeps the waste-gates closed longer and advances timing faster. Chips that push more than 1 bar will cause the turbos to fail prematurely. They are simply not designed to handle the stress for a long period of time. Years of reading stories on Audiworld have convinced me of that.

Guys who blew their turbos likely did so by pushing the car very hard. Plus many failures of new turbos is due to botched installs. The procedure takes a lot of time to do correctly.

My car has 76,000 miles with the original turbos. It is a great daily driver year around.

 

Sounds like you had a good experience with them and I know plenty of other people who would say the same, but on the whole, they are NOT a cheap car to drive and maintain long term. And if you mod it or drive it hard, better have deep pockets.

 

Pakisho is right on the money. I had a good friend with a modified 2001 S4 that was an absolute nightmare. He drove it about as hard as I drive my S2000, and he spent more than my S2000 is worth in the 20k miles he drove it. Again, it really comes down to the individual car as well, because some are very problematic, while others run perfectly.

That said, they can be great vehicles if treated well, and it is an absolutely fabulous car to drive/look at/drool over.

 

Theft rate on S4s is very high. And as a result insurance will likely be high too.

Andrew

 

Its a German car so $$$ is always necessary. A wise person once told me never own a German car out of warranty. It is costly, but the reward of driving the car is still worth it. That may change some day.

Mine is modded and hits the track for 2-3 days a year. I do not consistently beat the hell out of it, but it has never been babied.

 

It is on KBB's top 10 most expensive cars to insure, I pay more to insure my S2000.

 

i was looking at purchasing one, for winter use, i wanted to mod it, K04s ect. It was going to cost me far more to mod and maintain than purchasing a new subie. I love the look but had concerns about reliability of a used car and not knowing the history of the previous driver.

 

I owned 2 of them and they were in the shop constantly...great cars when they're not in the shop but pretty much soured me on Audi's.