The S4 Avant has always seemed like the best of all worlds to me. While our household quiver of automobiles all serve fairly unique purposes – a truck for hauling and beating on, a van for camping and road trips, and the M5 for raucous fun. The longroof S4 can accomplish most of those things pretty well without taking up three parking spots. I’ve been in one that was beat up and used a construction company car, while a roofbox could make the rear sleepable and lord knows the 4.2L V8 can dispense some justice. This B7 model looks great in black and has just over 50k miles, meaning you’ll hopefully have some worry-free miles before you start wondering if you’re on the precipice of a maintenance nightmare.
Tag: S4
Last week’s 10K Friday Colorful Carriers was a bit of a letdown; sure, the colors were great, but the only manual was the B6 V8 S4 Avant, and while it was a cool package there was no denying the trepidation with which I’d approach that particular package. To remedy that issue, this week I’m again focusing on some haulers capable of hauling; we’ve lost the color pallet but all of these Avants are turbocharged and manual, just the way most like it. So, this time around, which is the pick of the litter?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2001 Audi S4 Avant on Portland Craigslist
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Did someone say fast 5-doors? Amen! The bells on the Church of the Heavenly 5 Doors are ringing this Friday, and I’ve rounded up a unique quartet of very fast and very colorful wagons to consider, each around or below $10,000. We’ve got 5 turbos, 25 cylinders and 1,200 horsepower worth of people carriers here – which is the winner for you?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Audi S4 Avant on Denver Craigslist
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Yesterday, we posted a throwback video to the 1992 Audi S4 review by the television show Motorweek. For me, it was interesting to watch as they went through both the highlights and some of the faults of the now legendary car. One thing they mentioned towards the end really struck me; the original run of 250 1992 units had completely sold out, and they were taking orders for 1993. Mind you, this was at a time where Audi nearly pulled out of the market; to me, this makes the success of the C4 chassis all the more poignant. If the A4 revitalized Audi, it was really the C4 in its varying guises that kept both the fire ignited amongst enthusiasts and simultaneously kept Audi’s small foothold in the marketplace – in particular, the C4 A6 2.8 Avant was a particularly successful and popular car. But today we’re talking about the model everyone really wants, the S4; following up on my Sprint Blue double post from yesterday, here’s a pair of 1993 S4s in Audi’s signature color until the end of the 20V run; Pearlescent White Metallic. It adorned nearly every variant of quattro from the original right through the S8, but it’s most notable between the 5000CS quattro, 200 20V models and the S4. Which of these pearls would you take home?
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1993 Audi S4 on Craigslist
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If you follow these pages, neither the names RS4 or Avant should be particularly new to you. Audi’s B5 generation fast wagon wasn’t the first to wear the RS badge, but it was the first fully quattro GmbH RS car. In the spirit of the RS2 built in conjunction with Porsche and the S6 plus which moved production in house to the quattro GmbH subsidiary, Audi utilized the VAG group acquisition of Cosworth to up the boost on the twin-turbocharged V6 to produce the best part of 400 horsepower. But while the RS2 and S6 plus had rather discrete changes outside to signify how special they were, the RS4 added vents, slats, big flares and giant wheels to back up the added performance. It was the change that launched a thousand dreams, as countless B5 S4 owners attempted to recreate the package that wasn’t brought to the U.S.. A few have made it here through back channels and we’ve written up previously the huge premium they command over regular S4s, but the newer generations of performance cars have dimmed the concentration on the older wonder Audis. Still, even today the RS4 is a pretty potent performance machine and getting closer to being legally importable to the U.S.. But of course our neighbors to the north have more lax importations laws, so RS4s are making their way into Canada as we speak. Additionally, really good examples of the regular S4 Avants are drying up as well. Today, I have an interesting comparison – a just imported, low mileage RS4 Avant versus a fully upgraded, low mileage S4 Avant – likely one of the nicest in the U.S.. What’s the difference in value today?