Okay, so having had an S4 in my life for a little over 24 hours, time for an essay on the story so far. Forgive me if this ends up a bit disjointed. I'm using an iPad because it's just too hot to have the computer on in a room that is currently facing the sun full on. So, where to start?
I arrived at Bexley Audi a few minutes early to be greeted by a kind soul who offered to valet park my A4 for the last time. We then had a hour's worth of very boring but very necessary admin before I was taken to the "departure lounge". During that hour, I was given a free ashtray to finish off the cupholder, a bottle of champagne, a tin of sweets, two AMI cables, oh and an "S" key fob at a discount. Clutching my goody bag, finally I got the car. The sales lady lamented that it was dirty (even a dead fly on the roof) but she knew I wanted it that way. After a few minutes of showing around the controls, she bid me goodbye with a hug, and off I went, half a mile straight home to take the dog for a walk.
During a blistering hot afternoon, I did little more than put stuff in it. My attempts to install
@t8ups' lighting upgrades didn't go well. I managed to break one of the ice white fogs and snap a wire connection off the boot LED. Also, some of the door LEDs refused to light up, however much I jiggled the connections. These things will be fixed next Tuesday when
@NHN visits to fit my Blackvue camera.
Mrs JDP and I went for a short drive down the A2 to Bluewater, where we had dinner and discussed the car. She thought it was beautiful, especially the black/silver leather combo that she had chosen. She's also loving the electric adjusters on her seat. I was a bit disappointed at the DAB losing signal and going silent quite a lot. This is generally a very strong signal area, so not sure why that's happening. Hooking up my phone is a bit of a chore, whichever method I use; via AMI means leaning over to the glovebox and via the 12V socket in the console means moving and then resetting the armrest position. Neither is ideal, but no doubt I'll adapt.
Today we had plans to go out for the day, taking the dog with us too, but it has been prohibitively hot. Right now, as I write this, it's 36 degrees. Plus, I overdid the beer last night. So in the end, all we did was drive to Bluewater again. Boring, huh?
All this means I haven't really had a chance to wring it out yet, but it's quite obviously a peach to drive. The engine is exquisitely smooth as well as brutally powerful, and the exhaust rasp on acceleration certainly gets Mrs JDP's seal of approval. Presently, I've got ADS set to individual, and have selected all dynamic options except for engine/gearbox, which is on auto. But even if all I'm doing is plodding down the A2, it's just a sumptuous place to be.
This afternoon, I hooked up the Carista app, cleared all the stored faults from yesterday's lighting mishaps, then did a bit of tweaking. I enabled the remote lock beep, and disabled the seatbelt warning. Two other things I'd like to do but don't think I can is disable the driver's door open bleep and the interlock that prevents the handbrake disengaging unless I'm wearing a seatbelt. It's such a chore when all you want to do is move the car on the drive.
Tomorrow, the windows get tinted, and on Friday, it's the big detail.