KiwiRS4
April 3rd, 2006, 07:38
Well after a year and a halfs worth of waiting I have finally got my hands on my own RS4 so here are my first impressions. Now remember I have been driving an S4 for the past 3 years, actually had 3 of them :) :)
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Car arrived here in NZ on the 28th. Have to give credit here to EMD the distributor as they turned it around pretty quickly and got it to my dealer, Continental Car Services very quickly. :0: :0:
Was there when it was driven off the transporter and first impressions were "Holy Shite". There was a black one on the transporter as well but in that colour it didnt have the same 'presence' as the Daytona Gray. The wheen arches and shape stands out a lot more with the grey colour. Unfortunately since I was having mobile phone kit, radar detectors and blinders put in and the windows tinted I couldnt pick it up til the Saturday morning. I shouldnt say this but after looking at the RS4 in person I got home, looked at the S4 and said FarQ this car is ugly :)
Saturday morning came around and I headed up to CCS. It was sitting there in the showroom looking a million dollars, well $165,000 at least :)
The dark window tints certainly help the cars looks. The look of it from the front is fantastic, it has a real mean look to it and if you can you have to have the Euro plates on it. The normal kiwi ones look ugly. My euro plates go on on Wednesday so thats why no piccies till then. The 19 inch wheels look great and it looks so different to the S4 it is actually hard to compare them so I am not even going to try.
When I sat in the car for the first time the seats took a bit of getting used to. I am not really a big person and yet they are still quite snug. When I put it into S mode the seats do tighten up quite a bit but this is adjustable by little buttons on the side of the seat and I now have them set where it is comfortable. For a big person I would say they might even find the seats too tight. In my opinion the carbon fibre trim looks nice but I would prob get the aluminium trim on my next one. The finish of the car is very nice and couldnt be happier with it.
Remembering that you need to push a button to start it is something that takes getting used to and you have to push the clutch in before it will allow you to press the button. But when you do start it the sound is awesome. No way in the world it sounds like anything else out there, and then when you press the S mode button it becomes an even deeper sound. Even sitting at idle you can notice the change in noise. As soon as you press the S mode button the seat tightens up so best to set all that before you head off down the road, rather than getting sandwiched as you are doing 200 kmph :)
The power steering on the car is very responsive and you also have to get used to the flat bottom part of the steering wheel when you turn a sharp corner but its something you get used to. I have driven mine with the S mode engaged nearly all of the time so cant really comment on the non S mode yet. Acceleration with S mode on is great, you put your foot down and you hit 5-6000 rpm in an instant and the sound is Holy Shite, and believe me people notice. I have already had it up over 200kmh on a couple of back roads and it handles fine. Taking it on some roads down country soon and will push it up to 250 kmph and see how it goes. When you first start the car if the temps are not up to running temp there is a warning on the dash that says do not exceed 7000rpm until the engine is up to temp. I have been letting it idle until the temp is normal before going anywhere.
One thing to watch is how quick it gets up and goes. On the motorway we were doing over 130kmph before we got to the end of the onramp on the motorway - speed limit was 100 kmph. And then when I put my foot down, not all the way, we were passing 160kmph before we realised how quick we were going. Thats why I spent all the money on blinders and radar detectors.
Bottom line, its an awesome car. It has a real presence about it and with the S mode engaged it has that real "look at me" sound and even without the S mode it still sounds awesome.
Once I do some more driving in it I will post some more feedback. Hope this helps.
Cheers
Ned
----------------------------------------------------------
Car arrived here in NZ on the 28th. Have to give credit here to EMD the distributor as they turned it around pretty quickly and got it to my dealer, Continental Car Services very quickly. :0: :0:
Was there when it was driven off the transporter and first impressions were "Holy Shite". There was a black one on the transporter as well but in that colour it didnt have the same 'presence' as the Daytona Gray. The wheen arches and shape stands out a lot more with the grey colour. Unfortunately since I was having mobile phone kit, radar detectors and blinders put in and the windows tinted I couldnt pick it up til the Saturday morning. I shouldnt say this but after looking at the RS4 in person I got home, looked at the S4 and said FarQ this car is ugly :)
Saturday morning came around and I headed up to CCS. It was sitting there in the showroom looking a million dollars, well $165,000 at least :)
The dark window tints certainly help the cars looks. The look of it from the front is fantastic, it has a real mean look to it and if you can you have to have the Euro plates on it. The normal kiwi ones look ugly. My euro plates go on on Wednesday so thats why no piccies till then. The 19 inch wheels look great and it looks so different to the S4 it is actually hard to compare them so I am not even going to try.
When I sat in the car for the first time the seats took a bit of getting used to. I am not really a big person and yet they are still quite snug. When I put it into S mode the seats do tighten up quite a bit but this is adjustable by little buttons on the side of the seat and I now have them set where it is comfortable. For a big person I would say they might even find the seats too tight. In my opinion the carbon fibre trim looks nice but I would prob get the aluminium trim on my next one. The finish of the car is very nice and couldnt be happier with it.
Remembering that you need to push a button to start it is something that takes getting used to and you have to push the clutch in before it will allow you to press the button. But when you do start it the sound is awesome. No way in the world it sounds like anything else out there, and then when you press the S mode button it becomes an even deeper sound. Even sitting at idle you can notice the change in noise. As soon as you press the S mode button the seat tightens up so best to set all that before you head off down the road, rather than getting sandwiched as you are doing 200 kmph :)
The power steering on the car is very responsive and you also have to get used to the flat bottom part of the steering wheel when you turn a sharp corner but its something you get used to. I have driven mine with the S mode engaged nearly all of the time so cant really comment on the non S mode yet. Acceleration with S mode on is great, you put your foot down and you hit 5-6000 rpm in an instant and the sound is Holy Shite, and believe me people notice. I have already had it up over 200kmh on a couple of back roads and it handles fine. Taking it on some roads down country soon and will push it up to 250 kmph and see how it goes. When you first start the car if the temps are not up to running temp there is a warning on the dash that says do not exceed 7000rpm until the engine is up to temp. I have been letting it idle until the temp is normal before going anywhere.
One thing to watch is how quick it gets up and goes. On the motorway we were doing over 130kmph before we got to the end of the onramp on the motorway - speed limit was 100 kmph. And then when I put my foot down, not all the way, we were passing 160kmph before we realised how quick we were going. Thats why I spent all the money on blinders and radar detectors.
Bottom line, its an awesome car. It has a real presence about it and with the S mode engaged it has that real "look at me" sound and even without the S mode it still sounds awesome.
Once I do some more driving in it I will post some more feedback. Hope this helps.
Cheers
Ned