Audi S4

I have always liked the B9 Audi A4, from the second I clapped eyes on it and drove it around the NSW South Coast at its launch. Packed with the good stuff, beautifully built and properly elegant, the 2.0-litre turbo four Quattro is a genuinely lovely executive sedan. I reckon it's the first A4 to really take it to the 3 Series and C-Class without relying on Quattro as a selling point.

The RS4 and RS5, both based on the A4, are also excellent and grab all the headlines. And quietly getting on with the job of go-faster sports sedan is the S4, which has kind of faded into the background a bit while the high-performance RS cars crackled and popped their way into our hearts and driveways.

The B9 S4 has been a bit of an unknown to me because getting a go in one has never quite worked out. But the luck fell my way (okay, an editor decided it was time) and the S4 and I spent ten days together.

Pricing and Features

Like the rest of the A4 range, the S4 is nicely loaded from the get-go and lines up pretty well against its BMW M340i xDrive rival.

You get 19-inch alloys, a 12-speaker stereo, auto LED headlights (with auto high beam), keyless entry and start, Nappa leather, powered and heated front seats, three-zone climate control, ambient lighting, power everything, virtual cockpit digital dash, around-view cameras, adaptive cruise (with stop and go plus traffic jam assist), and wireless phone charging.

The 10.1-inch MMI touchscreen is as lovely as ever and powers a thumping B&O 3D-branded sound system, with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and DAB. You get USB ports up front and another two in the rear, which is nice, too. The MMI system also hosts Audi Connect Plus, which is some clever Google integration to help you find things (petrol, food, toilets etc.) as well as connect up to a mobile app to find your car and/or troll your kids who probably aren't legally allowed to drive it anyway.

Technically the five-star ANCAP rating doesn't apply to the S4 but does to the four-cylinder A4, so take from that what you will. Also worth noting that ANCAP is now time-boxing ratings for three years.

Given the A4 was last assessed in 2015, the rating is getting on a bit. For what it's worth, the US IIHS rates the A4 as a top safety pick and those guys crash cars hard and often.

You get eight airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, forward AEB (up to 85km/h), forward collision warning, lane-keep assist, lane departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, collision avoidance assist that can help steer you away from trouble, around-view camera, reverse cross-traffic alert, reverse AEB and pre-sense that preps the car for a stack if it thinks you can't avoid it, including from behind.

Like the rest of the A4 range, the S4 is nicely loaded from the get-go and lines up pretty well against its M340i xDrive rival.

Comfort and space

Being a mid-sized all-wheel drive German sedan, there is much that is familiar between this and its rivals. The three Germans seem to agree on certain things like boot space (430 litres), adequate head, leg and knee room in the back seats and very, very comfortable driving positions.

It's all very sensible and even the interlopers from Japan and Korea stick to the script but with their own local translations to differentiate them.

Priced a tick over a hundred grand, the S4 throws in some very nice Nappa leather for the seats, wheel and shifter while also lavishing the dash and other parts with tactile brushed aluminium in a matte finish. Which is always – to my eyes and fingertips, anyway – preferable to carbon or piano black trim.

The front seats are also heated and being sportier versions of the regular Audi chairs, very supportive, adjustable and heated for those cold mornings like we've recently had (except if you're north of, say, Brisbane).

The back seat is comfortable for people up to six feet tall so long as the driver or front passenger doesn't set the seat at "extra lanky" but here in the Audi, the footwells are a bit cramped if you've got three across the back. The middle passenger does sit astride a hefty transmission tunnel, so beware of that if you're regularly carrying three.

Front and rear rows score a pair of cup holders while each door has a bottle holder. There's somewhere for your key and your phone goes under the armrest on the wireless charging pad, although you'll still need a USB cable for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, rather spoiling the effect.

The S4 also goes without the double screen layout of its bigger SUV cousins but I am and will remain a fan of the really nice touch-sensitive climate controls.

On the road

The engine is Audi's lovely 3.0-litre turbo TFSI with a honking 260kW from 5400rpm to 6400rpm and a walloping 500Nm between 1370rpm and 4500rpm. The bi-modal exhaust is mainly to change from near-silence to muted burbling and that's okay by me. Power goes to all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF automatic.

Zero to 100km/h arrives in an impressive 4.7 seconds and better still is the mid-range punch from that 500Nm. The ZF finds a gear, puts the engine in the sweet spot and you’re off. I had to pull of some dark country road overtakes in this car, and they were effortless and pucker-free.

Well, I say effortless – one has to be very careful with the speeds the S4 attains as you power along on the other side of the road. The brakes are more than up to the job, which is entirely unsurprising given they’re gigantic.

The usual lashings of aluminium are onboard and the MacPherson struts up front and multi-link rear end aren't hugely different to the standard car, which is pretty handy in its own right. The S4 rolls on a new set of 19-inch alloys and you can choose between a few designs without being charged more.

The adaptive damping is obviously more aggressive in Sport mode, with uprated springs to suit. There's no wholesale change, just a subtle, useful amping up. Even in the hardest setting, your jimmies will remain unrustled.

It’s a proper all-round car, like any good sleeper. The steering is light but lets through enough information to let you know the real story on the ground but doesn’t try and test your strength.

You find yourself appreciating the way you can throw it through a set of corners without constant little corrections, a function of good tyres and geometry as much as it is about the well-sorted Quattro system.

The S4 will, eventually, push but you get lots of information back from the front tyres and the electronics quietly step in if you don’t. It goes about its business quietly but with devastating effectiveness, hauling you out of corners with a smoothness and refinement that only a German six-cylinder can while still launching you at the horizon at improbable speeds.

Nobody sees the S4 coming because it doesn’t make a big deal about its abilities when it blows by. Passengers declare it “a nice car” until you plant your foot or fail to slow as much as they think you should for corners.

It goes about its business quietly but with devastating effectiveness, hauling you out of corners with a smoothness that only a German six-cylinder can while launching you at the horizon at improbable speeds

Ownership

Sigh. I hate being a broken record, but a three-year warranty for a $100,000 car is not long enough. Same goes for BMW.

It's not long enough because cheap Kias have a seven-year warranty and expensive Mercedes – including AMG – have five years, along with almost everyone else, including Jaguar and Land Rover. And yes, the Lexus warranty is too short at four years, too.

On the bright side, servicing comes at reasonable intervals and doesn't cost much more than the four-cylinder cars, which is also rather lovely. If you pre-pay for five years (see?) you'll pay $2950, or less than $600 per year. That's pretty good for a rocket like this.

2021 Audi S4 specifications

Verdict

Only Audi can do – with this much success – what it does with the S4. While I love the RS cars, they can sometimes miss the mark, like the slightly doughy new RS6 or the sometimes just too much RS4/RS5 pairing. That's not a criticism, I'm all for just too much all the time, but sometimes you want the option to take it a bit easier.

Lean athleticism over sheer power, you might say.

This is the kind of fast car you’d own if you don’t want anyone to know you own a fast car. Fast, elegant and terribly discreet, the S4 won’t garner any attention even in these heightened policing times. While the B9 A4 has been around for a long time now, it’s ageing extremely gracefully, with the updated interior from the 2019 refresh and its subtly altered sheetmetal.

Loaded with tech, an almost-sensible price and a huge amount of performance, it scarcely feels like a step down from the considerably more expensive RS machines.