Moving on from 8L S3 to S4 (poss tweaked 2.0 T Quattro Sport)

[S3 Wannabe]

As the title suggests guys (and girls), looking to up size from my remapped 2002 S3 to preferably a 03/04 S4. I was wondering if anybody else had made the change (or from something similar) and what their experiences have been. Particularly:

• Cost of road tax
• mpg
• general servicing
• all round performance of car
• things to check for when looking

S4 is really what I'm after, but I haven't ruled out a mapped 2.0T QS and was wondering if this was a viable option/alternative to my S4 dreams!?

Thanks for any replies! :thumbsup:

 

[BahnStormer77]

2.0T will be a B7, not B6... 1.8TQS (1.8 Turbo Quattro Sport) is the B6 equivalent - available in 160bhp, 180bhp and 190bhp flavours...

I've only driven the 1.8TQS briefly on test drives and I've not driven the S4 at all, so maybe not the best reviewer of them, but general consensus seems to be:

As you already know, the 1.8T is a highly tunable engine which will be a much closer comparison to your S3 albeit in a bigger car.

Double edged sword going to the A4: as it's a bigger, longer, heavier car... but then it does have PROPER Torsen quattro rather than Haldex... but then you do pay a penalty for that in fuel economy going down... and you can go back and forth for a while.

1.8TQS vs S4: the 1.8TQS is lot lighter and a bit more chuckable than an S4 (especially with a RS4 RARB), but then the V8 is a bit of a torque monster and you'd have to spend several grand to get that much power out of the 1.8T: you're clearly after a bigger, more grown up car - just depends on how much more grown up.

Insurance likely to be a bit more int he S4, but assuming you're goign for a B6, I think they all have the same road-tax band as the S3 that you're coming from.