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From YourSITE.com Reviews & Road Tests Life is good. This is something that is immediately apparent when you have at your disposal an S4 Cabriolet during the summer months. Sure, gasoline isn’t cheap nowadays and black leather gets hot in the sun, but such worries are trivial when you’ve got both the top and the accelerator in the down position, wind flowing through your hair and that sultry exhaust note bouncing off the underside of overpasses as you blast down the highway.
Needless to say, performance on the S4 Cabriolet is satisfying. Torque is wide and plentiful, making it relatively easy to pass in sixth gear with little need for a downshift. Cowl-flex is there, but not obtrusive and certainly livable. Our drop top S-car has been essentially trouble free. Other than a recurring service light for some reason, the car has caused us no strife, just miles of gluttonous enjoyment. We’ve only noticed one other oddity, and other Cabriolet owners in our discussion forums have confirmed for us that it seems to be typical of the Audi drop top. Putting the lid up or down, audio on any setting is very briefly interrupted for a fraction of a second. Not even a nuisance, it’s hardly worth mentioning. Not able to leave well enough alone with any car, even one we plan on just enjoying, an aluminum S-line knob was ordered from UK-based VAGParts.com. We have a 5-speed version of the shifter in our Project A4 Avant 1.8T. We liked it so much, a 6-speed version was certainly in order for the Cabriolet. The finish matches that of the mirrors and windscreen border perfectly, while the look is heavily influenced by the aluminum shifters in the pre-war Auto Union racecars - making for great-looking top-down interior jewelry.
We also considered adding aluminum beltline trim to the interior from the A4 Cabriolet S-line (part numbers listed below). However, once we installed the aluminum knob, the accenting wood really made the look pop. Plus, retail on the aluminum trim is over $1,000 from the dealer, a hard nut to swallow, so we’ll forego that modification, at least for now. 4 Seasons Drivers’ Log Notes: 78 Miles The pre-set function of Nav plus is so intuitive, you’ll wonder how you dealt without it all of these years. Each car has no less than thirty preset stations where you can mix and match between FM, AM and Satellite if so equipped – in our case XM. Put your local AM news station, FM-based local NPR station and CNN from XM all together in a group, while local channels like WHFS with its alternative rock programming can slot in with Ethel or MTV on XM. XM also has major market traffic and weather channels, cycling through both reports in about five minutes. Washington, D.C. and Baltimore stations are added to the preset list. 430 miles This car gets a surprising number of looks. Being a convertible, we expect it would be women who are more appreciative, though that’s not the case. Parking the car on a busy street in Kentlands, a planned community in Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C., more male motorheads stop to check it out – ogling in appreciation. 630 miles The S4 goes on its first road trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It’s a relatively short jaunt at about 100 miles from Washington, D.C., but a must as we’re headed to a 10th Year College Reunion, and who wouldn’t want to roll up to a reunion in a car like this? Upside – you look pretty successful. Downside – you end up getting stuck buying a few rounds at the The Pub on the square of Gettysburg. To Pennsylvania, we get 20.9 mpg, just one tenth shy of the car’s EPA rating for highway. Though a hair's-width short of the highway rating, we’re beating the city numbers at an average of 16 mpg, slightly better than the EPA’s 15 mpg figure. These figures aren’t hateful, but gas is getting pricey. The tall sixth gear keep the burbling V8 of our S4 only 3mpg off of the figure we turn in our B6 Project A4 1.8T Avant – the latter with a 5-speed that keeps revs higher at cruising speeds. 704 miles A “Service” message begins to appear in the info center. We later schedule a quick stop at Rockville Audi in the Maryland town of the same name, where we’re told there’s nothing wrong when the diagnostics are run. What is the cause? Our tech suggests that perhaps the time trigger for service hadn’t been reset when the car had been PDI-ed. We are six months out of production, though far short of the 5,000 mile scheduled service. Rockville washes the S4 and returns it to us at no charge.
718 miles The top goes up and down with the key just like windows on a fixed top Audi. Hit it a second time once the windows go down and the top follows suit. Same goes for putting the top up. Rumor is this can be programmed with a VAG-COM to work with the key fob remote. We’ll look into this. 820 miles We begin to notice marks on the polished aluminum trim where the base seal seats when the car’s top is up. It has been slow first couple weeks on the car, and the top has been up and down quite a bit, with most of our trips being short ones. We take the time to perform our first detailing, and what appears to be pitting on the trim turns out to be scuffs from the top’s seal that are easily removed with minor rubbing. 1312 miles The car’s second road trip to the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia. Audi’s new DVD-based NavPlus unit makes trips like this really no bother at all. Plug in the address and go. Maps are scaleable with a turn of the MMI-inspired controller. Normally whatever direction you’re going is up on the map, though when you dial out the scale to a certain point, the map orients North-South With a destination entered, you are occasionally given several alternate routes to choose from. Plug in your desired route and the next three steps in directions are listed, much like you’d see on directions printed from Mapquest.com . We’ve noticed this is a feature = similarily equipped Volkswagens don’t have. Time flies when you have satellite radio and MP3 capabilities. We alternate from the SD-card sourced MP3s to XM’s various comedy stations. Knocking out of Live8 early enough to miss much of the crowd’s mass exodus from the city, we listen to Def Leppard and the last remaining artists live on XM as we jet south on I-95. When the Philly feed ends, we flip to Toronto and are back in DC as the concert ends. 1479 miles The service indicator is again triggered. When we get the car into the dealership at just shy of 2000 miles, it is again reset at no charge.
Reader's View: Robert Konick a.k.a. Wallabyguy My wife and I took delivery of our new 2005.5 S4 Cabriolet on June 23rd. The car is a replacement for my 2005 Lotus Elise which met with an untimely demise last November at the hands of a speeding Ford Econovan. I had strict doctors orders to hold off on another Lotus for year or so while I recuperate and far be it from me to let a sunny season pass without a convertible, especially while my body heals. My wife has loved the lines of the A4 cabriolet since it was introduced. We ordered a car very similar to 4T's long-termer (equipment wise, ours is silver) other than a Tiptronic gearbox for my wife's bad knee. I had to twist my wife's arm to get the Nav-Plus system as she saw it as a luxury which we'd never use. Well I'm happy to report that after 2 weeks and over 2,000 miles, she doesn't know how she lived without it. Obviously, by the mileage, this is a well liked addition to our stable. The car is certainly not the Elise, nor is it meant to be. Where the Elise was a quick car, the S4 is fast. The Elise is a true sports car while the S4 is a Grand Tourer. It amazes me that the S4 can handle as much speed as it does so effortlessly. Speeds in the triple digits are easily obtainable and maintained. Legal limits seem just plain slow in this car. The fit and finish is exactly what I'd expect from an Audi. The interior takes the basic design principles from my previous A6 and makes smart upgrades. The new cup holders are bar none the best I've seen in any car period. Everything from the climate control to the nav system are where they ought to be and are easy to use without distracting the driver from his/her duties. The new LCD screen between the Tach and Speedo is a huge improvement over the old red LED one. I have never experienced the Recaros of the Sedan or Avant, so I cannot compare them to those found in the Cabriolet, but during a 4 hour trek to West Virginia the seats proved more than up to the challenge. During that same trip we were able to move my twin teenage daughter's baggage for a week long camp visit with no problem in the generous trunk. The top does an exceptional job at isolating the elements (weather and sound) from the interior of the car. My wife and I agree that the Cabriolet is quieter with the top up than our A6 Avant. Top down, we can easily hold a conversation without raising our voices. We have not yet used the air deflector which comes as part of the premium package, nor do we really intend to. One of the few areas the car does disappoint is the time required to raise or lower the roof. While certainly not excessive, it does take longer than we recall our Chrysler Sebring rental did on our last vacation. Part of the problem is that this car does so much so well that even a slight deficiency becomes glaring in the execution of an otherwise exceptional vehicle. Pricing could be a weakness. While certainly cheaper than its Mercedes counterpart, the M3 convertible is close and offers a more involving experience. The upcoming Concept C will also add second thoughts to many buyers who see a significant premium for a soft top versus a state of the art retractable hardtop. I bought ours at Holberts which also offers Porsche and saw many buyers admire our car on delivery day just to walk over to the slightly used 911 Cabriolets and Boxsters. Our car also cost over $10k more than my well-optioned Lotus Elise (something not lost on my wife or accountant). Unlike my Elise, which people would regularly guess cost in excess of $100k, I constantly get guesses on the price of the S4 nearly $15k LESS than its sticker. Not that I mind. I didn't buy the Elise for attention nor did I the S4. Then again, the S4 cabriolet is arguably the best all around convertible in the world, capable of doing so many things so well. With only 2200 making their way here each year, which just so happens to be the same number of Lotus Elises which annually make the same voyage, I doubt there will ever be much need for Audi to worry about selling every one. Parts Listing: 8E0 863 278AG QQX 0 – 6-speed Aluminum S-line Gear Knob (source: www.VAGParts.com) 8H1 853 190 N 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Passenger Side Above Gllovebox 8H1 853 189 F 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Driver Side Front 8H1 857 967 P 1NK – Aluminum Interior Trim, Front Ashtray Cover 8E0 857 967 P 1NK – Aluminum Interior Trim, Rear Ashtray Cover 8E0 864 261 AD 1NK – Aluminum Interior Trim, Middle Console Around Gearbox 8HO 867 409 G 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Front Driver Door 8HO 867 410 G 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Front Passenger Door 8HO 867 101 F 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Rear Seating Area, Driver Side 8HO 867 102 F 1NK – Aluminum Interior Beltline Trim, Rear Seating Area, Passenger Side Related Links: www.VAGParts.com Report 1 Report 2 Report 3 Report 4 Report 5
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