Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The 2001.5 Audi S4 Avant I wrote up a few weeks back as part of Tuner Tuesday has now popped up on Ebay. The reserve is on, but we’ve heard from people who have seen this car in person saying this car will not disappoint. This is a fairly rare to see color combination on these S4 Avants and the condition and modifications seem to justify the pricing before; I expect the reserve is set close to the original ask of $17,500.
Okay, I got the memo. You didn’t like earlier’s Tuner S4. And while I think it’s pretty silly to discount the car completely because of some fairly easily changeable interior pieces, I also had issue with the car as honestly I’d prefer an Avant if I was going the S4 route. What’s a guy to do? Well, lucky for us there’s an equally awesome, equally Imola Avant in our Self Service Classifieds:
When they were first released, I personally thought that the B5 S4 was a bit disappointing. After all, it was basically only producing a few more horsepower than the revered outgoing turbocharged inline-5 had produced, and indeed produced less power than the S6+ and S6 V8 models produced. Like the E36 M3, the styling was conservative and understated but handsome, but the performance was also on par with the M3 which had just gone out of production. It really seemed like Audi was behind a few steps. Since then, the appeal of the B5 to me has increased a bit; as a package capable of both driving all year and turning some incredible numbers on the dyno there are few that can match it. My view started to change when I got a ride in an Imola Yellow S4 Avant that was built to RS4 specs – on the front straight at Lime Rock Park, the car easily accelerated from 80 to 120mph before the start/finish line. The acceleration was brutal and instant; not what you’d expect from a heavy turbocharged car – and a reminder of how much the Audi engineers left in that motor. It’s further interesting to me that after abandoning turbocharging in favor of naturally aspirated V8s, Audi and other manufacturers have been forced to reevaluate and include forced induction in their performance models. Today, you can get a very nice example of a B5 S4 for under $10,000 – but if you want one that’s a turn-key bullet, you’ll have to shell out a bit more for one like today’s lower mile Imola Yellow S4 sedan:
Being a fan of older Audis – and owning one – I’ve followed with much excitement the development of a small California-based tuning firm called 034 Motorsports. 034 – a reference to the 5-cylinder Audi motor part numbers – has taken a niche community and turned it into a flowering business. Initially starting with turbo modifications to the older 5 cylinder cars, the folks that make up the brain trust at 034 created some legendary Audis – most notable, the 1,000 horsepower turbocharged 80 quattro. But the reality is that these now 25 year old cars make up a very small percentage of the tuning market, so 034 turned to the much more popular A4 and Volkswagen GTi crowds, creating two stunning cars in the process. Less spectacular but stunningly effective was the A4 Time Attack car which went through several different engine configurations; but much more notable and impressive is what 034 attempted next; mid-mounting a V6 turbo into a 2001 GTi. The results are nothing short of stunning:
Growing up, my parents had an affinity for Hondas. I think years of Fiats wore my father down and the reliability of Japanese subcompacts was too attractive. But then, in the late 1990s, Volkswagen changed the mid-sized sedan game with the B5 Passat. Sharing architecture with the Audi A4, the new Passat brought a lot of luxury and refinement to what was becoming an otherwise lackluster vehicle segment in the US. Sure enough, my parents traded their 1997 Honda Accord EX for a 1999 Passat GLS V6 with a 5-speed manual gearbox. It took a while to have the car delivered, since the manual gearbox was a bit of an oddball request, but once they got the car, it was leaps and bounds more engaging than the four cylinder Accord ever was. My parents kept the car for about three years before trading it for a 2000 Mercedes-Benz C280 (which they still have), but I was a big fan of that Passat.
This silver on black leather 2004 Passat for sale in Pennsylvania is the later B5.5 generation, but has the same color and drivetrain combination as the Passat that was in our family, one that I have fond memories of. It was one of those cars that should have stuck around in the garage a bit longer.