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I’m john law this is chasing cars and this is the new audi s4 now it’s been fairly heavily updated in terms of the sheet metal and the outside but underneath the skin it stays rather similar with its three liter v6 turbocharged engine we don’t get the tdi that you get over in europe now this car is a competitor for cars like the bmw m340i and mercedes amg c43
But it’s also got to compete with its own stablemates including the s4 avant which actually sells more numbers this car and the s5 sportback is it right that those cars outsell this audi s4 sedan well that’s what we’re going to find out in today’s video now at the front of this audi s4 it’s not exactly a blink and you’ll miss it styling update but it is fairly
Similar to the old car that said this front single frame grille is a little bit wider and a little bit lower and adds a bit more aggression and you get these really nice led lights with these new daytime running light signatures i think it looks pretty fresh up the front but actually down the side is where audi has made some really significant changes to this
S4 it mirrors obviously the a4 sedan as well which is a little bit more affordable than this car but if you don’t know your s4s and a4s too well you might miss it so this strike here used to go all the way down the side of the car and join up with the rear three quarter there but that’s actually now gone so that means this car actually has new doors so it’s
Quite different to the previous model there’s also some updates to the c-pillar as well and it’s subtle but it all adds up to a car with just a little bit more menace personally i think it looks fantastic here in this navara blue colorway and it just really sets off this classic sort of audi business aesthetic that they’ve really done a good job of and then we
Hop into the interior where this sort of aesthetic continues now the leather choice isn’t exactly out there however this robot grey leather is a really nice color and again it works nicely with that blue outside you can get magma red or black as well inside and there was a car we were testing on the launch the quantum grey over magma red s4 event which for me is
Absolutely the perfect spec but you can let me know in the comment section down below how you would spec your s4 or perhaps how you have specked your s4 now this cockpit feels pretty familiar especially if you spent any time in audis over the last couple of years it is the slightly older style cockpit that means you get this 10.1 inch uh it’s now a touchscreen
For the facelift and it’s a really nice crisp unit with some sort of haptic feedback when you when you touch the screen and it runs a wired apple carplay system so that’s a slight demerit point but it works really nicely and crisply and the navigation system works incredibly well this is one of the few systems that i actually use the in-car navigation instead
Of say google maps or waze through apple carplay that’s because it interfaces really nicely with this 12.3 inch digital drives display ahead of me here and you’ve got satellite mapping and it just looks crisp as you can adjust the view as well to get the specific hockey puck style gauges and run through all of that sort of stuff and see music so it’s a nice well
Integrated piece of design now in front of me here i also have this really lovely leather steering wheel um you’ve got perforated leather where you need to grip it this has a flat bottom but if you remember in the s5 sportback video we did uh that wheel actually didn’t have a flat bottom that was round so i’m not entirely sure what the go is but the flat bottom
Is fine you’ve got some nice soft touch materials up here on the door tops and on the dashboard as you would expect in a car like this and you get the extended leather package as for 2020 and that gets you this lovely leather armrest and you get some suede trimmings here and it all just generally feels like a really high quality bit of kit here in the s4 again
As you really would expect from an audi storage uh going to touchscreen has meant that you open up this really dinky little storage holder i don’t know exactly what that’s for maybe a bottle of sanitizer for these times or perhaps the key you’ve also got this little trimming here two nicely sized cup holders though they’re not much good for tall bottles because
They then interfere with the drive select buttons and the climate control a little bit though you do have good door bins that take a nice bottle and of course covered storage where you’ve got a nice rubberized pad and you’ve got wireless phone charging as well as a usbc fast charging port now i’m going to mention these seats as well because they’re sort of a
Tombstone bucket style and they’re very very comfortable quilted nappa leather of course you’ve got under thigh support which is something that is just so handy for me being six foot two and you’ve also got electric adjustment two memory positions heating and massage function which is fantastic when you’re ripping through some back roads so let’s jump into the
Back seat of the s4 sedan and find out how comfortable it is back here these mid-size executive cars have been growing since their inception they used to be quite tight in the back but now the a4 is relatively roomy back here uh it’s a little tiny bit more roomy than say the s5 sportback but really there’s not much in it um if you really need headroom as you
Can see my head’s pretty close to the top of the headlining here and this is about the panoramic sun roof that is optional on this car as well if you really need a bit more headroom you’re either going to want to go for the avant version of this car which you want to anyway or perhaps an sq5 tdi if you’ve got some really tall children now behind my own driving
Position i do have a little bit of knee room as well which is pretty decent and toe room is is fine but again you could have a little bit more lift in an suv the quilted napper leather continues back here and the seats are extremely comfortable they’re very nice there’s no heating back here for the rear bench but that’s fine the same soft touch here and nice sort
Of alcantara and leather padding is all present which is absolutely fantastic you’ve also got a very firm feeling central armrest and you’ve got these two little flip out cup holders which are really nicely sized for a little coffee cup or a small bottle and of course we have vents back here with your own climate section two usb ports and a 12 volt socket so
Rear seat room then is is fine uh but um let’s check out how practical the boot of the s4 is close that down now while we’re back here there’s a couple of things that you’ll be able to tell the difference between this s4 and a regular a4 that is this snazzy little lip spoiler here which you can get in black on a carbon black package car i’d skip that because i
Like chrome which is now there’s a chrome element that actually joins the two rear lights and the rear lights are slightly updated so it all looks really nice and crisp back here as you would expect of an audi under the boot it’s a really nicely sprung easy to open tailgate so you really don’t need to opt for the expensive uh power tailgate option it’s just all
All faff to me you don’t have much bright work here but you do have a fairly fairly easy to get over load lip it’s a nice low load bay and of course we’ve got netting and little storage places off to the side and under the floor we do also have a space saver spare tire which won’t be great solace to those who live in country settings but it is at least nice
To have and is better than nothing at all and cargo space sits at 480 liters for this s4 sedan now of course what you want is the s4 event because you get 505 liters of boot storage and you get the possibility to just load anything so again i mean we may be slightly biased because as you know murdering journalists froth and advance but yeah i definitely go for
The s4 event instead of the sedan but you can let me know what you think in the comment section down below because we’re going to take this thing out for a drive so out on the road in the audi s4 what’s it like out here well pretty good is the basic summation in fact really good it does exactly what it needs to do it sits in its little pigeon hole between the
A4 and the rs4 really nicely and that starts with the drivetrain so it’s powered by a three liter v6 turbocharged engine kicks out 260 kilowatts and 500 newton meters which is right on the money for this kind of class in australia so m340i c43 territory a little bit less power than uh the rivals but yeah it feels just as as quick as those cars it doesn’t feel
Lacking particularly you can also get this with a twin turbo diesel engine which you can find here in the sq5 but in europe uh only in europe can you get it on this s4 and s5 and there’s a bit of a shame it’ll be a nice little engine it’s a really chunky beefy punchy motor whereas this is a little bit more zingy a little bit more wobbly which um you know horses
For courses i do think this suits a uh a passenger car a little bit better than the diesel the diesel works really nicely in this suv but no matter it’s a great engine and it’s got a really nice note you can switch it between myriad drive modes i’ve actually got it in comfort at the moment but individuals configured to my preferences and when you rev it out it
Sounds great it’s got a really nice little v6 warble it’s a classic v6 sound and uh yeah it really encourages you to it sort of goads you on into driving it quicker and quicker and quicker so it’s great it gives nice little pops on the uh on the overrun sometimes as well when you’re in the right we’re not right in the right red band and uh yeah it’s good interface
Is really nicely with the uh zf eight speed gearbox as well addy’s tuning is probably one of the crispest out there uh bmw’s is maybe a little smoother not saying this isn’t smooth but um this definitely gives a bit more emotion on the changes it really rams them home when you’re when you’re in dynamic mode and under quite a bit of throttle it feels exciting it’s
Good very much enjoy it of course being an audi it’s hooked up to a quattro all-wheel drive system uh which works great it can send 85 of the power to the rear axle as well so you can actually drive this car on the throttle quite nicely and this example is fitted with the optional quattro sport differential which is a 2 90 option but it seems that all the cars
We’ve tested have had that option ticked so i you probably struggled to buy one in australia without that option and i can’t exactly say if it’s necessary but it feels really good in this car and then that brings me on to the handling of the s4 and how it differs surprisingly to the s5 sportback now the s5 sportback is a real scalpel of a car it really feels
Sharp and poised and pointed and it’s got a really nice turn in and from there you can get on the throttle and it really just does drive you around the corner it’s a lovely little car this car has all of those characteristics but with a little extra adjustability thrown in for whatever reason uh it has a slightly narrower track than the s5 and it’s got a slightly
Higher center of gravity being a sedan and certainly the avant takes this even further but uh it just feels a little bit more willing to play with the driver a little bit less clinical a little bit less audi and scalpel-like and more like a concert pianist with a bit more expression available to the driver which is a really pleasant thing the steering as well
Is well weighted in dynamic but i think it’s too light in comfort it is a lot lighter than the bmw system that would be sort of in competition with this car and it gives the impression that this car is very light on its feet and it certainly feels light on its feet on a country road when you’re driving quickly it feels really well suited to that sort of thing
Really slices through corners with with accuracy and conviction and it’s a lovely thing to drive it’s very very enjoyable and you can make really rapid progress as i’m sure you uh you would expect that from a a quick audi and yeah it does it just so well now all these cars are fitted with adaptive dampers as standard as well and frankly the sport mode sorry the
Dynamic mode is a little bit too firm for my tastes it’s a little bit too firm for sydney roads it’s a bit crashy and on the whole this s4 actually rides a little firmer than the s5 sport back again exactly why those i don’t know it’s on slightly smaller wheels 19s instead of 20s but it’s a very slight difference in comfort mode though things are fine things are
Really rosy and the body roll isn’t too pronounced if you’re on a particularly smooth section of hot mix you can use that dynamic road and it just feels a little bit sharper and a little bit more keyed in but again it’s not hugely necessary there’s a balance mode as well and yeah personally i set my individual mode up to have dynamic steering and dynamic engine
Response and then subdued engine note um because the faker is a little bit too much it actually just sounds really good in in subdued mode and then with the suspension in comfort generally speaking and that’s my favorite way to drive it around flipping through the pedals although they do feel a little bit plasticky it’s a it’s a nice thing to do and it responds
Really nicely to all the drivers inputs as for safety the s4 has pretty much everything you’ve come to expect from a car like this it comes with a b with pedestrian and cyclist detection comes with a really nice adaptive cruise control system with traffic jam assist which works really great the audi system is definitely tuned to get closer than most of the other
Ones out on the market so you can sit quite close to cars you’ve also got a lane keep assist which really comes straight to your fingertips it’s placed on the end of this indicator stalk so you can just pop it on when you want on the freeway and pop it off really easily and it works really nicely and it just means you can turn off in a car like this when you
Don’t want to go quickly and then it has that really nice surprising turn of speed with the ability to really cover back road when you need and of course when you’re on a long freeway drive you just settle into these seats massage function heating on and just have a lovely time fit so i think audi has really nailed exactly what this s car is supposed to be and
It’s really not confused about its identity one iota so what do we think of the audi s4 then well it’s a great little business sedan it’s a really quite nice car to drive on a country road with more adjustability than you might expect but of course it’s at home riding down the freeway at high speeds with that massage function seat and heating going on to keep you
Really nice and comfortable as for whether the sedan is the pick of the range well the sales figures kind of tell the story really the s4 event would be my pick but of course i’d love to know what you think in the comments section down below would you go for an s5 sportback like the majority of buyers do or would you go for something completely different let me
Know down below and while you’re down there we’d also love it if you could hit subscribe and that bell icon and as always thank you for watching chasing cars
Transcribed from video
Audi S4 2021 review | Chasing Cars By Chasing Cars