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A comfortable but expensive drive

Tuesday, 01 December 2009

I have just tested a car which costs over e100,000. The recommended retail price of the Audi S4 3.0 S-Tronic is e79,500. A long list of optional extras cost e30,085, bringing the price of the car as tested to e109,585. That’s an awful lot of money in these recessionary times. Many people in Ireland right now would be hard-pressed to spend e30,000 on a car, never mind on extras. So I asked Audi’s Ireland Deputy Director John Hayes does he think there will be market for this car, which is basically a souped up version of the A4. John said: ‘‘The S4 is an ideal car for the discerning sports car enthusiast, who wants to retain conventional functionality married to a performance chassis. He or she will also get more performance and 26 per cent more fuel efficiency than the previous generation Audi S4.’’ It may be more fuel efficient than the previous model, but I found it a bit thirsty. However, when driving on the motorway the information on the dash telling me how many kilometres I had left to an empty tank didn’t fall as quickly as it did in city traffic. No doubt about it, this is an expensive motor, but you are spoiled for comfort. The front end is very classy looking and the back is not bad either. Inside you will have no difficult finding a comfortable position as the driver and passenger seats can be adjusted to suit any posterior. The model I drove had red and black Silk Nappa leather seats. These colours would probably go down well with Bohemians supporters whose colours are red and black. The interior is further brightened by a sunroof.  You certainly won’t be left behind at the traffic lights as all that power under the bonnet means you can get from zero to 100km/h in 5.1 seconds. I drove an automatic version, but I also had the option to revert to manual mode via a toggle on the steering wheel. I really liked the reversing camera. You get a blue area marked out with yellow lines to help you reverse. And when you pull away the camera stays on for few seconds so that you can see if you did or did not do any damage while reversing. The boot is huge and inside you will find covers for your ski poles. The skis can be carried by leaving down a section in the back seat. All very well in Austria or Switzerland, but as you know it’s difficult to find a piste with enough snow in this country. When writing about the Audi A6 a few weeks back I said that the console which housed the radio controls was very impressive. Well it’s the much the same set up in the S4 and when you drive around the country the radio automatically picks up the stations in your area. For example, around Dublin you will get a huge range of local station in addition to the national stations. No doubt about it Audi are making some lovely motors. Overall a comfortable but expensive drive.