Reviews & Road Tests
4 Season Test: 2007 S4 Sedan – Introduction
By by: George Achorn, photos by author
Feb 9, 2007, 07:46

January 2007
0-1489 miles

If you’re into everyday performance, it’s quite easy to be smitten with the Audi S4. Within Audi’s model lineup and the auto industry in general, the S4 has built itself as one of the staple enthusiast offerings from Ingolstadt. Today it is neither the fastest nor the edgiest. Still, the S4 continues to appeal for its high degree of performance, subtle sporting appearance and every day practicality. Knowing all of this, making the decision of what to add as the latest entrant into our long-term 4 Season test fleet was an easy one.

For 2007, the S4 sedan marks just a few subtle changes. The car’s 18-inch wheels have been swapped for a design originally shown on the Le Mans quattro concept car and more recently fitted in 20-inch diameter to the latest S8. Brake calipers are functionally unchanged, though they are now painted gray with a color S4 logo visible through the spokes of the wheel. Also available for the S4 is an appearance package body kit as seen on the European A4 DTM and the American S4 25quattro. Unfortunately, the kit was not available on cars with certain colors, including our car’s handsome Ibis White.



White is one of the hottest colors in the automotive market right now, with Ibis White being a brand new take that is ever-so-slightly less yellow than past whites. It looks handsome on the S4, especially when added with lighter silver interiors like our car’s two-tone black leather and silver alcantara surfaces fitted to the gripping Recaro sport seats.



Though Audi’s Tiptronic 6-speed transmission has developed into something quite good (tested in 2006), we’re addicted to rowing our own gears whenever possible. The S4 is one of those on the increasingly shorter list of cars on the market anymore that still offers a manual transmission and we were quick to take advantage of that fact while sparing the added cost and saving that money for other options on the check list.

One such option that was a must was Audi’s Convenience Package. This includes a Home Link Transmitter for programming your garage door opener, auto-dimming interior mirror with compass, auto-dimming exterior mirrors, memory on the driver’s power seat, memory for outside mirror positions, rain and light sensor and adaptive front lighting for the car’s capable Xenons. For that, $1,000 was added to the price of our car.

Another must-have option in our opnion was Audi’s Audio Package. For another cool $1,000, buyers get a premium sound system by BOSE and Sirius Satellite Radio prep. Coupled with that upgraded sound, we added Bluetooth phone prep ($500) and Audi Navigation Plus ($1,950).

While ticking boxes on the order form, we also went for a few added luxuries. These included carbon fiber beltline trim ($400), rear Parktronic parking sensors ($350), heated front and rear seats ($225), along with power rear and manual side sunshades to help keep the UV rays off of new additions to the families of our staff ($400).

All tallied up, this brought the cost of our S4 sedan to $55,745 including a $1,700 gas guzzler tax and destination charge of $175.

Driver Notes:

586 miles



First impressions of the S4 are most favorable. It’s hard not to love a car the size of the S4 with a 340-hp V8 underneath the hood. Our 2007’s 40:60 front to rear center differential, standard on manual transmission cars since the intro of the B7 versions, helps make playing around in the occasional winter’s snow a lot of fun though we really need to fit that set of snow tires sitting in the garage.

The S4 sedan’s Recaro sport seats are a welcome change. Bolsters hug nicely, though the seat bottoms sit a little bit higher than standard A4 seats or the seats in our previous 2006 S4 Cabriolet.



642 miles

Connecting our new Blackberry Pearl via Bluetooth hits a small snag. Initially the two devices don’t see each other, though upon shutting down and restarting the car, the two begin the mating process.

Once connected, the Blackberry Pearl and the Audi unit allow for access to the phone’s directory, which makes Caller ID enabled, though the recent calls function doesn’t seem to operate as it did for our previous Sony Ericsson mobile phone.

846 miles

It’s hard not to really play with this car. The S4 calls you out, beckons and tempts you to play, yet the break-in period is best left adhered to. We bide our time knowing there will be plenty of time to play later.



943 miles

Sirius Satellite Radio is a welcome change. With a new address outside of the metro Washington D.C. area, the passing of niceties such as NPR news and talk or regular traffic reports were much lamented. Both are back thanks to the wide array of programming to be found on Sirius. Music channel names also seem to make more sense than competing satellite services.

The multi-function steering wheel is also a big improvement in convenience. Unlike the roll and press functionality in the A6, Q7 and A8 that’s just a little annoying, the system in the S4 simply requires a roll action to change from channel or track depending upon audio mode.



1008 miles

We couldn’t resist. Even though Jack Frost threatens to bite on every cold start, we removed the stock S4 shift knob and replaced it with the aluminum European-spec S-line shifter previously installed in our ’05 Cabriolet. The satin aluminum offers a handsome contrast with the car’s carbon fiber weave. However the knob fetish will continue as a contact at Audi thinks he may have found us something special with which to replace it.

1095 miles

A trip to Pittsburg,h, Pennsylvania has us testing the car’s baby friendliness and storage space.

Prepping to leave, the once copious-looking trunk isn’t deep enough for our rather large and clunky folding baby stroller. The stroller is left behind and the trunk willingly accepts the remainder of our luggage, toys and the remainder of the payload now necessary with a rug rat in the family.

The S4’s rear seat willingly accepts a Brittax baby seat, hooking in to the car’s LATCH system makes for an easy install with just enough room to fit. There are enough LATCH tether points to fit two seats, though with one baby we mount the seat in the center of the rear bench for maximum crash protection.

On the road, the side and rear sunshades are a great addition, making those big goofy Elmo suction cup blinds a trivial pursuit for owners of other cars less equipped than our S4.

1286 miles

The directional Xenon headlights are a cool trick and very intuitive. Passengers not familiar with the technology find it as impressive as the S4’s healthy accelerative abilities.



1492 miles

The driving experience of the S4 is most satisfying. Its 6-speed transmission seems to have shorter throws than our previous ’06 Cabriolet, feeling more like the S4 25quattro tested in 2006. The exhaust note is menacing but not annoying, and the handling, cornering more flatly than our Cabriolet, is also welcome.

Fuel mileage is about the same as the heavier drop top, hitting an indicated 21 mpg without a concentrated effort to be frugal. This makes the S4 a little costly to run long distance, but the added torque and superior acceleration to most other cars on the road make that worth the price of entry and the net effect of cost is still better than most SUVs.

We expect our S4 to be the perfect balance between family hauler and sports car. Our white sedan has had its baptism of fire with a long-distance trip to western Pennsylvania while hauling the family, and we hope to baptize it in other ways when the local Audi Club of North America chapter schedules their next driver’s training school. Our break in period is pretty much complete.

MORE INFORMATION:
4 Season S4 Sedan Main Page

For more discussion on this story, click on the link to our discussion forums to the left.	For more photos of the car in this story, click on the link to our gallery at the right.

© Copyright 2004 by YourSITE.com