It's a good looking car but it's not that good looking. While I think it is a good looking car, I think the shape is a bit on the generic side.
Your nuts
I vote A4 with the toys. Why not get the sport package if you want to add wheels anyways? $1500 for 18", sport suspension, and sport seats seems to be a pretty good deal.
S5 is one of my dream cars.
But, and it's a big one for me, to me it's a midlife crisis car. It's a car you buy to impress gold diggers.
The factory Sat Nav units are RIDICULOUSLY expensive...not worth it getting them new imo...but 2nd hand is the way to go but I've heard the US market isn't the same like the UK for 2nd hand cars.
Audi wanted £1.5k for the S3 Sat Nav unit for my mate also...he got the steering wheel upgrade, recaro racing seats instead.
Koing
i think i'm goign sports pack if i do now. its not very much more.... plus the wheel is 3 spokes instead of 4.
but yeah, granted this thread seems to heavily favor the A5, but i'm probably getting an A4 premium plus , sport pack. proably black with black interior... @ 500 under invoice which seems like a good deal. After thinking about it a lot today, the front and rear of the A4 and A5 look almost exactly the same. The side obviously looks differnet, but I don't think its a huge enough differentiator.
I actually decided I didn't need a nav, and might just buy a nexus one as consolation since its $2500 for a nav system which seems a bit absurd to me. So i'm probably going to end up with a 2010 A4 premium plus , quattro with sport pack, and $5000+ left over compared to an A5 with same options. Seems they are doing $500 UNDER invoice and 1.9% APR , so the recession has made this car really not obscenely expensive.
Oddly after all the posts about people staring at your car , I realized I didnt really want that. I don't want that much attention, I had a very hot coupe 5 years ago (i posted here when i got it actually) and remember having everyone talk about my car constantly and cops following me around some cities etc, and that being a little annoying.
And yeah the S4 is nice. Its like another $17kish though, and I really don't care to be going that fast. Might get an ecu reflash on the A4 later if I get that itch.
i wouldn't buy an audi at all, but if i had to decide between those 2 cars i would go with the A5
the A4 is massively understeering when driven enthusiastic. the a5 is a bit better since the quattro system has a different torque distribution (more torque to the read wheels). but both of them are fat & lazy cars for german highways - so driving fast in a straight line is their sole purpose
i wouldn't buy an audi at all, but if i had to decide between those 2 cars i would go with the A5
the A4 is massively understeering when driven enthusiastic. the a5 is a bit better since the quattro system has a different torque distribution (more torque to the read wheels). but both of them are fat & lazy cars for german highways - so driving fast in a straight line is their sole purpose
i did drive quattros in the snow, and they all are understeering as normal fwd cars
i didn't drive the latest A4 though
but i think it's nose weighted as hell like every other VW
if you think a GTI got great traction, you should drive a mx5
The weight distribution is 55/45...so it is still nose heavy, but it does not understeer anything like the older A4's. For an "experts" opinion, Car & Driver placed the S4 above the 335i (RWD)...part of that win being the driving dynamics...and most people would consider the 3 series near the pinnacle of driving dynamics. It may not be to your taste...but you really need to drive the new platform before passing judgement (the first really new platform in the A4 since 1995...it is called the MLP and it underpins both the A5 and the A4).
the only time a man who is not secure about himself should be in a miata is on an autocross track or going on a picnic with a babe.
Outside that you look like a clown without his suit on.