Jonathan Davies

Now I know this isn't an Audi forum (and I've looked at rs246 a bit) but you're generally a knowledgable lot...

I fancy a s/h Audi S4 and I'm trying to work out whether a B6 4.2v8 is worth the extra over a B5 2.7 biturbo. Obviously the B6 is newer and easier to find with decent mileage, but there a few decent B5s around too, at a big discount to the B6s.

I'm looking at 3 to 5/6 years old I guess, so all out of warranty. I live in London and I'm not precious about my cars - they get lived in and the suffer from the usual London street parking symptoms. I quite fancy a turbo kick after 3 years of a big s/c engine.

Is it really worth spending an extra 10-15 grand on a B6? My feeling is not, but maybe someone out there is about to tell me the B6 is infinitely superior in some way.

TIA

Edit: i've bollocksed it in the wrong forum I see.

stilover

The B5 and B6 are pretty much the same on performance terms on paper. I've never driven a B6 S4, but have a B5. Bottom to mid range is just awsome, while you can feel it drop off near the top of the rev range. The B5, because of the Turbo's is a far more tuneable car. A simple chip can see 320bhp (265bhp standard) and a lot more torque (B5 and B6 have around 300 ft torque in standard form)
B5 shape is looking a little dated now, but is a very nice car. Bad points of B5 S4? Numb steering, way over servo'd brakes, sloppy gear shift, and rock hard seats. Other than that, the car will cover ground VERY quickly. Vertually no lag too (thanks to the 2 turbo's).

Brendan Hughes

Is the old S4 also 2.7biturbo, or is that only old RS4? Me fick.

As he says, old one v tuneable but reputed to be numb, not sure how much the new one answers that.

Never been near either. HTH

FletchCSL

The current S4 and RS4 are V8's, whereas the old versions were both based on the 2.7 biturbo V6 i recall

Jonathan Davies

Not sure about the old RS4... I'm a bit put off by the legendary RS running costs. I don't want a brute really, just a nice comfortable car that's brisk.

stilover... ta. Would you say the ride in the B5 was hard, or just the seats? I'm going to look at at least one this w/e, so I can see then I guess. Numb I don't mind so much.

stilover

The ride itself is very nice, it's dampered very well. Doesn't feel harsh & crash like a STI, although it is still a firm ride. tyres might make a bit of difference. When my old man had one it wore Pirelli P6000's.

The seats are hard. If you do short/ish journeys then you should be fine. It's just after an hour or so, your back starts to ache.
Try and get one with the Bose sound system too, well worth shopping around for. The Climate control is a million times better than the weedy Air con in the Impreza's

Oh yes, drivern keenly you will probably get about 21mpg. More if you drive less keenly

Jonathan Davies

Gracias. Bose seems a fairly common upgrade, happily.

I average 13-14 mpg at the mo... over 20 will do nicely.

I might see if I can try a B6 anyway...

stilover

Good luck mate. Let us know how you get on

ScoobyDoo555

I've got a B5 S4. Pre-facelift 1998. Bi-turbo 2.7 V6

Getting about 24 mpg however, I've heard that the V8s are horrendous on mpg.
As you've said, the RS has some eye-watering running costs, but tbh, I'm finding my S4 pretty manageable.

This is coming from a modded UK Scoob (classic)

Try and look at a 1999 post-facelift, as they're lower mileage and tend to have everything donw on them.

Mine's got leather interior, Bose (great sounding system tbh - sub included!! ) and centre armrest (yes, it was an option)
If you can find the leather Recaros, pay more for them, as to retro-fit, you'll find Shergar sooner than you'll find 2nd hand Recaros.

The big thing is that the torque of the B5 is huge, in comparison (feeling) to the B6. If you want Turbo "push", the B5 is all the way.

There's a discussion on RS246 at the moment about people's upgrade paths for their next car. many are saying that the B5 is VERY hard to better, as the other cars don't offer the performance feeling..... including the RS4. The RS is potent (more bhp), but the torque (which is what counts) isn't a percpetively good.......

I'm so chuffed with mine, as I never thought I'd change from the Subaru, but I'm already dreading changing my S4 Avant - I've only had it since the start of March!!!

Don't profess to know all there is, but feel free to PM me

Dan

Olly

Drove an S4 B6 (4.2V8) at length not so long ago, and very nearly bought it. Very, very impressive.

Never driven a B5 so cannot compare. But I would hunt around for a bargain B6. The car I drove sold for £19050: not bad for a 1 owner 2.5 year old with 34k miles.

Jonathan Davies

Scoobydoo555... cheers for the info... I'm tempted to go turbo this time I must say. But I think I'll try and drive a B6 at least too.

Olly - that one sounds a bargain. Sub 20k for a decent B6 is a tempter too.

Decisions decisions.

AudiLover

B5 for track days/tuning. B6 for everything else.

Jeff Wiltshire

Drove a B7 S4 the other day (same engine and power as the B6) and it sounded great but felt significantly slower than my B5 S4 (410BHP) and lacks the kick that the B5 has. Obviously a younger car (B6/B7 S4) which will have less mechanical issues (turbos have a habit of failing on the B5) but you'll pay through the nose for the fuel and it's pretty expensive to tune. Decent facelift B5 plus £5K get's you a 410BHP rocket that still does 26mpg on a run......for around £15K

stilover

I've never heard of the Turbo's going on the B5, but the Turbo clips do, at around 14k miles. All B5 cars shouold have had this done under warranty. You notice it as a high picked squeek/rattle coming from the fron of the car. Without warranty it can be a very expensive job to replace the clips. If I remember right, the dealer said either £1000 or £2000 without warranty.

RB5_245

The noise that comes out of the back of the V8 is amazing, much better than the V6. Suppose it's quite quiet inside the car though

Jonathan Davies

Hopefully going to look at one of each on Saturday... an 01/Y B5 avant with only 26k on it and an 03/53 B6 with about the same.

Cheers for all the info.

Jeff Wiltshire

KO3 turbos on the B5 S4 are prone to failure, mine went at 50K. This is can be due to boost leaks/Throttle Body Failure/F Pipe splitting/MAF failure and the fact that the K03 is fragile compared with the K04 in the RS4s. The 'clips' your refering to are the pre-facelift manifold which come apart inside causing a rattle...some of the early cars did have this done under warrenty but most did not.

stilover

Happened on the post-facelift too. That's the one my old man had.

Jeff Wiltshire

The facelift manifold was different to the pre-facelift and they didn't/don't suffer the same problem. The fix Audi put in place was to put the new version of the manifold on the pre-facelift cars.